FUNding Friday Song Lyrics for earthaccess Hackday

At the Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) Summer Meeting, FUNding Friday is a way to pitch an idea and win $5K for an idea. Participants from the conference make posters the evening before at a social hour.

In 2025 Seattle, we won $5K for our idea! This is a short way to document what we did, and to credit non-traditional contributors and contributions. We pitched an idea through song; lyrics below, along with a 1.5 min (video), and then summarized:

earthaccess is a Python library that enables authentication, search, and access for NASA Earth science data with just a few lines of code. We see great potential for growing the family to include data from NOAA, USGS, and Copernicus in Europe. We would use FUNding Friday funds for a hackday, virtual and in person, at AGU in December. We expect a workable prototype and roadmap in an afternoon. Thank you.

Brief timeline

Showing the power of the social infrastructure and open community collaboration, with folks contributing asynchronously and synchronously, remotely and in person at conference as they are available, and contributing different skills and handoffs to deliver on a short deadline.

July 23: Scoping ideas

• Aaron Friesz reminds Julie Lowndes of FUNding Friday, Julie thinks of earthaccess. Wonders a low-key way to get input about what is a good scope to pitch for earthaccess from the NASA Openscapes Mentors. Ah, they are meeting in 5 minutes at a regular Mentors Call, Julie writes a note in the agenda doc.
• Stef Butland (Openscapes), Danny Kaufman (ASDC), Amy Steiker (NSIDC DAAC), Liz Neeley (Openscapes), Mikala Beig (NSIDC DAAC), Michele Thornton (ORNL DAAC) meet during the Mentors Call and see Julie's note; they scope ideas publicly in https://github.com/nsidc/earthaccess/discussions/1054; other contributors including Matt Fisher (UC Berkeley) and Eli Holmes (NOAA Fisheries) weigh in.

July 24: Poster-making

• Eli Holmes arrives first, grabs some pens, starts drawing earthaccess logo as a first step. Others join, decide minimal text. Max Jones suggests "Growing the Family", helps with taping the word "access" with Kate Wing's white tape. Thumbs up from from Brianna Pagán, Miguel Jimenez-Urias.
• Eli Holmes has to leave. Before she does, suggests we sing a song. "We've got the whole world in our hands"
• User testing: what does the poster say? "access". Ah, we need to redo "earth" so it reads "earthaccess"
• Joe Kennedy and Julie Lowndes start writing lyrics. Steve Young (retired EPA) comes by, asks questions that establish what we'll use the funding for, timeline, and outcomes. Joe Kennedy is an excellent songwriter.

July 25: The pitch

• Julie Lowndes shows Kate Wing the lyrics at breakfast, with 15 mins to go. Kate, who actually sings, notices immediately we're missing a line in verse 1. Suggest an addition, and rewrites in larger font for the group
• Joe Kennedy, Julie Lowndes, Kate Wing, Eli Holmes sing. Kate Wing hums the note to get us started, and is a pro at helping us read the actual lines we are supposed to read, and hiding papers shaking from nervousness.
• The votes are in, we have won $5K!
• v0.3 refined live by Kate Wing

Lyrics

v0.3 (best to sing if the opportunity rises again)

Hello. We are earthaccess. We are growing the family.

We've got NASA CMR in our hands We've got an open contributor community in our hands We're seeing the whole world in separate catalogs We want the whole world in our hands

We want NOAA CMR in our hands We want USGS STAC in our hands We want Copernicus STAC in our hands We want the whole world in our hands

We want a hackday at AGU in our plans We want a prototype in an afternoon in our plans We want a roadmap in an afternoon in our plans We want the whole world in our hands