Introduction
Experts have been debating how the US Intelligence Community should approach open-source collection and analysis for decades. This debate has intensified as the information revolution has gathered pace. Commentators have advocated for approaches ranging from creating an open-source agency to relying almost entirely on the private sector. The debate may even intensify as artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities expand and the IC’s budget environment tightens.
In this context, a group of two dozen IC and private sector open-source practitioners and thinkers met in June 2024 to
discuss four possible approaches. The roundtable began with opening remarks by this author and IC OSINT Executive Jason Barrett, who both noted the event was intended to compare the approaches and tease out assumptions, tradeoffs, and practical implications—such as resource needs—that would help future decision-makers grapple with how to proceed.