Amid the withdrawals of the sites and knowledge bases of the government, several organizations try to maintain the important climate, physical state and clinical knowledge before it occurs for good.
In the 3 weeks beyond 3 weeks, the new US presidential management has demolished thousands of government internet pages related to public health, environmental justice and clinical research. Mass withdrawals stand up to the tension of the new administration to eliminate government data similar to the diversity and “the ideology of the sexes”, as well as the examination of the practices of government agencies.
The USAID online page is inactive. There are sites connected to him, such as Childreninadversy. go, as well as thousands of pages of the census workplace, centers for disease control and prevention, and the workplace of justice programs.
“We have never noticed something like that,” said David Kaye, a law professor at the University of California at Irvine, and the former United Nations Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Opinion and Expression. “I don’t think one of us knows precisely what is happening. What we can see are the government’s websites, the public interest databases. USAID Web.
But as the government’s website darkens, a collection of organizations considers to archive both knowledge and data and imaginable before it has passed forever. Hope is to keep track of what has been lost so that scientists and historians can use in the future.
The data archive is considered non -partisan, however, the recent movements of management have led the conservation community to get up.
“I The movements of the existing management as an attack on the total of the clinical company,” explains Margaret Hedstrom, a professor emerrita of data at the University of Michigan.
Several organizations seek to gather as much knowledge as possible. One of the greatest projects is the end of the Archive Internet Quarter, a non -partisan coalition of many organizations that aims to make a copy of all knowledge of the government at the end of the presidential term. The EOT file allows Americans to call the internets express or knowledge sets for conservation.
“All we can do is gather what has been published and file it and that is available for the public for the future,” explains James Jacobs, the United States government librarian at Stanford University, who is one of the other People who is run the EOT files.
Other organizations take an express angle in the collection of knowledge. For example, the open environmental data project (EODP) is seeking to enter knowledge similar to the science of climate and environmental justice. “We are looking to comply with what is retired,” explains Katie Hoeberling, director of ODP political initiatives. “I cannot say with precision with precision which component of what is still in place, however, we see, especially in the last two weeks, a knowledge acceleration rate is eliminated. ”
The resolution blocks libraries in an ecosystem that is not of interest of readers. Congress will have to act.
In addition to following what is happening, the EDP actively keeps the applicable knowledge. This procedure began in November, to capture knowledge at the end of former President Biden. But efforts have more in two weeks beyond two weeks. “Things were much calmer before the inauguration,” explains Cathy Richards, EodP technologist. “It was the time of the new administration that the first platform fell. At that time, everyone realized: “Oh, no, we will have to continue doing so, and we will have to continue painting in this list of knowledge sets. ” »
This type of paintings is very vital because the United States government has an invaluable climate related to the climate. “These are irreplaceable data on data on the vital climate,” explains Lauren Kurtz, executive director of the Legal Defense Fund for Climate Sciences. “Therefore, gambling or eliminating them means the irreplaceable loss of critical data. It is quite tragic. ” “
Like EODP, the cooperative catalyst tries to ensure that the knowledge of the weather and power is stored and available for researchers. The two are among public environmental knowledge partners, a group of organizations committed to the preservation of federal environmental knowledge. “We have tried to identify knowledge sets that we know that our communities use to make decisions about electricity that we supply or make decisions regarding resilience in our infrastructure planning,” explains Christina Gosnell, co -founder and president of Catalyst.
Archive can be a complicated task; There is no simple way to buy all the knowledge of the United States government. “Several federal agencies and departments administer the preservation of knowledge and the archive in several ways,” explains Gosnell. There is no one who has a complete list of the entire government.
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This meli-me of knowledge means that, in addition to using robots on the Internet, which are equipment used to capture instantaneous internetsites and knowledge, archivists have to manually track knowledge. In addition, little frequency, a set of knowledge will be the cause of a connection that faces or a captcha to prevent skyscraits from taking knowledge. Web scrapers also frequently miss the key functions in a site. For example, the sites will have many links to other data that are not captured in a break. Or the screen would not be painted the paintings due to anything to do with the design of Unitetica. Consequently, having a user in the loop relives the scraper paintings or the capture of knowledge manually is the only way to ensure that the data is collected correctly.
And there are consultations on the consultation of whether the scratch of knowledge will be really enough. Restoring Internet sites and complex knowledge sets is not an undeniable process. “It becomes incredibly complicated and dear to consult to save and recover knowledge,” says Heststrom. “It’s like exhausting a blood frame and expecting the frame to continue working. The attempts of repair and recovery are unsurpassed when we want knowledge readings without stopping. »
“All these knowledge archive works are a transient clothing,” explains Gosnell. “If the knowledge sets are eliminated and are no longer updated, our archived knowledge will be increasingly replaced and, therefore, useless to explain decisions over time. ”
These effects can be durable. “You won’t see an effect on this before 10 years, when you realize that there is a 4 -year data hole,” Jacobs said.
Many virtual archivists highlight the importance of understanding our beyond. “We can all think of our own circle of images of relatives that have transmitted to us and the importance of these various documents,” explains Trevor Owens, director of Studies of the American Institute of Physics and former director of Digital Services at the Library Congress. “This chain of connections with the hereafter is important. “
“This is our library; this is our story,” explains Richards. “This knowledge is financed through taxpayers, so we do not need all this wisdom to be lost when we can follow it, buy it, potentially do anything with it and continue informing it. “
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