Data Rescue Hackathon

WLAN access

If you set up a Raspi, this will probably not have eduroam access due to missing certificates. For the hackathon, you can use this guest WLAN:

A hackathon to build resilient research data rescue nodes that backup at-risk research data

The Trump administration has aggressively removed scientific and governmental research data from public access, purging thousands of web pages and datasets related to climate, health, demographics, LGBTQ + issues, and more — silently erasing vital knowledge that underpins scientific progress [1] [2].

While some European institutions start backing up at-risk research data [3] [4], the data rescue movement is driven by grassroots efforts like the Data Rescue Project and the Safeguarding Research initiative, who have mobilized volunteers, librarians, and scientists to download and archive these resources before they are lost forever.

The LMU Open Science Center is running a hackathon where we support, hands-on, the safeguar.de project.

Contact: felix.schoenbrodt@psy.lmu.de

Tasks / Contributions

  • Gather abandoned hardware (RPis, laptops, external 2.5” HDDs, large 3.5” HDDs) - do this before the hackathon
  • Software development (see also https://codeberg.org/Safeguarding/sciop/projects)
    • Linux/bash
    • Python
    • SQLite
    • htmx
  • Scraping/crawling datasets using browsertrix-crawler und scrapy
  • Knowledge how to make macOS hardware capable to run Linux
  • Hardware knowledge, e.g.
    • optimizing power consumption
    • A solar/battery setup
  • Designing accessible documentation / tutorials (does not necessarily need technical knowledge; more creative and pedagogical skills)
  • Outreach & community management

Material that we need

  • BYOD
  • Old Raspberry Pis
  • Old Micro-SD cards (at least 1 GB)
  • Old external HDDs
  • Old Laptops
  • Many Cables: Micro-USB –> Mini-USB
  • Power strips
  • Tools (Mini-Screwdrivers)

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