Since the start of the new Trump administration, hundreds of federal data sets and government websites have gone offline without warning, sometimes returning with major changes and sometimes not returning at all.
Fortunately, a range of civil society organizations had been preparing for this scenario. Just last week, Harvard’s Library Innovation Lab team released 16 terabytes of archived data.gov — a complete collection of the data that platform had hosted.
On February 13th, 3pm Eastern, MuckRock will host an event with organizations that are helping lead the efforts to preserve the public’s data. In this special conversation, Mark Graham of the Internet Archive and Jack Cushman of the Harvard Law School Library Innovation Lab will share what data they have seen as being most at risk; how journalists, researchers and others can take advantage of the data that has been rescued; and how you can contribute to efforts already underway to preserve public data.
MuckRock is also here to support groups that are working to preserve, understand and share government data. We can help with archival projects, work with you to monitor government information that may go missing or collaborate with our Data Liberation Project effort. If you are working on an effort that could use help getting the word out or finding additional support, get in touch with our team.
Photo credit: Screenshot of The White House’s 404 page.