OpenSyria is an open source public data commons for Syria.

The project builds reliable, structured, reusable public reference datasets and a documented read-only API so developers, researchers, students, journalists, civic technologists, and community projects do not have to rebuild the same foundations from scattered PDFs, maps, directories, spreadsheets, and public databases.

OpenSyria focuses on public, non-personal, source-backed reference data.

Planned or future dataset areas may include cultural and heritage references, telecom dialing metadata, public institution directories, and other reusable civic reference datasets when source and licensing requirements are clear.

OpenSyria separates canonical data repositories from the public API.

dataset repositories -> versioned release artifacts -> verified imports/read models -> datasets API -> public users

Dataset repositories own canonical JSON files, schemas, validation scripts, source attribution, generated artifacts, and release manifests.

The API consumes pinned versioned releases. It does not read live main branches at runtime.

The production website and public API documentation are live.

Current active dataset work:

• data-geography has a public source-backed seed release for governorates, districts, subdistricts, and localities.
• data-universities is focused on reviewed public university identity data and related release artifacts.
• data-transport has validated seed release artifacts for source-reviewed transport and trade locations, dated status snapshots, and high-level route observations.
• datasets-api serves released dataset metadata, geography endpoints, university endpoints, source attribution, OpenAPI documentation, and localized response envelopes; transport endpoints are wired for deployment after the data-transport GitHub release is published.

OpenSyria remains maintainer-led while dataset models, review policy, release workflow, and contribution quality gates stabilize.

• Public and non-personal: OpenSyria publishes reference data, not private records.
• Source-backed: important values should be traceable to reviewable public sources.
• Legally reusable: data must come from sources that allow redistribution and reuse.
• Stable IDs: public IDs should not change because names, spellings, or sources improve.
• Multilingual: Arabic names, English names, transliterations, aliases, and local variants can coexist.
• Explicit uncertainty: conflicts and gaps should be represented honestly.
• Generated exports: JSON is canonical; CSV, SQL, YAML, XML, NDJSON, GeoJSON, SQLite, and API responses can be generated from it.

Publicly visible information is not automatically open data.

OpenSyria should only import, derive, or redistribute data from sources with clear reuse rights, such as public domain, CC0, CC BY, official open data publications, Wikidata-compatible sources, OpenStreetMap-compatible workflows, GeoNames-compatible data, humanitarian data portals, or other sources whose license and attribution requirements can be honored.

OpenSyria should not import from:

• Google Maps or other commercial map databases,
• proprietary directories,
• sources with unclear licensing,
• no-redistribution or permission-required sources,
• non-commercial-only sources when broad reuse is required,
• scraped websites whose terms do not allow dataset redistribution.

OpenSyria does not collect or publish:

• personal data about individuals,
• private addresses, phone numbers, IDs, student records, or account data,
• security, military, checkpoint, or surveillance-related datasets,
• unsourced political claims,
• restricted or proprietary datasets that cannot be legally redistributed.

Public contribution is intended primarily for dataset repositories.

Good dataset contributions include:

• fixing incorrect records,
• adding missing records within an approved dataset scope,
• improving source attribution,
• improving names, aliases, coordinates, relationships, and metadata,
• reporting source conflicts or uncertainty,
• improving documentation and examples.

Website and API implementation work is maintainer-led. Public issues and small corrections are welcome, but broad changes should be discussed before a pull request is opened.

For a normal dataset contribution:

1. Choose the dataset repository that owns the record.
2. Read that repository's CONTRIBUTING.md and detailed contributions/README.md.
3. Keep changes focused on canonical files under data/ and source attribution unless a maintainer approved broader work.
4. Use only public, legally reusable sources and include source links or source IDs in the pull request.
5. Run the repository validation command before opening the pull request.
6. Explain what changed, why it changed, which files were edited, and which sources support the change.

Start with the repository-specific contribution guide:

The public API is maintained in datasets-api.

It provides:

• dataset discovery,
• release metadata,
• geography endpoints,
• university endpoints,
• transport endpoints for locations, dated status snapshots, and route snapshots,
• stable record IDs,
• source attribution,
• search, filtering, and pagination,
• localized response messages,
• OpenAPI documentation.

Documentation is available at https://api.opensyria.org/docs.

Near-term priorities:

1. Keep the production website and API deployment stable.
2. Expand released geography, university, and transport coverage through reviewed source-backed updates.
3. Improve contributor workflows for dataset corrections and missing records.
4. Add more generated export formats where useful.
5. Publish clearer Arabic and English contributor guidance.
6. Evaluate the next dataset areas only after source and licensing policy is clear.

Each repository defines its own license.

The general project direction is:

• code under a permissive open source license,
• data under an explicit open data license,
• documentation under a permissive documentation license.

Always check the license file in the repository you are using.

OpenSyria is an attempt to make Syrian public reference data easier to verify, improve, translate, connect, and reuse.

The long-term goal is a stable open data foundation that others can build on with confidence.