Handbook: Open Source Information Research

(Updated: 12/21/2015)

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Table of Contents
Definitions
Biblical Motivation
Methodology
Article Selection Criteria
Appendix: Evolution of the Methodology
References

(1) Definitions
Trafficking in Persons The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of
persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of
fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or
receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over
another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the
exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or
services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs. [1, 2]
The UNODC clarifies this definition by describing its three elements:

The Act (What is done) -- Recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons
The Means (How it is done) -- Threat or use of force, coercion, abduction, fraud, deception,
abuse of power or vulnerability, or giving payments or benefits to a person in control of the
victim
The Purpose (Why it is done) -- For the purpose of exploitation, which includes exploiting the
prostitution of others, sexual exploitation, forced labour, slavery or similar practices and the
removal of organs. [3]
Vulnerable Groups This includes any group or sector of society that is at higher risk of being
trafficked due to issues such as having an irregular migration status; conflict or war; natural or
manmade disasters; being refugees, internally displaced persons or stateless; discriminatory
practices; violence in the home; and economic hardship, etc. For the purposes of
countertrafficking, it is important to consider those persons more susceptible to trafficking in
persons, including former victims, in project development and implementation. [1]

(2) Biblical Motivation & Mandate

These are just a few of the biblical passages that speak to the ministry of Tiny Hands
International:
Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. Rescue
the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked. (Ps. 82:3-4, NIV)
Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.
Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy. (Proverbs 31:8-9, NIV)
Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes;
cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead
for the widow. Come now, let us argue it out, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be like snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. (Isaiah
1:16-18, NRSV)
Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords
of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the
hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelterwhen you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? (Isaiah 58:6-7, NIV)
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the
oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lords favor. And he rolled up the scroll, gave it
back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then
he began to say to them, Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.
(Luke 4:18-21, NRSV)
(3) Methodology
Introduction
Monitoring and recording open source information is a fairly simple activity, though systematic
diligence is required to ensure all relevant data are collected and reported properly. In an effort
to accurately describe the process, this guide may make it seem more complicated than it
actually is. Therefore, it might be helpful to keep in mind this general flow of information: News
stories automatically aggregate in the RSS Reader and in Email, both of which are monitored by
volunteers. Articles of interest found in either source are then manually entered into two
separate Google Documents.
Here is a visual representation of the flow of information:

(a) News Sources for RSS Feeds

We follow six news outlets, four of which can be monitored using an RSS Feed Reader -Republica, Nepali Times, Nepal News, and IRIN Nepal. There are many more news outlets in
Nepal (see list at http://nepaltrafficking.wordpress.com/news/), but after a period of monitoring a
number of sites, it became clear that six sources were sufficient (the others are described in
Part C). For more about this selection process, see the Appendix.
(b) RSS Feed Reader
The simplest way to monitor the news sources listed above is to automatically aggregate the
stories they produce in a single place using an RSS Feed Reader. With the demise of Google
Reader, I have begun using Feedly (www.feedly.com). While some people like The Old Reader
and NetVibes, I prefer the features and reliability of Feedly.
I prefer to use a view that lists only the article titles rather than a view that also provides content
because a list view can be scanned more quickly. Simply click on an article of interest to
expand it, and then click on the link to see the original article. Every RSS Reader will do this a
bit differently, but it should be quite simple.
These are the feeds that are currently being monitored. If the first URL does not work for you, try
the second.

IRIN - Nepal
http://www.irinnews.org/RSS/Nepal.xml
Nepal News latest headlines
http://www.nepalnews.net/index.php?rss/7399985502eaed63
( http://www.nepalnews.net/index.php/cat/7399985502eaed63/ )
Nepali Times | The Brief
http://www.nepalitimes.com/blogs/thebrief/feed/
( http://www.nepalitimes.com/blogs/thebrief/ )
MyRepublica.com-Social Affairs -http://myrepublica.com/portal/news_rss.php?news_category_id=16
http://myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?
action=news_category&news_category_id=16&headlines=true
http://myrepublica.com/society.feed
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There are a number of RSS readers that could be used for this. When Google Reader ended, I
began using Feedly, which has worked well.
Additionally, in the past we monitored two news outlets (Himalayan Times and eKantipur) using
their RSS feeds, but these feeds became inactive in April 2013. Because they no longer
function, the process of monitoring them is described in Part C. RSS feeds no longer work for:

