Citizen Data Advocacy Toolkit | An intervention toolkit for those who care about facts and data

Background
With the Trump administration taking actions to cease collection of and limit access to scientific data that they view as problematic to their interests, the continuation of data collection, storage, and dissemination is in jeopardy. Reliable data is necessary to democratic society. Climate science in particular requires consistent and longitudinal data collection in order to accurately inform public policy, national security, and international development.

This citizen data advocacy toolkit is the result of a one-day workshop at UCLA’s Protecting Climate Data in Times of Political Turmoil event. The workshop explored talking points in climate data protection, identified allies in data collection and archiving, reviewed methods for advocating issues with elected officials, presented templates for contacting representatives, and drafted a letter template on a specific issue (Office of Public Printer).


Toolkit Introduction

• Goal: Present the citizen data advocacy toolkit and frame its use.
• The citizen data advocacy toolkit is a living document presented as one of many possible ways for citizens to engage with policies that affect data collection, storage, and access.
• The tools are principle-based to use for a variety of data-related issues. Data may be physical and/or digital and the identified issue may be their collection, digitization, storage, or accessibility. The examples used in this toolkit come from (mostly digital) climate and environmental data.
• Advocacy as it is presented in the toolkit refers specifically to actions affecting legislation within local and federal government. This is not to suggest that advocacy exists only in this mode - there are many forms of advocacy.  
  
  

Exploring the Issue

• Goal: Become acquainted with the issue, research what is at stake, what can be done, and who are the influencers (e.g., Senate Committees).
• Climate data not limited to digital data - physical collection (specimens) also at risk.
  • Irreplaceable samples that further funding and maintenance
  • Natural history collections like butterfly wings (http://phys.org/news/2015-10-high-arctic-butterflies-temperatures.html)
  • U.S. National Ice Core Laboratory (http://icecores.org/)
    • Facility in Colorado preserves frozen ice cores
    • Requires funding, support for the long-term mission, and maintenance (i.e., frozen cores need to remain frozen)
  • May not be as exciting for a data archive-a-thon but these are climate data goals that are more attainable/feasible when seeking support from elected officials
  • Digitizing physical collection efforts mentioned earlier by panel speaker Katie Mika
• Importance of consistency in longitudinal data collection.
  • Advocate for the continued support of polar programs (NASA, NOAA, EPA)
  • 2013 government shutdown is an example of what may happen if data collection efforts are not supported
    • In the window between the end of funding and the time to mobilize scientists for 2013-14 NSF U.S. Anarctic Program (USAP), House Republicans initiated a 16 partial government shutdown over measures in the Affordable Care Act
    • http://www.nature.com/news/us-antarctic-research-season-is-in-jeopardy-1.13889
    • http://www.southpolestation.com/trivia/10s/shutdown.html
    • The cost to the scientific record is unrecoverable - there is no way to go back to that year and perform the activities that were scheduled to occur.

Identifying Allies

• Goal: Identifying the right people to contact about the issue (may need to triangulate efforts, e.g., contact the right people to contact the best people to mobilize on an issue).
• Who are the best people to talk to about these issues?
  • Your elected official (although some benefit to reaching out to other officials even if you are not a constituent)
  • Identifying your member of Congress (MOC)
    • Will need to know and enter your address. If you prefer to remain anonymous, enter address of nearby business.
    • www.govtrack.us/congress/members/map
    • www.callmycongress.com
    • http://act.commoncause.org/site/PageServer?pagename=sunlight_advoc
  • Exploring elected officials at municipal, county, state, and regional levels in the event the federal government is unable or disinclined to act
    • CA Senate and Assembly:
      • http://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov/
    • City, County, State Officials:
      • http://rrcc.lacounty.gov/OnlineDistrictmapApp/
      • http://neighborhoodinfo.lacity.org/
      • https://www.lacity.org/your-government/elected-officials/city-council/map-districts
  • How does the legislative process work, what bills have my representatives introduced, and how can I track bills at the state and federal level?
    • GovTrack:
      • https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/
      • See what issues your elected officials care about by what bills they have sponsored and what committees they serve on
    • US House/Senate:
      • https://www.congress.gov/
    • CA Senate/Assembly:
      • http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/
      • http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billSearchClient.xhtml
  • Identify non-government allies affected/aware of the issue (universities, university libraries, archives, nonprofits, professional associations)
    • California Digital Library
    • League of Conservation Voters
    • ALA Sustainability Roundtable (newly formed group)
      • Get an ALA statement
    • Kresge, Gates, Rockefeller foundations
    • Media outlets? Climate advocacy agencies.
• What about non-allies, aka putting the “enemy” on notice?
  • Sending messages to people saying that we expect:  
    • Resilience and adaptation
    • Cost of disaster response

