We’ve reached our full capacity for the inaugural Open Source Journalism Conference.

Open source journalism has made enormous strides and contributed to multiple Pulitzer Prizes, yet there has been no major conference solely dedicated to convening journalists, engineers, architects, researchers, and other contributors to share best practices, debate ethical issues, build relationships, and advance a field with enormous potential for uncovering vital facts about the world.

Join us in Los Angeles on February 7 and 8, 2025, where the University of Southern California (USC) Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism and the Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkeley will host the inaugural Open Source Journalism Conference to advance the field.

A keynote will be given by Christo Grozev, an expert in using open source methods to investigate authoritarian regimes and the lead investigator on the team that identified the Russian agents who poisoned Alexei Navalny. We’ll soon announce other speakers and lay out the full conference program on this website.

Stay connected by following us on social media for the latest updates.

Many news organizations desperately want to dive into this critical form of reporting but lack the technical know-how. In response, this conference is for seasoned experts and raw novices. The conference will offer a training track so that newbie open source journalists can return to their newsrooms with skills they can apply right away. 

For experts, there are talks and debates by some of the leading practitioners in the field.

A key theme will be new frontiers for open source journalism, in which speakers explore areas where open source fact finding has been underutilized but could be deployed for incredible impact.

We’re grateful to the lead sponsor of the conference, the Google News Initiative, and to our co-sponsors CNN, Crankstart, and the Western Wind Foundation.

We have a limited number of rooms available for a discounted rate of $219 per night — book your room at the USC Hotel here.

Worried that you can’t afford to travel to LA? We also have a limited number of $1,000 travel stipends available for students and working journalists from smaller outlets or those catering to underserved communities.

Applications for travel stipends are now open! Click here to apply or on the “Travel” tab at the top of this page.

We want your ideas on what panels the conference should feature! When you register, there is a place for you to suggest ideas, or you can write us at opensourceconference2025@gmail.com. Either way, we can’t wait to hear your suggestions.

See you in LA this February!