Ekantipur News -- http://www.kantipuronline.com/en/rss/ and http://ekantipur.com/en/rss/

The Himalayan Times -- http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/rssFeed.php?catid=NQ==
(c) Monitor News Websites
Three sites must be monitored directly--Himalayan Times, Nepali Times editions (the NT blog
above is monitored by RSS), and eKantipur.
1. Nepali Times. Scanning the weekly archive is sufficient:
http://nepalitimes.com/issue_archive/list/2015
See also Nation: http://nepalitimes.com/regular/nation/
2. Kantipur/Kathmandu Post (formerly eKantipur).
http://kathmandupost.ekantipur.com/category/national
3. Himalayan Times. The relevant section can be accessed at:
http://thehimalayantimes.com/category/nepal/
This is also a good website to monitor, though it is not a standard news site like the others listed
here. Nepal Monitor https://nepalmonitor.org/index.php/main
(d & e) Google News Alerts
Google News Alerts are not nearly as fruitful as RSS feeds, but they still have a place in casting
a wider net for news stories. News Alerts are automatic searches conducted by Google and
emailed to you as frequently as you wish (e.g., daily, weekly, etc.). Note: I set my alerts to arrive
weekly and to include everything, not only the best.
Go to http://www.google.com/alerts to begin the process. Enter the first search term you desire,
select Everything for Result Type, and then enter the remaining details as you wish.

The research team receives News Alerts for the following search terms:
Nepal trafficking
Nepal human trafficking [yes, redundant; but it seems to help]
Nepal sex trafficking
Nepal brothel
Nepal flesh
Nepal flesh trade [again redundant]
Nepal prostitute

