Winter Metamorphosis
“Plants and animals don’t fight the winter; they don’t pretend it’s not happening and attempt to carry on living the same lives that they lived in the summer. They prepare. They adapt. They perform extraordinary acts of metamorphosis to get them through.”
- Katherine May, Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times
As 2025 draws to a close, it is natural to reflect on where we’ve been, and where we’re going. During a year of unprecedented chaos, we’ve seen uncertainty, fear, authoritarianism, frustration– as well as community, togetherness, and glimmers of hope and joy when we certainly didn’t think it would be possible to smile, let alone laugh. In our group, we have rescued over 1,600 datasets across more than 80 government agencies; we formalized as an entity through Open Collective Europe, which allowed us to receive donations and a grant from the the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; we’ve spoken to dozens of news outlets, presented at numerous conferences, and shared our message far and wide:
Public access to public data is a public good.
After 11 months of effort, the DRP Steering committee will be taking a winter rest from December 20 - January 11. This will give us time to recharge our spirits. During this time, we will be reducing formal DRP operations to a minimum: we will not host office hours or data rescue sprints; we will be sending few if any emails; and our Bluesky posts may be minimal. However, you may still see us in the Data Rescue Tracker, or chatting in Mattermost, as each member of the Steering Committee will pick their level of involvement during this time.
During these turbulent months, the Data Rescue Project has been a source of catharsis: a place to take action, in a supportive community, in ways that align with our professional or personal interests. For some of us, this means we are now in need of a break; while others may welcome the upcoming weeks as an opportunity to reconnect with the DRP efforts.
If you are feeling in need of a rest, we invite you to take time to recover. If you are feeling a surge of optimism, a willingness to tackle a small project, we hope you’ll rescue a few datasets.
Only you know what your winter metamorphosis looks like– and we can’t wait to reconnect in 2026.
❤️🛟
