Chapter 5.4: Democratization of OSINT: The Vision, Purpose, Tools and Development of the Datayo Platform

The availability of open source data and the tools for its analysis (referred to as OSINT) have proliferated over the last decade with the growth of big data, modern computer science and social media. However, high-quality OSINT continues to depend on high-value skills related to linguistics, intelligence community tradecraft and technical programming skills. As well as these underlying skills, OSINT can also benefit from ‘democratization’, that is, mobilizing communities to process large amounts of open source data and/or work across disciplinary boundaries. This chapter explores ways in which this can be achieved, using the work of Datayo as a case study. Datayo is a platform dedicated to providing an OSINT workspace accessible to professionals and hobbyists alike. This chapter highlights the genesis of and motivations behind Datayo. It then provides an indepth overview of how Datayo has been utilized by the Open Nuclear Network for OSINT-informed nuclear risk reduction. Finally, this chapter addresses ethical challenges facing the democratization of OSINT.