Nepal prostitution
Nepal smuggle
Nepal smuggling
(f) Record Data: Complete Article
When a relevant article is discovered while scanning titles at new websites, in the RSS Reader,
or in email News Alerts (e.g., Three Nepali Girls Rescued from Traffickers, Brothel Owner
Arrested), the volunteers objective is to make this information available to the team in Nepal.
To do this, the complete article along with relevant bibliographic markers should be copied from
the news source and pasted into the Google Doc titled, OSI - Human Trafficking (Article
Archive). When available, include the article title, publisher, date of publication, author, and
URL/link. You may look at previous entries in the online document as examples.
The title should be formatted as Heading 1 using the drop-down menu in the formatting bar.
This enables each title to be automatically included in the Table of Contents (ToC) after the ToC
has been refreshed. To refresh the ToC, simply click anywhere in the top line of the ToC, which
will make a circle icon appear in the top right corner. Click this circular icon to refresh the ToC.
You can actually click anywhere inside the ToC, but you have to be at the top of a page of the
ToC to see the icon.
Additionally, [NYIS] should be added at the end of the title when first entering this information.
This stands for [NOT YET IN SPREADSHEET]. This spreadsheet is the second document, and
it is covered in the next section.
If there are any pictures in the original news source, they should also be included in the Google
Doc. Some pictures transfer easily with copy-and-paste, but others have to be saved first and
then inserted into the document.
These articles should be entered chronologically with the most recent articles ahead of older
documents, that is, at the top of the document.
(g) Record Data: Relevant Details (spreadsheet)
Each article included in the Article Archive also needs to be transferred to the spreadsheet
titled OSI - Human Trafficking (Key Info [year]) or OSI - Multiple Contraband (Key Info
[year]). These articles should be listed in the same order that they appear in the first document
(i.e., chronological with the most recent story at the top).
The headings of the spreadsheet columns designate the information to be copied from the
complete article. Information relates to three broad categories: (1) alleged
perpetrators/traffickers, (2) victims and (3) locations.
To gather this information, first read the complete article highlighting key points with this color
scheme: Trafficker/Perpetrator, Victim and Key Location. Next, copy and paste the required
details to the spreadsheet.
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NOTE: Avoid symbols for missing data. Please no longer use symbols on a stand alone basis,
such as "-" and "?" These need to be removed before data can be uploaded.
The spreadsheet columns for Human Trafficking are (for Multiple Contraband, see below
[NOTE: we no longer track Multiple Contraband]):
1. Reference Number: Add this reference number to each new article by counting upward with
each new article. If an article refers to the same case as a previous article, use the reference
code of that earlier article. The goal is to have all articles about the same case or incident to be
marked with the same reference number.
2. Article Date
3. Publication: Name of the news source (e.g., Nepali Times)
4. Type (N/O): N = News source (e.g., eKantipur, Nepali Times, etc.). O = Other source (e.g.,
government report, NGO blog, etc.)
5. Article Title
6. Name of Trafficker/Alleged Trafficker: Include one individual per line. Insert additional rows as
needed.
a. Only use names here. If no specific names are given, simply leave it blank. Sentinel Visualizer
takes whatever is in that field and stores it as a name, which we don't want unless it is an actual
name. Aliases can also be listed in the same field in parenthesis after the name, and it is also
good to include "(name changed)" after the name if we know that to be the case. If there aren't
names provided in the news article for traffickers or victims or both it's okay to leave these name
fields blank but still include the article. The descriptions can still provide information that is of
value, but it just won't be used for the relational analysis aspect of the Fusion Center.
b. If names are spelled differently in related article, it is better to keep the spelling the same if we
know that it refers to the same individual. If necessary, changing the spelling for a name from
one of the article to match another that we know is the same is okay and in fact should be done.
If they have a sense from seeing several others which spelling is more common it's good to go
with that one, but if not it's fine to just choose one and stick to it. In cases where more than one
name is given from different articles and we are sure that it refers to the same individual one of
the names should be given in parenthesis after the other name and still in the same cell. Again,
it can be either name, but if there are any clues that one of them is more likely to be their real
name then that one should go first and the possible alias in parenthesis. "(Name changed)"
should only be used when the article indicates that the name being given is a false name
(usually just done for victims in order to protect their identity).
7. Ts Age: (if provided)
8. Ts Role: Is this person an accomplice, ring-leader, brothel owner, etc.?
9. Ts Relationship: How is this person related to the others (brother, parent, etc.)?
10. Ts Status: Is the trafficker arrested, absconding, deceased, etc.?
11. Ts Picture: Yes or no.
12. Price Paid: Amount trafficker paid (and in what currency) for the victim.
13. From/of: Where trafficker is from.
14. Latitude and Longitude. See note below for determining these coordinates. These columns
are paired with each Location column and for sake of brevity will not be repeated again in this
list.

15. Name of Victim: Again, insert one name per row. Insert additional rows as necessary. See
notes on column 6 above (Trafficker Names).
16. Vs Age: (if provided)
17. Vs Migration Purpose: Sex trafficking, labor, etc.
18. LocationOrigination: Where are the victims and perpetrators from?
19. LocationDestination: Where were they going?
20. LocationInterception: Where was the rescue made?
21. LocationOther: Where did they cross the border? What other locations are important in this
case?
22. Brief Description: Add a brief summary of the case with any key details that do not fit in the
other categories.
23. Entered By: The person who has recorded/entered this article (YOU).
24. URL: This is the link to the original news story.
Latitude and Longitude. There are five categories of locations that need to be geo-coded with
latitude and longitude. Below is an ordering of these categories from micro to macro. Note that
in general the VDC level is the most useful.
1. Buildings: Only use for transit or destination locations that are provided to that level of
specificity (such as airports).
2. City (in another country): This is useful and good.
3. City (in Nepal): Generally do not use this level. Instead, use VDC to increase usefulness of our
GIS mapping program. Specific city coordinates can be found by doing a Google search using
the city name + "latitude and longitude" (examples: "kathmandu latitude and longitude").
4. VDC (Village Development Committee): Preferred level of recording. This is more specific
than District and more useful than city.
5. District: Only use these coordinates if an article does not specify a city or VDC.
Duplicate articles. You will find some duplicate articlesstories from multiple news outlets
covering the same case or situation. Connect these cases by using the same reference code for
each.
Not Yet in Spreadsheet. Once all of the essential details have been copied for a given article,
return to the source document and remove [NYIS] from the title line. Then refresh the Table of
Contents in order to remove [NYIS] from the list.
You are now finished. The team in Nepal will take it from there! This description is overly
detailed. You will find that it is quite simple once youve gone through the steps a few times. And
you will tweak it to fit your preferred process.
Multiple Contraband [NO LONGER RECORDED]
The steps above for entering data on human trafficking are essentially the same for entering info
on multiple contraband (e.g., drugs, weapons, counterfeit documents, wood, animals, metals,
etc.); therefore, read the above section carefully even if you are on this Multiple Contraband
team rather than the Human Trafficking team.

