[Guest blog post by Syrian activist, author identity withheld for security reasons]
Syria Tracker was launched on April 23, 2011 and has been able to log aggregate or individual reports since March 18, 2011 [accessed January 9, 2012], including 550 reports for the category “Killed (قُتِل)” and 356 reports for the category “Missing-مفقود or Detained-مُعتقل”. A total of 6,317 individuals killed over 286 days (March 18, 2011 thru January 8, 2012) were documented and verified. Killing ranged from 1-210 killings per day (median of 17.5 (95% CI: 14-19)), in 463 cities, affecting all age groups (median age of 36 years old (95% CI: 27-45)) with 427 individuals (~7%) less than or equal to 18 years old, and 289 individuals were female (~5%) and 6,028 were male (~95%).
Syria Tracker is collaborating with the following crowdsourced efforts to further validate, corroborate, and disseminate the information: Middle East Voices (Voice of America), Syrian Martyrs شهداء الثورة السورية, Silmya, and Syrian Youth Movement. Syria Tracker also incorporates complementary situation-awareness information (news, blogs, Facebook posts, etc.) from the HealthMap system, an information system that uses unofficial reports of disease—e.g., from clinicians or web-based health-related information from news media or blogs—to track disease outbreaks. HealthMap was tailored, referred to as “HealthMap Crisis”, to mine crisis information in English for evidence of killing, torture or arrest. HealthMap Crisis is provided as a news stream that is available to the public on the Syria Tracker’s website. Reports were primarily verified by a group of volunteers from the Crisis Mappers, Standby Volunteer Task Force (SBTF) in addition to cross-validating information against other sources or online posts. Please find Google Earth layer here.
Syria Tracker is collaborating with the following crowdsourced efforts to further validate, corroborate, and disseminate the information: Middle East Voices (Voice of America), Syrian Martyrs شهداء الثورة السورية, Silmya, and Syrian Youth Movement. Syria Tracker also incorporates complementary situation-awareness information (news, blogs, Facebook posts, etc.) from the HealthMap system, an information system that uses unofficial reports of disease—e.g., from clinicians or web-based health-related information from news media or blogs—to track disease outbreaks. HealthMap was tailored, referred to as “HealthMap Crisis”, to mine crisis information in English for evidence of killing, torture or arrest. HealthMap Crisis is provided as a news stream that is available to the public on the Syria Tracker’s website. Reports were primarily verified by a group of volunteers from the Crisis Mappers, Standby Volunteer Task Force (SBTF) in addition to cross-validating information against other sources or online posts. Please find Google Earth layer here.
