Knowledge Creation Processes Between Open Source Intelligence and Knowledge Management

Abstract

Connections between intelligence studies and social sciences have been already underlined in different fields: anthropology and cultural intelligence; connections are found between social and cognitive psychology and the competences of the analyst of intelligence; social sciences methodologies and tools are used in intelligence as well. This work will focus on Open Source Intelligence (OSINT), defined as the activity of discovering, discriminating, gathering, validating, analyzing and distributing information derived from sources which are open, public, accessible and unclassified (Fleisher in Inteligencia y Seguridad, 2008). Eight interviews on a sample of Italian OSINT analysts and experts revealed what is the common use of OSINT methods, how they are linked to the knowledge creation and knowledge management processes. Aim of the study is to explore the OSINT methods in a social psychology view and evaluating its relation with knowledge management in organizations.