Coming This November to Amsterdam: Bellingcat’s First In-person Hackathon

Apply here. Read the participation guide here.

Bellingcat invites you to join our first in-person hackathon. Teams of up to three people will explore tool development, research ideas, and document their findings. Happening in Amsterdam from November 14 to 17 2023,  the event is organised together with the University of Amsterdam’s New Media and Digital Culture program.

You will work intensively with your team to create a guide to a tool, visualise a topic that interests you, or prototype a new idea. The hackathon is open to people of all backgrounds and levels of technical ability, and successful projects could include anything from hand-drawn zines to unusual investigation methods to a new, open source Python tool. Bellingcat’s Investigative Tech Team will be on-site to help share their expertise and connect people with specific skills. 

This hackathon will focus on three broad themes. Teams can choose one or combine several of them into one idea:

  • Making public open data more accessible and useful
  • Visualising climate change and its consequences
  • Understanding the visual culture of disinformation

We encourage you to apply even if you don’t yet have a team or an idea: attending alone is possible, and so is finding a team in the days before or even at the event. The hackathon schedule is designed to accommodate people with daytime work schedules, and both the kickoff and final sessions happen after 17:00 CET. A detailed participation guide can be found here.

All participants from the general public will be vetted as part of the registration process. Per our company policy, we do not allow military, intelligence or law enforcement personnel to attend our events. Participation by government employees is assessed on a case-by-case basis.

Several prizes are available for teams that produce winning projects, including free spaces at future Bellingcat workshops.

After the hackathon, we plan to write an article about some of the projects developed — by participating, you agree that your project may be profiled. We’ll also ask if you’re interested in adding your project to Bellingcat’s GitHub if it’s applicable.

Bring yourself, bring a team, bring your open source ideas and have fun!

Apply here.