A YORK software company has completed work on updating a web application programme designed to gather evidence relating to Ukranian war crimes.

Isotoma, which employs a team of 35 with offices in Swinegate, has upgraded its Corroborator system, which was created as part of a commission by the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

The York-designed programme collates evidence used in war crime disputes by building a narrative and sequence of events based on evidence files uploaded by journalists, researchers and civil rights activists.

Isotoma's upgraded application harnesses the power of user generated content by providing a central hub to which anyone with a login can upload evidence to. A numerical score is then given to each piece of data based upon reliability and confidence, and the system produces an overall score of an incident which helps determine its validity.

The web application is managed by world-wide developers and civil rights enthusiasts eQualit.ie which was commissioned for the build by the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

The software, called Corroborator has been made deployable this week by Isotoma on GitHub, an online project hosting site.

Co-founder and director of Isotoma, Doug Winter said: "We are proud to be involved in a project which will make a huge difference to so many people's lives.

"What makes this tool so powerful is that evidence can be uploaded in various formats. PDF, Word documents, images and video are all supported by the Corroborator upload portal, meaning that once enough evidence is gathered regarding a specific case, it creates a verifiable chronology of events.

"The flexibility of evidence file types also means that an individual such as a journalist or civil rights activist with a smartphone, can now make a huge difference to the wellbeing of persecuted individuals."

This new type of evidence and data gathering is crucial when conflicting sides of a dispute question the authenticity of evidence, according to eQualit.ie, which says the application also has scope to help globally.

Dimitri Vitaliev, director at eQualit.ie, said: "Isotoma has helped to develop a deployment system that means this open source toolkit can be easily adapted by many groups working on human rights documentation the world over."

Since its creation in 2004, Isotoma has worked with some of the world’s biggest brands, building bespoke applications for among others HarperCollins, The BBC, Channel 4, Sony, Nokia, O2, Vodafone and HSBC, as well as innovative start ups.

In 2015 Isotoma opened city centre offices in York to house its then team of 30, as well as new offices in Manchester an London.