By
eHow Culture & Society Editor
Difficulty: Moderately Challenging
Step1
Gather sources. The number of possible open source intelligence outlets is limitless. Some basic ones are newspapers, which report on things like troop and fleet movement, and even civilians who visit other countries and can make relevant observations upon return. Strategy and defense information websites, such as Jane's Group, also provide high quality information for you to harvest.
Step2
Pick a region or topic. Monitoring all varieties of open source intelligence across regional and topical interests takes huge amounts of manpower. To effectively use open source intelligence you should focus on one region or issue at a time. This will help you to stay on top of the latest information and will allow you to develop a background understanding of intelligence items.
Step3
Connect the dots. Once you have gathered your sources you need to monitor news and information in order to connect the dots. Look, for example, at how heads of state visits coincide with arms sales. Then consider troop and fleet movement against rising tensions in various regions. Use widely available technology such as Google Earth to get views of important locations. Take all this kind of information and try to deduce the most likely intelligence information from it.
Step4
Test your theories. One of the best ways to test a theory that you've constructed on the basis of open source intelligence is to publish the theory. You can post theories on strategy discussion forums or you can send your piece to influential military bloggers or even newspapers. Check the responses from other members of the open source intelligence community to see what the criticisms might be.
