[ S&S / OPS ] Versoix · Geneva

● ACTIVE PRACTICE

Signal & Shadow · About

The practice.

Signal & Shadow is an investigative practice and small publishing operation focused on open-source intelligence. We publish methods, reference material, and a weekly dispatch. We also run training for newsrooms and research teams that want to work more carefully on verification.

It is a relatively new operation. The methods we publish have been developed and tested over many years of practice, but the publication itself is early-stage. We are building it deliberately and in the open.

Section · 01

What we publish.

Practical material for people doing investigative and verification work.

The focus is on material that is useful at the point of work, not in a training room three months later. We try to write for the working investigator: someone under deadline, handling contested material, who needs a method they can trust and apply quickly.

We publish:

OSINT Reference Card Library.

Field-ready tradecraft across maritime, aviation, satellite, social, and forensic OSINT domains. Designed to live next to a keyboard, not in a slide deck.

OSINT Methodology Tutorials.

Step-by-step tutorials drawn from working casework. Verification, geolocation, chronolocation, source discovery, and chain of custody, built to LST-001.

AI in OSINT.

How to integrate AI tools and language models into an OSINT workflow. Practical and specific, not speculative.

The Signal.

OSINT tools, community leads, and investigative method. Every issue covers what changed, what it means for working investigators, and what to do with it.

Guides.

Start-to-finish workflows for a whole investigative domain, mapping the public tools and method before you go field-deep.

Section · 02

How we work.

LST-001 governs voice, structure, sourcing, and attribution across everything we publish.

View standard →

We operate to a published house standard, LST-001, which tries to keep the work honest and consistent. The main points are not complicated:

British English, AP Style for capitalisation and treatment of titles.
Declarative practitioner register. No marketing language. No em dashes.
Every claim is sourced. Speculation is labelled as speculation.
Attribution laundering -- presenting sourced material as original analysis -- is treated as a publication failure.
OPSEC and chain of custody guidance is included by default, not as an afterthought.
Errors are corrected on the record, with a visible correction note and a timestamp.

We try not to publish things we cannot stand behind. When we get something wrong, we say so in the same place we said it the first time.

Section · 03

Ethics.

The full framework is published as the Signal & Shadow Code of Standards.

SIG-STD-002 →

We protect sources. We try to minimise harm to subjects who are not public figures. We do not publish material that would put bystanders at risk, even when it is technically available. We do not collaborate with actors whose interests would compromise our editorial independence. We disclose conflicts of interest. We pay contributors.

The full ethical and evidentiary framework is published as the Signal & Shadow Code of Standards.

Section · 04

Who is behind it.

Signal & Shadow was founded by Derek Bowler.

Versoix · Geneva

Founder

Derek Bowler

Investigative journalist, OSINT practitioner, digital forensics educator. Versoix, Geneva.

Before Signal & Shadow, I spent nine years at the European Broadcasting Union. Most recently I was Head of Eurovision Social Newswire and the founding lead of Eurovision News Spotlight, the EBU's OSINT and fact-checking network: a 30-organisation coalition of public service broadcasters including the BBC, ZDF, France Televisions, CBC, and RTE. Earlier in that period, from 2013 to 2016, I worked at Storyful in Dublin, conducting digital forensics for the Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Sky News, and the New York Times on coverage from Syria, Iraq, and Ukraine.

I have been part of teams whose investigations carried real consequences. A 2023 EBU cross-border investigation into the forced transfer of Ukrainian children from occupied territories was followed one month later by ICC arrest warrants. Other work has covered IDF operations against UN peacekeeping positions in southern Lebanon and a 2025 investigation into a state-sponsored influence campaign. I am not listing these to impress. I am listing them because the methods published here have been tested on material that mattered.

I am a chapter author in Eyewitness Textures (McGill-Queen's University Press, 2024), a former Faculty Member at the EBU Academy, and a contributor to the EBU Academy School of AI, which received the European Digital Skills Award 2025 from the European Commission. I serve as an assessor for EFCSN and EDMO. I created The Agile Newsroom, a verification capability framework recognised by the Council of Europe.

Signal & Shadow is the attempt to make that experience and those methods more widely available, in a form that is useful rather than impressive. I am building it steadily. I am not in a hurry to be bigger than the work warrants.

Section · 05

Working with us.

Training for capability uplift. Consultancy for commissioned work.

Path · 01

Training.

Workshops, masterclasses, in-newsroom programmes, and custom curricula in OSINT and digital forensics. For teams that want to raise the floor on verification capability.

View training →

Path · 02

Consultancy.

Bespoke investigations, capability audits, retained advisory, and editorial consultation. For organisations that need a verified answer, a defensible process, or a second pair of expert eyes.

View consultancy →

Direct enquiries

For training, advisory, or editorial enquiries, write to us through the contact channel on signalandshadow.io. We respond to every legitimate enquiry, in order, in the language of the work.

General and editorial

[email protected]

For editorial collaboration, corrections, and general enquiries.

Email the editor →

Training and consultancy

[email protected]

For workshops, capability audits, retained advisory, and commissioned investigations.

Email the practice →