Open Source Intelligence’s Methodology Applied to Organizational Communication

Every minute in the world tons of information is generated online through the net. Every single bit could represent a source of potential knowledge for public and private organizations. The purpose of this study is to illustrate how implementing Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) methodology within organizational management can strengthen the brand reputation and competitive intelligence activities. OSINT technique could be also applied to the psychosocial research in order to extend its boundaries, for example in the field of sentiment analysis, opinion tracking and user profiling. The OSINT methodology has been analysed by the psychological organizational theories: Burns and Stalker (1971) claimed that the organization is an organic system strictly connected with the external dynamic context. Later on, Butera (1992) defined the organization as an organism concerned with both internal and external communication, therefore open source intelligence can facilitate a right management of information and knowledge. OSINT represents a new and wide-scoped instrument to gather data and information for the organizations to improve decision-making, conduct preventive risk analyses, enhance the due-diligence information acquisition processes, monitor the effectiveness of organizational communication and online reputation. Open source intelligence is already deeply linked with social sciences and should be part of enterprises’ organizational activity. What are the challenges related to implementing a successful OSINT strategy in the organization’s communication model?