On New Year’s eve, Pieter Van Ostaeyen hung out with his brother’s family before skipping the midnight celebrations and going home to work.新年前夕，彼得范奥斯塔延(Pieter Van Ostaeyen)与哥哥一家睡在一起。之后，他没参与午夜的庆典，必要回家工作了。This pursuit — toiled over at night and in his holidays — is not overspill from his day job as an enterprise architect and business analyst. Rather it is an all-consuming passion: to use Twitter and Facebook to track principally Belgian radicals fighting for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) and Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria.范奥斯塔延的月职业是企业架构师和商业分析师。

他在晚上和假期艰辛专门从事的这份工作并不是他白天没有干完的部分，而是一份他热衷的、并寄托全部精力的事业：用于Twitter和Facebook来跟踪极端分子的动向，主要目标是效忠伊拉克圣战的组织“伊拉克和黎凡特伊斯兰国”(ISIS)以及叙利亚圣战的组织Jabhat al-Nusra的比利时极端分子。As jihadis take to social media to find new recruits and broadcast their activities, so bloggers are able to track their activity from afar. Some do it as part of their job, but others such as Mr Van Ostaeyen, who is not recompensed for this work, hope one day to make it pay.随着圣战分子开始用于社交媒体召募新成员并宣传他们的活动，博主们可以远程跟踪圣战分子的动向。对一些人而言，这是他们工作的一部分。

然而，范奥斯塔延等其他人不从这份工作中领薪水，他们期望有一天自己能获得报酬。After last week’s attacks in Paris on Charlie Hebdo magazine’s office and a kosher supermarket, Mr Van Ostaeyen, who lives in Mechelen, Belgium, waded through his social media feeds, trying to detect significant information about the threat from Belgian fighters. Amid the feeds, he says, was one Belgian Isis fighter in Iraq calling on people back home to follow suit.今年1月7日，法国巴黎再次发生了《亨利周刊》(Charlie Hebdo)杂志社枪击案和犹太餐馆攻击案。此后，住在比利时梅赫伦(Mechelen)的范奥斯塔延网页了他注目的社交媒体源公布的大量信息，尝试借此找到来自比利时极端分子的威胁的关键性线索。他说道，在这些消息源中，有一名身在伊拉克的比利时籍ISIS战士敦促人们在本国发动类似于攻击。

Mr Van Ostaeyen says his feelings on the attackers are summed up in a blogpost by Clint Watts, senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. “Many, if not most, western jihadis are deeply troubled souls, at times more confused about their intentions and motivations than we are.”范奥斯塔延说，他对这些袭击者的观点可以用美国外交政策研究所(FPRI)高级研究员克林特沃茨(Clint Watts)博文中的一句话总结。“就算不是大多数，最少有很多西方圣战分子是备受后遗症的人，有时他们对自己的意图和动机比我们还欺骗。

”There is a remarkable amount of information to be found about homegrown radicals and those who go to Syria and Iraq to fight, he says. Some research has been relatively straightforward — once, for example, Mr Van Ostaeyen created a false identity of a fictional foreign fighter. He picked a photo of a man, his face concealed, waving an Isis flag on a mountain. Pretty soon he got 1,400 “friends” from across Europe.范奥斯塔延回应，关于茁壮于本国的极端分子，以及那些到叙利亚和伊拉克出征的人，还有非常数量的信息尚待考古。他展开的一些调查比较非常简单。比如，有一次他创立了一个外国圣战战士的欺诈身份。

他挑选出了一张蒙面男性在山上手持ISIS旗帜的照片。迅速他就享有了1400个来自欧洲各地的“朋友”。“Syria is the most social mediated war ever,” says Mr Van Ostaeyen. “Social media is a propaganda channel.”“叙利亚战争是迄今为止不受社交媒体影响仅次于的战争，” 范奥斯塔延说，“社交媒体是一种宣传渠道。”This comes at a time when journalists have become trophy targets, shown vividly by the Isis beheadings of American reporters James Foley and Steven Sotloff. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 79 reporters have been killed in Syria since 1992, and in Iraq the death toll stands at 166.最近这段时期，记者出了圣战战士向外界夸耀的战利品，ISIS斩杀美国记者詹姆斯弗利(James Foley)和史蒂芬索特洛夫(Steven Sotloff)的事件独特地反映出有这一点。

维护记者委员会(Committee to Protect Journalists)的数据表明，自1992年以来，有79名记者在叙利亚被杀死，而在伊拉克自杀身亡的记者超过了166名。The new breed of researcher analyses fighters at a distance rather than in the conflict zone. Currently writing a book on the Middle East from the crusades to today, Mr Van Ostaeyen sees Eliot Higgins, who became known by his blogging name Brown Moses, as a game-changer, demonstrating that the work can provide an income.新型调查者并不亲赴冲突一线，而是从靠近冲突的地方分析这些战士。范奥斯塔延最近在编写一本书，主题就是指十字军东征到当代的中东。

在他眼中，以博客“布朗摩西”(Brown Moses)有名的埃利奥特希金斯(Eliot Higgins)是一个转变游戏规则的人，他向世人展出这份工作需要获取收益。Mr Higgins, a video games enthusiast and stay-at-home dad, who had previously worked in finance administration, has become a munitions expert, tracking the Syrian war from his home in Leicester in the UK. “The work he has been doing [on Syrian weapons and the downing of the MH17 plane] has been groundbreaking,” says Mr Van Ostaeyen. “He’s a good example of an independent, writing what he wants.”希金斯是一个电子游戏爱好者和全职父亲。

