Stage Talks with Bellingcat

For the first stage talk of 2024 we were joined by Bellingcat Technical Fellow George Dyer. George is a developer and an entrepreneur, he is the cofounder of Informatism, an AI and data research firm that is currently building a financial news and data platform. During his time at Bellingcat George built a useful toolkit for financial researchers and journalists. The toolkit allows users to navigate the US company regulatory database EDGAR with ease. EDGAR is free-to-access unlike many other regulatory databases in the US but is underused. Find the toolkit here And the written guide to the tools hereThis talk was recorded on the January 18th 2024 in the Bellingcat Discord Server. To join the server, download discord and visit www.discord.gg/bellingcat . Music courtesy of Artlist.

For our final Stage Talk of 2023, Ollie Ballinger joined us on stage. Ollie is a lecturer in Geocomputing at University College London and a regular Bellingcat contributor. He is known for his development of useful tools for open-source research. In this session, he shares the details behind his latest tool, a map that allows you to estimate probable damage in a given area based upon Sentinel-1 satellite imagery and established geolocations. Researchers and organisations around the world have been using the tool adaptations Ollie has created to assess likely damage in Gaza, Ukraine and beyond. You can find a guide to what he was discussing in the talk here: https://oballinger.github.io/PWTT/paper.html and find the guide and the tool itself here: https://www.bellingcat.com/resources/2023/11/15/a-new-tool-allows-researchers-to-track-damage-in-gaza/ . The talk was hosted on Thursday the 14th of December in the Bellingcat discord server. To join the server, download discord and visit www.discord.gg/bellingcat . Music courtesy of Artlist.

This week journalist and mental health first aider Hannah Storm joined us on stage. Hannah co-authored the first study into moral injury and the media for the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. She also launched the Headlines Network, an organisation set up to create connections and drive conversations towards improving mental health in the media and communications industries. During the talk she discusses her research and provides personal guidance on how to protect yourself from harm when researching traumatic events. Hannah is not a mental health clinician, but someone with lived experience and a research background in the topic. The talk was hosted on Thursday the 30th of November in the Bellingcat discord server. To join the server, download discord and visit www.discord.gg/bellingcat . Music courtesy of Artlist.

This week new Bellingcat researcher Pooja Chaudhuri joined us on stage. Pooja is experienced in following the movements of far-right groups in India. For her first article for Bellingcat, Pooja investigated the phenomena of auto-generated music videos on YouTube and how some of these lyric videos were based upon songs that encourage the expulsion of muslims from India. During the talk she unpacks her research and explains why these songs could be considered dangerous. The talk was hosted on Thursday the 2nd of November in the Bellingcat discord server. To join the server, download discord and visit www.discord.gg/bellingcat . Music courtesy of Artlist.Link to articles:https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2023/10/16/youtube-is-autogenerating-videos-for-songs-advocating-the-expulsion-of-muslims-from-india/Link mentioned in the talk:https://mattw.io/youtube-metadata/https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6007071?hl

Bellingcat researchers Annique Mossou and Foeke Postma discuss their passion for unraveling historical secrets, including investigations into World War II photo mysteries and the invention of the solar panel. They share their tools and methods for analyzing historical imagery, the importance of open-source research, and the impact of misinformation on understanding history. Topics also include uncovering missing pieces of history, exploring unconventional sources for information, and the potential for crowd-sourcing decoding.

This week we spoke to Christopher Miller from the Financial Times. Chris wrote a book titled "The War Came To Us: Life and Death In Ukraine' , the book is the Bellingcat' Discord Book Club's Book of the Month for September. During the talk Chris answered the audience's questions on life and war in Ukraine and his own experiences of reporting. You can find how to purchase the book via this link: https://linktr.ee/thewarcametous The talk was hosted in the Bellingcat discord server on Thursday 21st September 2023. To join the server, download discord and visit www.discord.gg/bellingcat . Music courtesy of Artlist.

Listen in as Bellingcat tech fellow Sophie Tedling breaks down how to use a tool, built for mountaineers, for geolocations and other open-source research purposes. She also shares her personal experience as an open-source researcher with Bellingcat's Global Authentication Project. If you have a suggestion for the developers of PeakVisor after listening to this episode you can reach out to them at https://twitter.com/PVforOSINV . This is an audio recording of a live video presentation. You can find the article Sophie continues to reference here on the Bellingcat website: https://www.bellingcat.com/resources/2023/07/13/more-than-mountaineering-using-peakvisor-for-geolocation/ You can also find out more about Bellingcat's Global Authentication Project here: https://twitter.com/bellingcatgap

This week's Stage Talk is with Aram Shabanian. Aram works at the Newlines Institute for Strategic and Policy as the Open-Source Information Gathering Manager for the Strategy and Innovation Department. In the talk he shares details on how to monitor traffic cameras, news channels and live webcams using free to access tools. This is an audio recording of a live video presentation.The tools discussed are the following:https://vidgrid.tk.gg/ https://github.com/streamwall/streamwallhttps://www.lyngsat.com/stream/ https://world-cam.ru/ https://www.pulsepoint.org/ https://www.alertwildfire.org/https://balticlivecam.com/The talk was hosted in the Bellingcat discord server on Thursday 25th August 2023.To join the server, download discord and visit www.discord.gg/bellingcat . Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound.

We speak to Bellingcat researcher Youri van der weide about his latest article looking into incidents from the IDF raid of Jenin, West Bank produced alongside Bellingcat discord members. Youri discusses how the discord community members got involved in the research and how Bellingcat hope to work with our wider community in the future. The talk was hosted in the Bellingcat discord server on Thursday 10th August 2023.Please note this stage recording had a technical error causing feedback from Youri's mic in the recording.

In this Stage Talk episode, Narine Khachatryan, a Bellingcat researcher and trainer, spoke honestly to the Bellingcat discord audience about her recent experience of burnout and follow up therapy. During the talk, audience members also shared their own experiences and concerns. This talk was not intended to provide medical advice to anyone currently suffering from mental health issues but to raise awareness of the impact trauma can have on your work/life balance and to start a conversation on how we can look out for one another in the open-source research space.This is a recording of a Discord Server Stage Talk that took place in the Bellingcat Discord Server on July 27, 2023. To join the server, download discord and visit www.discord.gg/bellingcat .Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound.