Check out the course webpage for more details! 

This course is a hybrid course with a short weekly recorded lecture and a 90 minute Zoom meeting to discuss and do hands-on learning activities. You will also get a short weekly curated list of things for you to listen to, read, and watch. 

The Zoom session for this class is at:

• Friday 3pm Pacific 
• Saturday 11am NZDT

Class starts in 2025 

Course Instructor Byron Clark and Mandy Henk

Focusing on the US and New Zealand, this course will cover basic and intermediate tools and techniques to conduct community benefit OSINT investigations. From ethics to OPSEC to coding–we will take you through how to find, document, and analyze the info you need to report on what your community needs to know. We will cover how to find information, which tools are most helpful, and how to keep all your receipts organized and archived. If you want to bring rigor to your research, this is the class for you. 

This class is a project based class and we encourage students to come with a particular project in mind that they can use to test, explore, and build on as part of their coursework. All lessons will include a practical component. 

Mandy and Byron are both highly skilled OSINT researchers able to support your learning and help you level up as a researcher. 

Note: This class is intended for community members and is not open to law enforcement or intelligence professionals.

Course Outline

Week 1 Ethics, OPSEC, and Self-Care
This week will include a discussion of the ethics of OSINT and community investigations, operational security best practices, and how to look after yourself and your own well-being when doing this work.

Week 2 Recordkeeping and Coding
Need some idea about to organise your work and bring some order to the chaos of your notes and findings? This week will cover some techniques, best practices, and tools you can use to help to keep all that juicy data safe and findable when you need it again.

Week 3 OSINT Tools
We will explore a range of popular and useful tools to help you get the most out of the internet and the digital tools available for locating, organising, and analysing your research.

Week 4 Social Media
Social media can be highly valuable to citizen journalists and researchers--but searching it to find what you need can be a challenge. This week will focus on how to gather social media data, what tools exist for information gathering, and some tools that have already done the work for you.

Week 5 Government Information
Depending on the enrolment of the class we will focus on either the US, New Zealand, or both. Learn about what information the government collects and makes available, how to do FOIA and/or OIA requests, and where to find agency specific and legislation specific information.

Week 6 Corporate Information
Finding information on corporations, their financial information, and their governance structures can be challenging. This session will walk you through how to find what's easy, how to find what's hard, and what maybe can't be found at all--which will save you time and frustration.