Part I, Introduction: The Emergence of Digital Witnesses

Subject(s):

Access to information — Media — Internet — Evidence — Corroboration

This introductory chapter begins with a brief discussion of the rise of open source information. Finding and using open source information available online and piecing together corroborating information to challenge official narratives are crucial to human rights work today. With more photographs and videos taken every day, with high-speed internet connections crossing the globe, with social media networks increasingly available at low cost, people are sharing their experiences online at a rate never before seen. The chapter then presents definitions of the terminology for open source investigations drawn from the draft International Protocol on Open Source Investigation. These include definitions of terms such as open source information, online open source information, open source investigation, open source intelligence, open source evidence, authentication, verification. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.