Identifying Goals and Scoping Issues

• Goal: Selecting a goal and identifying discrete actions to achieve the goal.
• Very many issues brought up by the Trump administration’s hostility toward climate and environmental science and data.
  • Rubric for determining priority was largely time-based.
• Our brainstorming session yielded the following climate data issues:
  • Senatorial Cabinet picks
    • Scott Pruitt - EPA
    • Rex Tillerson - State Department
  • Respect the Paris Climate Accords
  • Public Printer of the United States
• We decided to pursue the topic of the Public Printer appointment.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Printer_of_the_United_States
  • Head of the Government Publishing Office and oversees Federal Depository Library Program (broadest means of disseminating government documents, information, and data)
  • The ask to our elected officials is to promise to maintain access to climate and other scientific data
  • Routing for the appointment is through the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration (Senator Feinstein is a member) and Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (Senator Kamala Harris is a member)
  • Possible allies include:
    • Information Experts
      • California Library Association
      • Government library association? (Federal depository libraries like Charles E. Young and LA Central)
      • California Archivists Association
      • ALA Sustain RT
      • Private sector allies like ESRI and Socrata
    • Subject Matter Experts
      • California Academy of Sciences (and National Academy of Sciences/AAAS)
      • California League of Conservation Voters
      • Association of Climate Change Officers - http://www.accoonline.org/
      • BICEP - https://www.ceres.org/bicep
  • Assessing our allies and aligning the ask to their interests and capacities
    • What is the infrastructure within these groups that deals with climate change?
    • Are they already mobilized, or willing to mobilize?
      • ALA has a legislative arm
      • BICEP has issued message to elected officials reaffirming importance of Paris Accord and urgent need to transition to low-carbon economy (http://www.lowcarbonusa.org/)
    • What are their communication channels?
      • Social media, periodic publications, etc.
    • Nimbleness or how quickly can they mobilize on a time sensitive issue like Cabinet confirmations
• Pick an ally and tailor the ask to fit their interest and capability.
  • Who: California Academy of Sciences chosen for their broad range of communications, cross-sector infrastructure, clear alignment of goals and interests, and state constituency
  • What: Ask them to activate their constituents to reach Senators on the relevant Committees to vote in favor of keeping incumbent Public Printer Davita Vance-Cooks
    
    

Types of Advocacy Action

• Goal: Review the various methods of advocating policy and select the appropriate actions for the selected issue.  
• Efficacy concerns:
  • Always more effective to act as part of a constituency or larger group than as an individual
  • Actions (from most to least impactful): office visits, calls, letters, email, social media
    • Office visits will be very difficult if not part of a larger group
    • Calls are easy to make and must be logged by the aides/interns receiving them. Identifying staff who work on the committees or issues will be more effective than leaving a comment with the person answering phones at that time.
    • Letters allow for more detail on an issue
    • Emails are often ignored or answered in a generic way.
    • Social media posts are carefully curated by staff and rarely receive a response
  • Tone matters - be polite, have a definite ask, give a window of time for the action, and follow up
  • Will receive more traction with case-based approach than issue-based which will seem abstract and longer-term

Follow Up

• Goal: Determine what evaluation tools to use, think about information sharing to a larger group, organizing similar efforts across regions and professions for greater impact.
  • Give a timeframe for the action requested and follow up
  • Several Facebook groups have organized call-to-actions where certain days are devoted to certain issues and actions
    • Connect with other groups with similar interests, share knowledge, and combine efforts beyond your immediate region and profession
  • Let elected officials and organizations know they are accountable to us and we are paying attention.

Resource Appendix

• • Goal: Aggregate templates, websites, further reading
  • Earth System CoG - https://www.earthsystemcog.org/projects/cog/
  • Earth System Grid - http://esgf.llnl.gov/
  • Indivisible Guide: https://www.indivisibleguide.com/
  • NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information - https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/
  • NOAA/National Weather Service archive - http://w2.weather.gov/climate/
  • OpEd Project: http://www.theopedproject.org/
  • Sierra Club: http://www.sierraclub.org/Trade/activist-toolkit-engage-policy-makers
  • The 65: http://thesixtyfive.org/theIssues
  • UCAR/NCAR Climate Data Guide (amazing list of climate data resources) - https://climatedataguide.ucar.edu/climate-data
  • Union of Concerned Scientists: http://www.ucsusa.org/action-center
  • University of Washington/NOAA Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean - http://jisao.washington.edu/

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