SKUP 2015
Eliot Higgins
Foto: Marius Nyheim Kristoffersen

Als lezer van deze blog wist je natuurlijk al dat Bellingcat, in de persoon van oprichter Eliot Higgins, op 21 maart in de OBA is om daar een keynote voor de VOGIN-IP-lezing te verzorgen. Dat Bellingcat als organisatie zich bovendien in Nederland vestigt, werd hier ook al eerder gemeld. Toch komen we daar nog even op terug omdat Eliot recent een hele thread van Twitterberichten gewijd heeft aan allerlei nieuwtjes , waaronder meer duidelijkheid over wat ze in Den Haag gaan doen. Hieronder de belangrijkste punten uit die thread van 17 februari:

Hopefully by the end of Spring we’ll have the new Bellingcat office in The Hague open and operational, which will be the centre of two new major projects, focused on Yemen and local training in The Netherlands.

With The Netherlands training project we’ll be running workshops to train locals from a wide variety of backgrounds, both social and professional, to work on projects that have an impact on their own lives, building a Dutch community of open source investigators.

And on Yemen we’ve been working to develop a systematic process of investigation and archiving of open source material focused on the use of our work in courts, both local and international, but with wider applications to different fields, including advocacy and journalism.

My hope is that by the end of 2019 we’ll have a complete process for the investigation & archiving open source material up to a standard that can be used by local & international courts that can be rapidly deployed internally to new conflicts, & shared with other organisations.

While we’re aiming for a standard that can be used in justice and accountability, the evidence and analysis we gather will also be used for other areas, such as journalism and advocacy. It’s all about creating a solid base that grows a variety of projects and outcomes.

We’re also looking at producing a podcast series about our MH17 investigation ahead of the 5th anniversary, and there’s also some other big things, some more personal to me, we’ll be announcing in the coming weeks.

If everything works out we’ll be making huge advancements in how open source investigation is used, developing incredibly archiving systems to make verified conflict information available to those who need it, and spreading what we’ve learnt to other organisations.

By the start of March we’ll have 16 full time members of staff working for Bellingcat, and we’re focusing on hiring staff for our Yemen research projects and admin staff. We’ll also have a 50/50 gender split in our staff, something I hope to sustain as we grow.

Als er niet toch al aanleiding was om 21 maart Eliot in Amsterdam te komen beluisteren, dan is dat er nu dus zeker.