Warconomy does not do live ship tracking — it is not a live AIS tracker, not a live ship tracker, and not a live closure monitor, and it shows no vessel positions or live open/closed status. This page is a static evaluation framework for a possible future, delayed maritime layer: the criteria any data source would have to pass (coverage, latency, reuse rights, cost, caching, data quality), a cautious roadmap of capabilities ordered safest-first, and the rules for linking to third-party live maps without ingesting them. It makes no vendor-specific claims and adds no live capability; nothing is implemented until a specific source/API/legal decision is recorded.
- A provider-neutral criteria checklist — coverage, latency, API/terms, cost, caching, and data quality.
- A safest-first roadmap, from external links to delayed official indicators.
- Rules for linking to third-party live maps without embedding, scraping, or republishing them.
- No implementation until a specific source/API/legal decision is made and recorded.
Why this is not live today
The project rules forbid scraping, paid APIs, runtime services, and scheduled jobs by default, and a citation engine needs every figure to be dated and re-verifiable from a source whose terms permit publishing it. Live AIS adds a further problem: it can be spoofed or switched off, especially by the sanctioned “shadow-fleet” vessels that would be of most interest — so a derived figure would carry heavy caveats and could not be presented as ground truth. The safe default is therefore to link to authoritative external maps and official statistics rather than ingest anything.
Evaluation criteria
Every question below would have to be answered for a specific source before it could be considered. Items marked blocking are disqualifying under the current rules if the answer is wrong.
| Criterion | Why it matters | Blocking? |
|---|---|---|
| Who is the data source / provider, and is it authoritative or aggregated? | AIS aggregators differ in coverage, latency, and reliability. An official authority (e.g. a canal/transit authority statistic) is preferable to an unofficial real-time aggregator for a citation engine. | Blocking |
| Does it cover the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea / Bab el-Mandeb with adequate quality? | Terrestrial AIS coverage is patchy at distance from shore; satellite AIS fills gaps but varies by provider. Partial coverage must be disclosed, never implied as complete. | Assess |
| Is the data live or delayed, and by how much? | Warconomy is not a real-time product. A delayed (e.g. daily/weekly) density or transit-count series fits the static model far better than a live feed and avoids implying live tracking. | Assess |
| Is there an API or a downloadable dataset, or only an interactive map? | An interactive third-party map cannot be embedded or republished. A documented dataset/API with clear terms is required even to consider ingestion — and any ingestion remains out of scope until separately approved. | Blocking |
| What does the free tier allow, and where does paid usage begin? | The project rules forbid paid APIs by default. A capability that needs a paid plan is automatically out of scope until a cost decision is made by the maintainer. | Blocking |
| Do the terms permit commercial reuse and redistribution of derived values? | Publishing a derived figure (even a count) requires reuse rights. Many AIS terms prohibit redistribution; that would block publication regardless of technical feasibility. | Blocking |
| What attribution / licensing notice is required? | Required attribution must be honored on every page that shows a derived value, exactly as the license states. | Assess |
| What caching / storage policy do the terms impose? | A static site stores values at build time. Terms that forbid storage/caching are incompatible with a prerendered, no-runtime architecture. | Blocking |
| What are the rate limits, and are they compatible with manual, occasional reads? | Warconomy refreshes by hand, so generous or irrelevant rate limits are fine — but limits that assume a live polling client signal a mismatch with the static model. | Assess |
| Is historical data available, so a value can be dated and re-verified? | Every Warconomy figure needs an as-of date and must be re-checkable. A source that only exposes 'now' cannot back a dated, citable observation. | Assess |
| How are spoofing, gaps, and dark-activity handled in the data? | AIS can be spoofed or switched off, especially by sanctioned 'shadow-fleet' vessels — exactly the ships of interest. Any derived figure must carry this caveat and must not be presented as ground truth. | Assess |
| What is the cost risk (overages, plan changes, lock-in)? | Unbounded or surprise cost is disqualifying for a static, no-paid-API product. Cost must be zero or a deliberately approved, bounded amount. | Blocking |
| How complex is safe implementation under the static, no-runtime rules? | Anything requiring a runtime service, scheduled job, or background worker is out of scope by default. A manual, periodic transcription of an official figure is the only currently-permitted path. | Assess |
| Would clearly-labeled external links be sufficient instead of ingestion? | Often the safest, lowest-cost answer: point readers to authoritative external live maps and official statistics rather than ingesting anything. This is the default unless ingestion is clearly justified and approved. | Assess |
Future roadmap (safest first)
A cautious ordering of what could be added later. None of these is live; each is a future investigation, and earlier layers are preferred because they carry less cost and terms risk.
