Tracker is an news aggregator with a twist. Its beat covers Health (human, animal, plant and environmental), Humanitarian work and Technology as it applies to both. Its mission is to improve awareness across disciplines and to help break down some of the “silos of expertise” that make it difficult to see the bigger picture. 

Every humanitarian crisis has a health component. Every serious outbreak of disease has a humanitarian dimension. This is now playing out against a backdrop of climate change. Altered weather patterns trigger floods and droughts that affect food supplies, fuel regional conflicts, and expand the range of vector-borne disease. In an ever-flattening world, regional disasters can quickly go global, while global events can have devastating local consequences. It is all of a piece.



Tracker is about the mix and the match of news, research and innovation. It is a medium as well as a resource.



* Unlike most aggregators, links are not limited to breaking news, but include research papers, in-depth analyses, blog and vlog posts, podcasts, websites and even book reviews. Tracker is about aggregating relevant information. A news story on a major earthquake might be paired with two-year-old research paper on predicting aftershocks and a hot-from-the-field blog post about a new software app for mapping damage on cell phones.

*  The hope is to promote a broader view, making it easier to see and understand connections. Stories are not ranked by popularity—a self-reinforcing skew—but are chosen for intrinsic newsworthiness and how they add to the mix.

* When other news sources or websites offer deeper, more comprehensive coverage of a major breaking story, those sources or websites themselves become Headline links (e.g., During Hurricane Ike, Tracker included links to a wiki, websites, the Houston Chronicle ongoing coverage, and a Ning social network, along with links to individual stories and weather maps).



* A drop down with links to resources of particular utility in a crisis (storm and flood maps, disaster and disease alerts, etc); also, links to web tools.



* Like the Headline section, the unique value of Tracker’s Resource section is in its mix. It is designed to be a good place to begin research. There are links to organizations, news sources, technical journals, blogs, along with links to other aggregators that go into more depth on specific topics.

* Each Resource link has a tool tip for easy scanning.


* Custom Trackers are “¨uber site maps,” offering at-a-glance overviews of…anything. They are tools that provide a way to capture / harvest and preserve the collective knowledge of a specific workshop or conference, a relief operation, or a group.

* Custom Trackers are designed for maximum flexibility.  Categories and subcategories can be created as needed.  Categories can be moved around the page. Resource links can be generated as needed. Links can moved into whatever order desired, and moved from one category to another. Links from the main Tracker Resources list can be imported.

* Custom Trackers do not replace websites, wikis, blogs or aggregation services: They support them. 

* Custom Trackers each have unique urls, so can be easily forwarded and shared. They are archived in the Resources section the main Tracker.

* Re v.1, all programming will coordinated through Tracker’s editorial staff.



* The Editor’s blog offering more depth on specific stories and highlighting Resource links.


Tracker will become a deeper and more useful resource over time, as its database grows and the other Tracker strands (Conferences, Funding, Gear) come online.

Tracker is a project of InSTEDD, an independent nonprofit that develops, evaluates, harnesses and distributes technologies that improve surveillance, collaboration, preparedness and response capabilities for humanitarian and relief purposes. www.instedd.org.

For more information Tracker’s editorial content, please contact J.A. Ginsburg, editor: editor@trackernews.net

Tracker was designed by DesignScout and programmed by Byte Studios.