Online, please RSVP to receive a Zoom link. Registration in advance of May 25 is encouraged.

On June 7, SITU Research is holding a workshop to release a beta version of Codec, a newly developed digital tool for managing, analyzing and presenting video evidence. Join us for a live public demo presented by Bora Erden, Technical Lead on the SITU Research team. Following the event, the platform will be open-sourced and available on GitHub.

A response to the deluge of visual information flowing out of conflict environments and contested events, Codec is designed to support the work of researchers, journalists, legal teams, activist groups and others in adjacent fields. While the tool has many potential applications, the driving goal has been to further investigations, amplify truth, and pursue accountability for human rights abuses. The interface is a modular system split into three components: a timeline, a map, and a media player that allows users to securely synthesize large data sets of multimedia assets across the time and space of an event or series of events.

Codec originally emerged as a byproduct of attempting to solve recurring challenges in our investigative workflows—issues around collaboration, rapid visualization, and the management of video evidence. While the amount of user generated content has increased exponentially in recent years, managing the sheer volume of material can become inefficient at best and, often, simply prohibitive. Codec is designed to make this process collaborative, streamlined, efficient and intuitive. Research and development for Codec unfolded across various cases of differing scales, and through collaborating with partners, including: Carnegie Mellon University’s Center for Human Rights Science, Amnesty International, UC Berkeley's Human Rights Center, Columbia Law School's Human Rights Initiative, Human Rights Watch, UNITAD and many more.

We’re excited to demonstrate this tool to others in the field as well as to broaden its utility. The demo session will last approximately 45 minutes. We will present applied case studies, discuss security protocols, answer questions, collect feedback, and encourage discussion around adding features and building the tool.

Please contact us by May 23 for any accessibility needs (ASL/CART). The program will be in English, with closed captioning. Reach out to Candice Strongwater at cstrongwater@situ.nyc with any questions about the event.

We hope you will join us!

Registrations are closed

Demo Event & Soft Launch for Codec Tool