1. Clearly-labeled external links future investigation
Point to authoritative third-party live maps and official transit statistics as external resources, with a note that Warconomy does not verify third-party live vessel positions.
Fit with the static model: Best fit — no ingestion, no cost, no terms risk. Already the recommended near-term approach.
2. Official transit / revenue indicators (delayed) future investigation
Manually transcribe an official, dated canal/transit-authority or intergovernmental figure (transit count, net tonnage, or revenue) — the same workflow already used for other source-gated values.
Fit with the static model: Good fit — dated, source-linked, re-verifiable. Gated today by PDF-only / inaccessible sources (see the Suez/Red Sea workbench item).
3. Delayed vessel-density snapshots future investigation
A periodic, delayed density indicator for a chokepoint region from a source whose terms permit publishing a derived value, presented as a dated snapshot — never as a live position.
Fit with the static model: Possible only with a permissive, ideally free, dataset and explicit reuse rights. Requires a full criteria pass first.
4. Tanker / LNG transit counts future investigation
A dated count of tanker or LNG transits through a chokepoint, if an authoritative source publishes one in a re-verifiable form.
Fit with the static model: Possible with an official/authoritative dated source; not from real-time scraping. Must not be conflated with price or revenue.
5. Insurance / freight indicators future investigation
War-risk insurance premiums or freight-rate indicators associated with chokepoint disruption, where a citable, non-paywalled source exists.
Fit with the static model: Often paywalled today; would need an accessible, reusable source. Associative context, not a causal attribution.
6. Source / legal / API evaluation future investigation
Before any of the above ingests anything, run the full criteria checklist on the specific provider and record the decision (including 'links-only' or 'declined').
Fit with the static model: A prerequisite gate, not a capability. No ingestion proceeds without this and a maintainer decision.
Linking to third-party live maps
Often the safest answer is to point readers to authoritative external resources rather than ingest anything. If Warconomy links to a third-party live map, these rules apply:
- Label any third-party AIS / live-map site clearly as external and third-party.
- Do not embed, scrape, mirror, or republish AIS data or vessel positions.
- State plainly that Warconomy does not verify third-party live vessel positions or live open/closed status.
- Prefer official authority statistics (canal/transit authorities, intergovernmental bodies) over unofficial real-time aggregators.
- Keep external links as references, not as a data source for any Warconomy observation.
Operator follow-up
Evaluate live AIS / maritime data integration — status future investigation, priority medium. Assess whether Warconomy could add a delayed maritime-monitoring layer (vessel density, tanker/LNG transit counts, or official transit/revenue indicators) for the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea — or whether clearly-labeled external links are sufficient.
- Why not now: No source/provider has been evaluated against the criteria, and the project rules forbid scraping, paid APIs, runtime services, and scheduled jobs. Live AIS can also be spoofed or switched off by the shadow-fleet vessels of interest, so a derived figure would need heavy caveats. This needs a maintainer decision, not an automatic build.
- Next human action: Decide the approach: (a) links-only to authoritative external maps/statistics (the safe default), or (b) evaluate a specific provider against the criteria checklist and record the terms. No ingestion until a provider's terms, cost, reuse rights, and caching policy are confirmed and approved.
- No implementation until: A specific source/API/legal decision is made and recorded. No live tracking is implemented under the current rules.
Tracked on the operator workbench under future investigations. Machine-readable: /methodology/maritime-data/data.json.
Related
- Chokepoints dashboard — the current, static chokepoint view.
- Strait of Hormuz — schematic explainer (not a live tracker).
- Red Sea shipping — dated transit-disruption snapshots.
- Live-data architecture — the general framework this is a maritime instance of.
- Refresh harness and operator workbench — how source-gated values are handled.
- Data caveats · standing caveats.