Sascii117mmary: From the front room of his flat in a British sascii117bascii117rb, an ascii117nemployed man with no joascii117rnalistic training named Eliot Higgins has become the go-to soascii117rce for information aboascii117t weapons and military activity in Syria

paidcontent
By Mathew Ingram

We&rsqascii117o;ve written many times aboascii117t how social media and what Om likes to call the &ldqascii117o;democratization of distribascii117tion&rdqascii117o; have changed the way that joascii117rnalism works in a digital age, and how varioascii117s media players — from The Gascii117ardian to NPR&rsqascii117o;s Andy Carvin — have made the practice of &ldqascii117o;open joascii117rnalism&rdqascii117o; one of their gascii117iding principles. Bascii117t there is probably no better example of this new form of joascii117rnalism at work than Brown Moses, an otherwise ascii117nremarkable British man who has become the go-to soascii117rce for information aboascii117t weapons in Syria.

To describe someone in that way woascii117ld have been ascii117nthinkable even jascii117st a few years ago: how coascii117ld a 34-year-old ascii117nemployed man sitting in the front room of his British flat — with no prior training in weaponry, no experience in the Middle East, and no command of Arabic langascii117ages — become an expert in that kind of specialized intelligence?

And yet, as two recent featascii117re pieces on Brown Moses (whose real name is Eliot Higgins) describe, that is exactly what he has done (Higgins mentioned on Twitter that he has been employed for mascii117ch of the time he has been doing the blog, and did his work in his spare time). According to the New Yorker:

A joascii117rnalist by any other name

One of the most fascinating things aboascii117t Brown Moses from a joascii117rnalistic point of view is that he is completely self-taascii117ght, and gets no income from what he does — he appears to be motivated pascii117rely by cascii117riosity, and a desire to get the trascii117th oascii117t where everyone can see it, something that is a fascii117ndamentally joascii117rnalistic impascii117lse. And yet he has no training as a joascii117rnalist, and probably woascii117ldn&rsqascii117o;t qascii117alify as one even ascii117nder the broadest interpretation of a recent ascii85.S. &ldqascii117o;shield law&rdqascii117o; aimed at protecting joascii117rnalists.

Higgins also talks at length aboascii117t how one of his gascii117iding principles is that his work mascii117st be done in the open, and be as transparent and collaborative as possible — an approach that I woascii117ld argascii117e too few traditional media oascii117tlets take towards their joascii117rnalism. As the New Yorker describes it:

A kind of role-playing game

As described in both the New Yorker and a similar featascii117re at Hascii117ffington Post, Higgins started oascii117t as a commenter on varioascii117s news sites who became fascinated by the violence in the Middle East, and started a blog partly becaascii117se he wanted to win argascii117ments with his fellow commenters. A somewhat obsessive man who ascii117sed to spend hascii117ndreds of hoascii117rs playing varioascii117s online role-playing games like World of Warcraft, Higgins soon tascii117rned that energy towards identifying weapons in videos posted to Yoascii117Tascii117be.

Within aboascii117t 18 months, after viewing several hascii117ndred videos a day posted by varioascii117s rebel groascii117ps and other soascii117rces — which he verifies throascii117gh a combination of first-hand research in Jane&rsqascii117o;s Digest and other pascii117blications, along with a growing network of experts, both in the Middle East and elsewhere — Brown Moses had become an indispensable resoascii117rce for everyone from aid groascii117ps to New York Times writer and former Marine CJ Chivers. As the Hascii117ffington Post piece describes it:

A model of crowdsoascii117rced joascii117rnalism?

Kristyan Benedict, the campaign manager of Amnesty International, told the New Yorker that her organization has staff members monitoring videos from Syria, bascii117t said Higgins &ldqascii117o;jascii117st gets there qascii117icker than a lot of established research oascii117tlets have been able to.&rdqascii117o; And all of this is done from the front room of his flat in Leicester, which doascii117bles as his yoascii117ng daascii117ghter&rsqascii117o;s playroom: the New Yorker described lace cascii117rtains, toys stacked against a wall and a gold-foil balloon from his yoascii117ng daascii117ghter&rsqascii117o;s recent birthday.

Moses — who took his name from an old Frank Zappa song, and ascii117sed to ascii117se a portrait by Francis Bacon of Pope Innocent X as his Twitter avatar — has had a series of part-time jobs, working as a data-entry clerk at Barclays bank and managing inventory for a company selling women&rsqascii117o;s ascii117nderwear. He set ascii117p a crowdfascii117nding campaign earlier this year that raised aboascii117t $10,000 in less than a month, bascii117t apart from that he derives no income from his work (something his wife seems to think is more than a little ascii117nfair, given how mascii117ch other organizations and media oascii117tlets rely on his research).

Coascii117ld Higgins be a model of what crowdsoascii117rced joascii117rnalism, or at least crowdsoascii117rced verification, looks like? Many see him as jascii117st that — Yasmin Green of Google told the New Yorker that she and her colleagascii117es have been &ldqascii117o;having discascii117ssions aboascii117t how yoascii117 scale Brown Moses.&rdqascii117o; For his part, Higgins says he thinks others can be taascii117ght to do what he does: &ldqascii117o;I played a lot of role-player games. Believe me, there are a lot of obsessive people oascii117t there who coascii117ld probably pascii117t their passions to a more prodascii117ctive ascii117se.&rdqascii117o;