他之前专门从事财务管理的工作，后来沦为了军火情报专家，从坐落于英国莱斯特(Leicester)的家中跟踪叙利亚战争。“他做到的（关于叙利亚武器和MH17航班坠机事件的）调查是开创性的，”范奥斯塔延说，“他是一个独立国家专栏作家的典范，他编写他想写的东西。”Mr Van Ostaeyen got into this work through his interest in history and Arabic culture, which he studied at university. When the popular uprising in Syria began in 2011 — a country he had visited — his work intensified.范奥斯塔延对大学里自学过的历史和阿拉伯文化很感兴趣，这让他投身于这份工作。

2011年叙利亚再次发生动乱，这是一个他曾多次踏上的国家，他的工作量也因此变小了。“I tried to make people in the west understand what was going on. I found it shameful that no one was doing anything.” He zoned in on foreign fighters. “Social media is my main source of information. It’s unbelievable how much information is out there.”“我企图让西方的人们解读正在再次发生的事情。不负责任的是，谁也没在这方面有所作为，”他将外国战士瞄准为注目对象，“社交媒体是我的主要信息来源。

借此取得的海量信息让人难以置信。”There is also a vast array of fake material. To make the switch from amateur to professional, bloggers must be scrupulous.其中也有大量欺诈内容。

要从业余爱好者转变成专业人士，博主们必需一丝不苟。Reputation is everything, says Mr Higgins, who now gives talks to journalists. “It’s all you have. You have to be so careful. It requires a lot of work to produce reliable material.”希金斯回应，信誉就是一切。他现在为记者进讲座。

“这是你享有的一切。你必需十分小心。必须很多工作才能产生可靠的材料。”Obsessiveness is a trait Mr Higgins looks for in collaborators, although he is cautious that it is not ideology fuelling their passion.对这份工作的反感兴趣是希金斯在找寻合作者时重视的特质，不过他很慎重地防止让意识形态沦为驱动这份事业的动力。

A hazard of the work is witnessing horrifying acts of violence. “The first beheading I felt very sick — now I am numb to it,” says Mr Van Ostaeyen.这份工作的危险性之一是亲眼目睹可怕的暴力场面。“第一次（看）斩杀的时候，我实在十分恶心——现在我对斩杀早已麻木了，”范奥斯塔延说。Mr Higgins says anyone who works with this sort of material has to “learn to mentally compartmentalise”. It is, he says, the small things that catch you off-guard.”希金斯说道，任何在工作中要和这种材料做事的人都必需“学会在心理上与之分隔”。

他说道，让你措手不及的是一些小事。Professional researchers deploy their own strategies. JM Berger, the author of Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam, started life as a journalist and combines traditional reporting techniques with social media analysis. He has learnt to make a quick and efficient assessment of violence in videos. At key moments, he mutes the sound. “The most important thing is to frequently connect with life outside of work and remember that even when extremist movements are most successful they still only represent a tiny [section] of people.”专业的调查者运用他们自己的策略。JM伯杰(JM Berger)是《圣战者乔：以伊斯兰之名赶赴战场的美国人》(Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam)这本书的作者。

他最开始做到过记者。现在他将传统的新闻报道技法和社交媒体分析融合在一起。他早已学会对视频里的暴力行为展开较慢有效地的评估。

在关键时刻，他不会把视频静音。“最重要的事是常常与工作之外的生活保持联系，忘记即使极端分子的行动十分顺利，他们也仍然只是人群中的较小的（一部分）。

”Phillip Smyth, a researcher at the University of Maryland who writes the blog Hizballah Cavalcade, which focuses on Shia Islamist militarism in the Middle East, notes that some groups want analysts to reproduce their content to legitimise and publicise it. “I very rarely disclose [which] social media accounts I follow, and I don’t publicly redistribute their propaganda,” says Mr Berger, whose next book will focus on Isis.来自马里兰大学(University of Maryland)的研究人员菲利普史密斯(Phillip Smyth)编写一个叫“Hizballah Cavalcade”的博客，主要注目中东什叶派伊斯兰残暴主义。他提及，一些群体期望分析人士将它们公布的内容新的编写出来，以使其合法化和公开化。“我很少公开发表我注目哪些社交媒体账号，我也会公开发表公布它们的宣传内容，”伯杰说道。

他下一本书的主题是ISIS。The majority of people do not need to view it, believes Mr Berger. “This violent material is intended to push viewers’ buttons and provoke emotional reactions that serve the extremists’ interests.” However, policy makers and researchers should see some of the material, he says, in order to understand the cult of violence that Isis in particular is propagating. Mr Van Ostaeyen sees such videos as source materials to be used by historians, human rights watchers and possibly future war crimes prosecutors.伯杰指出，大多数人不用观赏这些内容。“暴力内容的目的是惹急观看者，引发情感上的反应，为极端分子的利益服务。”然而，他回应政策制定者和研究者应当看一些这种内容，以便解读ISIS尤其侧重宣传的暴力崇拜。

范奥斯塔延指出，历史学家、人权观察者、有可能还有未来的战争罪检察官应当用于这类完整材料。The work is important, he believes. “I want people to be aware why people go to fight in Syria,” he says. Nonetheless, there is a cost to the 38-year-old’s work. The intensity he devotes to his extracurricular job has meant he has lost social contacts. “It’s not a life. I live alone with a cat.”范奥斯塔延坚信，这份工作十分最重要。“我期望人们意识到，为什么有人不会去叙利亚出征，”他说道。尽管如此，对38岁的范奥斯塔延来说，这份工作还是有代价的。

他对这份业余工作投放甚多，这意味著他丧失了社会认识。“这称得上生活。

我和一只猫寂寞地生活在一起。

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