Part II, 8 Targeted Mass Archiving of Open Source Information: A Case Study

Subject(s):

Access to information — Media — NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) — Internet — Evidence

This chapter introduces various data strategies, concepts, and workflows utilized by Syrian Archive for mass archiving, explaining how to ingest as much potentially relevant digital content as possible, filter that content, and transform it into usable information. The Syrian Archive is a Syrian-led and initiated collective of human rights activists dedicated to preserving, verifying, and investigating open-source documentation related to human rights violations committed by any side since the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011, and to developing innovative open-source tools and methods to assist in these efforts. Since its founding in 2014, Syrian Archive has created an independent, publicly accessible, and interactive archive of verified data developed out of an ingested collection of over 1.5 million data points, over 20 terabytes of video and image data, and half a million additional units of user-generated content (e.g. Tweets, Facebook posts) from more than 3,000 diverse sources. The Syrian Archive uses this data to create publicly accessible datasets and conduct investigations into human rights violations.