If you happen to be in the Davis/Sacramento area of California, there's a hackathon coming up that might interest you.

As part of the #DataRefuge movement, the UC Davis community is meeting up in Shields Library on Thursday, February 2nd with the goal of preserving federally funded scientific research data. Specifically, they're going to be backing up climate change and environmental data from federal websites before it becomes unavailable to the public. The event is open to anyone. They're asking for folks who can read html and know a scripting language like python or R to help out.

The details are here: http://guides.lib.ucdavis.edu/aiap_events
Or you can punch #DataRescueDavis into your favorite social media forum.

Look, there's a lot going on in the country and the world right now. It's enough to spin your head no matter where you fall on the political spectrum. But those of us in geographic information science, we're scientists, right? And we're data nerds. And preserving access to data is critical to how we do our jobs.

If you turn on the news and see people stranded abroad who got caught up in an executive order and can't come home, and you happen to be a lawyer, you can head down to the airport to help. If there's a natural disaster, and you happen to be a doctor, you can volunteer. But it's rare that an emergency breaks, and someone stands up and says, "Is there a python programmer in the house?"

If you're looking around and thinking I wish I could get help, this might be your moment.

See you there?