 This video will explain things to keep in mind when moving from collected data to data in a database. Today we will speak to Technology Officer Ta-Ye-Yoon from the Transitional Justice Working Group. We'll be discussing some of the work that was involved in combining and harmonizing data sets from nine different groups for the Footprints Project. This project details abductions and disappearances perpetrated in or by the North Korean state. The goal with this video is to show grassroots human rights documentation groups the work involved in moving from collected data to data in an electronic database. This will help documenters and activists decide if and when they may need to create a database which will then also help them select the right tool to use. So this is kind of a simple question to start out but why was an electronic database needed for this project? Before the project was started, we had a group of individuals who collected the data that was related to the project and worked on it and kept it. Even if there was a data that we wanted to find, we couldn't know what group or form it was stored in so it was very difficult to find. Especially the individuals who had the data had a very young age, so there was a possibility that the data would be destroyed so it was very important to keep the data. To solve these problems, the purpose of collecting the data and organizing it with the same structure is our Footprints Database. Since it is a digital data, it can be safely kept without being destroyed and because it has the same structure, you can easily come and search for the data you want. Also, through data like the map or the graph, we provide information about the data that has been analyzed. So in order to make the data easier to search, analyze and visualize, you need to create a database. How easy is it to simply enter data into the database? Can you give us some examples of how we had to prepare our data before we entered it into the database? If the user enters the database and searches for the YUN, they will not be able to get information about the person who has been marked with YON. So the search results are half of the search results, so you need to match each and every method. Also, in the case of age, the Korean age standard is different, and the foreign age standard is different, so if you don't choose one of the two, when you search for the 19-year-old, the 19-year-old Korean age and the 19-year-old foreign standard are mixed together, so you can see that the trust in the data search results is reduced. Also, in the case of address, it is data collected from the 1950s, so there were a lot of changes in the address between the present and the present. So there are cases where the address has been converted to another region, and there are cases where the address has disappeared, so the address has been moved to the same place, and the GPS data such as Widow or Kendo are being marked based on the current search results. Lastly, there is the date data. We have a lot of data related to the date because it is a data about the case. But the date can be marked in various forms. So it is very important to write the format in one way. There were a lot of unclear dates, for example, the middle of August of 1950, or from August to September of 1950, there are cases where it is marked as a period. So there were a lot of questions about how to write the format and how to tell the user about the format and how to understand it. But these rules are very important to decide according to the characteristics of the people who contact the database. Before we go, I want to ask from an organizational perspective. Do you have any final advice for civil society groups that are facing this challenge? It is very difficult to make a database, and it takes a lot of time and effort. No matter how much data is recorded, whether it is organized or uploaded, no matter how many times we review the data, we can make a mistake. Even at this moment, new data can be found somewhere, and no one knows what kind of information the data will have, so it is very important to manualize all the work, and even if there is a change in the future, it was very difficult to systemize to make it easy to fix. But I think this work is very valuable as long as we will try our best. It is important to leave a record, but I think it is the most important to keep the record, so that many people can see it. Through the database, I think it would be a good opportunity for many people to remember and know about the case for a long time. For more information, or for follow-up training support, send inquiries to info at accessaccountability.org.