HUMINT, OSINT, or Something New? Defining Crowdsourced Intelligence

摘要

Over the past six years, certain crowdsourcing efforts have begun to resemble, and perhaps augment, national security intelligence collection. As with any budding field, purveyors of intelligence crowdsourcing have been somewhat inconsistent in their attempts to develop new concepts to describe their actions, or to incorporate professional ethics into their activities. In this environment, where the line between traditional intelligence collection operations and public information collection efforts is increasingly blurred, steps must necessarily be taken to standardize proper intelligence crowdsourcing practices in order to avoid potential ethical quandaries even before they arise. As part of this effort, constructing a concise definition of crowdsourced intelligence becomes vital.