Collection of information in OSINT is a very different problem from collection in other intelligence disciplines because, by definition, the information sources are publicly available. The difficulty lies not in obtaining information from a hostile source but in identifying relevant and reliable sources from the vast abundance of publically available information.
Sometimes overt HUMINT is considered part of open source intelligence. This refers to the use of non-clandestine human information sources: examples include interrogation of refugees, debriefing of legal travelers, and reports from overt agents such as attachés and ambassadors.
The current definitive guides to OSINT are the NATO Open Source Intelligence Handbook, the NATO Open Source Intelligence Reader, and the (NATO) Intelligence Exploitation of the Internet. The definitive historical history of OSINT in recent times is contained in the 30 volumes of Proceedings from the annual OSINT conference sponsored by OSS.Net.
A number of nations, notably Australia, Norway, South Africa, and Sweden, have created specialist units to focus on OSINT. Within the US government, the major provider of OSINT is the CIA's Foreign Broadcast Information Service, which also makes some of its information available to the public through the World News Connection.
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