The spreadsheet columns for Multiple Contraband are:

1. Reference Number
2. Article Date
3. Publication
4. Article Title
5. Contraband (drugs, weapons, wood, etc.)
6. Trafficker Name/Alias
7. Age
8. Photo (Y/N)
9. Role (courier, mastermind, etc.)
10. Relationship (to other traffickers)
11. Status (arrested, absconding, etc.)
12. Origin of Trafficker (plus latitude and longitude)
13. Destination (where contraband was going)
14. Interception
15. Incident summary (brief, if needed)
16. Entered By (name of volunteer)
17. Article URL (link)

(4) Article Selection Criteria

Articles should be selected if they address:

trafficking of Nepali citizens for either sex or labor purposes (general stories & specific cases)
arrests of traffickers who operate in Nepal (regardless of location of arrest)
rescues of Nepali citizens (regardless of location)
suspicious abductions
migrant populations (within and outside Nepal)
Nepali sex industry (trafficking can occur within the country, not just across intl borders)

For this particular database, articles do not need to be selected that address human rights
violations outside of the definition of trafficking, including:
domestic abuse
general violence against women (VAW)
child marriage
abductions for ransom
rape and sexual abuse
Additional Relevant Articles
When working through the process described above, I (Jeff) also pay attention to stories that
could impact the work of Tiny Hands but that does not include key information about a specific
case. For instance, an article might cover trends in human trafficking or a government
announcement about trafficking.

I share these articles with their links/URLs with the team. Jon and I had talked about adding a
volunteer or two to review these additional articles and write summaries for the team. This
would be a possible area of development that I did not successfully implement.
(5) Appendix: Evolution of the Methodology
This methodology was developed over a period of months by experimenting with various news
feeds and alerts. By recording the sources of pertinent articles, redundancies were observed
and extraneous sources were deleted, greatly reducing the amount of material to be scanned.
Here is a list of the feeds originally monitored but later discarded:

feed://myrepublica.com/portal/rss.php
feed://myrepublica.com/portal/news_rss.php?news_category_id=14
feed://myrepublica.com/portal/news_rss.php?news_category_id=15
feed://www.topix.com/rss/world/nepal
feed://www.InsideWorld.com/nepal/?rss
The same process was followed for the email News Alerts, eventually designating all alerts as
Everything rather than merely News.
Details of this process can be found in the Google Doc, Alerts & Feeds - Assessment.
Suggestions for improving and refining the process are always welcome. If you have ideas
about simplifying the process while still delivering quality information to the team in Nepal, we
want to hear it!

(6) References
[1] Handbook on Performance Indicators for Counter-Trafficking Projects (International
Organization for Migration). Accessed on March 26, 2013, from
http://www.iom.int/jahia/webdav/shared/shared/mainsite/published_docs/brochures_and_info_s
heets/pi_handbook_180808.pdf.
[2] For a more detailed description, see the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish
Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, Supplementing the United Nations
Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. Accessed on April 17, 2013, from
http://www.refworld.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/rwmain?docid=4720706c0.
[3] UNODC Human Trafficking. Accessed on April 17, 2013, from
http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/what-is-human-trafficking.html.