September 20, 2024: Command line tools for open source researchers (for absolute beginners)

Register for this workshop here. 

The workshop takes place on September 20, 2024, from 2-6 pm CEST (Amsterdam)/ 8am-12pm EDT (New York). 

Would you like to learn how to download hundreds of social media posts at once? Have you seen the tools for open source investigators that were produced during Bellingcat hackathons, but you have no idea how to use them?

If you are ready to put time and effort into learning some technical skills, a whole new world of tools and research possibilities will open up to you. But how can you enter this world? Here is where our webinar comes in.

In this four hour webinar session for absolute beginners, we introduce you to all the good reasons why challenging yourself to become more technical will help you if you want to spend your career or spare time in the world of open source research. We will teach you what you need to get started, which technical skills you should learn first, and how to use several command line tools for open source research.

The webinar session will cover the following:

  • The command line and why the command line is so important for using a whole range of interesting open source research tools;
  • Code sharing platforms for finding exciting tools;
  • The best programming language for open source research;
  • Examples of command line tools for open source research and how to run them;
  • Recommendations for learning materials and next steps.

At the end of this session, you will have a list of command line tools at your disposal which you will be able to run yourself.

Please create a Google account before participating in this webinar (if you do not yet have one, you can also use your personal Google account).

Important note: This webinar is suitable for people who have never used the command line of their computer before. If you are familiar with the terminal, we recommend you watch out for more advanced webinars later this year. 

Payment Note

If you register and select a credit card payment or Paypal, you must pay when you start the payment process, otherwise Eventzilla will lock you out and we will have to manually delete and restart your registration. Wait to open the payment tab until you have your card or Paypal information ready to go!

Alternatively, you can choose “bank transfer” and pay later — many of our participants whose employers sponsor them choose this option. 

You can find more information about our trainings and webinars in the event descriptions on Eventzilla, including an agenda for each workshop.

Costs and VAT

The ticket price is inclusive of 21% VAT (tax) and processing fees. All participants personally paying for this course are subject to the Dutch VAT. However, if a company (e.g. your employer) is paying for the course, they may be exempt from the VAT charge.

  • If the company is based in the European Union, please write the VAT number during the registration process and an invoice sans VAT will be issued.
  • If the company is based in the United States or Canada, there is no added VAT.
  • If the company is based in other countries, please write any VAT number (if available) and a correct billing address and we will issue an invoice per the VAT regulations of the company’s host country.

Please reach out to us at workshops@bellingcat.com if you have any questions on the VAT fees and regulations.

Cancellation

Please look closely at the cancellation and event policies before you take the leap. We run all of these trainings on Zoom in a private webinar room, with two or three trainers present to help with both the webinar itself and any questions the participants have.

Eventzilla lists most of our events in the Amsterdam (GMT+1) time zone, which is sometimes noted as “CET” and other times as “WEST”. We don’t know why Eventzilla sometimes uses this designation of “WEST” for Central European time, but just keep in mind that it’s one hour ahead of London and six hours ahead of New York.

Screening

We manually approve all applications after registration on Eventzilla. We do basic due diligence checks on our participants to be sure that our trainers and other participants are comfortable with their participation.Members of any military or intelligence service are not permitted registration at our workshops, and we allow government employees in on a case-by-case basis to be sure there aren’t any serious ethical issues. We also restrict access to our workshops from members of police forces, but make some exceptions depending on participants’ areas of responsibilities.

For example, in past workshops, we have approved the participation of government employees working on issues around election integrity and security, while we have rejected the participation of those working for state migration services tasked with information gathering around deportations. For police officers, we have approved the applications of those working on issues of child exploitation and trafficking, but rejected those who work for departments where there have been publicized cases of surveillance and abuse. We also conduct basic due diligence for non-government employees to be sure both the participant and their employer do not have a track record that would clearly make our trainers and other participants uncomfortable with providing training in research techniques that could be abused.

That said, the vast majority of participants are approved without any issue.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I receive a certificate for the workshops?

Sure! Just email us (workshops@bellingcat.com) before or after the workshops, and we’ll send you a PDF certificate showing completion after the training is completed. Please let us know if there are any particular details that you need on this to fit requirements for your workplace or other institutions.

Can I receive a recording of a workshop?

We do not record our workshops, or allow others to record them. However, we do provide copies of our training slides to participants after the completion of the training for their personal reference.

When will you come to my city for an in-person workshop?

We are planning to host in-person workshops in spring 2024 in Washington DC, Amsterdam and 2 more in the autumn of 2024.locations tbd. We will open registration for the Washington and Amsterdam events soon. 

Who usually attends your workshops?

We have a pretty interesting mix of participants at our trainings. We have around 20-25 participants per workshop, and among those between a third to a half come from private companies or the corporate world. Among those, we have plenty of information security researchers, corporate security investigators, lawyers, due diligence experts, and other professions. Journalists are the next-most popular profession for our workshops (around a fourth or third of participants), and then we have a mix of human rights/NGO researchers, academics and students, and even retirees who are just curious about what this whole OSINT thing is all about.

Can I gift a workshop seat to someone else?

Sure! We have had quite a few people buy workshop attendance for a loved one as a birthday or Christmas gift. Just let us know the name of the person who you are buying the seat for when registration so that we can do a basic due diligence check on them (see the Screening section up above). Feel free to email us at  workshops@bellingcat.com to make sure we have their proper contact details so they get all of the invitation information on time.

Register for this workshop here.

Important note: This webinar is suitable for people who have never used the command line of their computer before. If you are familiar with the terminal, we recommend you watch out for more advanced webinars later this year. 

Our other online workshops for autumn 2024 include: 

We will publish information about a Scraping webinar and our in-person workshop(s) for October – December 2024 soon.

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