Syria Tracker

Before the summer, I undertook some research in preparation for a presentation about the importance of social media such as ‘Facebook’ and ‘Twitter’ during the Arab Spring - the pro-democracy uprisings currently continuing in the Middle East and North Africa.  Whilst doing so, I came across a particularly fascinating website called Syria Tracker.  As a geographer, my interest in this website was sparked by its innovative use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS), similar in appearance to that of police.uk, the UK's local crime and policing website.  

Syria Tracker is a ‘crowdmapping’ website.  Syrians who have witnessed or been affected by human rights and other abuses by the Syrian Government regime can e-mail or Twitter the details to the Syria tracker website administrators who input the information to produce an interactive map.  Furthermore, information is linked onto the map from news reports and other types of social media such as You Tube videos providing an additional spatial dimension. This might be useful, for example, if a concerned relative wishes to find out about all the news and human rights abuses in the area where their family members live: the website will immediately direct them to many news reports and events in the vicinity they are interested in. 

My first impression of this website was that it could bring only benefits for the Syrian people and for outside spectators such as foreign journalists.  For instance the map appears to suggest that the majority of incidents have occurred in the South West of Syria, therefore journalists could be led to conclude that this would be the most appropriate area to target their resources.  However, after a little more consideration I realised that the information cannot be taken on face value.  One reason for this is that the mapping does not take into account the disparities in internet access between different areas.  For instance, it is highly likely that Damascus, which is situated in the South West of Syria, would have a higher level of internet access than the more rural North East.  This may mean that even if there were a higher number of human rights abuses in a small town in the North East of Syria than in Damascus, these might not necessarily get reported and would therefore not be shown on the map. 

More worryingly, there is no way of checking who has provided the information which is used to create the maps or of verifying the accuracy of the information.  For example, the website could potentially be used by a Government to lure protesters to specific locations by ‘faking’ incidents.  Nevertheless the option of anonymity is essential in order to protect the identity of witnesses and victims.

Personally I believe this sort of crowd mapping has many as yet undiscovered uses and will become more widespread in the future.  However, like any statistical information, you need to proceed with caution!

Imogen (13W)