Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC)’s Post

Super excited to be part of this collaboration! This research infrastructure piece supports the CoE work and will extend our data and AI capabilities. Specifically, it will establish tools and processes to help researchers study the impact of automated systems that underpin the major digital platforms (social media, digital services and more) and monitor their role in shaping flows of information and communication. The aim is to empower researchers with the tools and methods desperately needed to study the social impact of digital platforms and draw on them to understand and solve social problems.  There will be a lot of applications to explore - from mis- and dis-information, to public health communication and awareness, and the flow of information during emergency and crisis events. Essentially this will help us gather the data to hold digital platforms to account and leverage social data for public good. Part of the work will be establishing methods for leveraging synthetic data with Large Language Models. And supporting all of the work is an ethics and governance package that will help to scrutinise the ethical and social implications of the way digital platform data is underpinning AI model development. Swinburne University of Technology   

Announced today, the Australian Internet Observatory (AIO) is a major new research infrastructure initiative that will open up the ‘black box’ of digital platforms and their algorithms. Digital platforms play a critical role in Australia’s economy and society, yet our capacities to collect and analyse data from digital platforms and observe their activities is very limited.  The Australian Internet Observatory will develop the tools and capabilities required to gather and analyse online user experience data, algorithms, and interactions. It will support innovative approaches to the collection and analysis of digital social data and internet platforms and the analytical tools and governance required to support cutting-edge research on social, economic, health and environmental issues. Distinguished Professor Julian Thomas, AIO Program Lead and Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision Making and Society (ADM+S) said, “over the last decade there’s been a dramatic transformation in how Australians use digital platforms, how they interact with automated systems and the digital economy, and how they communicate with machines and each other. Every day, we are now using more platforms, more intensively, for a wider range of activities.” “But as researchers we’ve had very little visibility of how digital platforms work.” The Australian Internet Observatory comprises a range of new tools which give researchers visibility for the first time, over how people use critical services every day such as search engines, social media, video on demand services, messaging systems, and other digital services. “We realised that there was a real need for new research infrastructure when we were developing some of our projects in the ADM+S Centre. “We were interested in particular problems, such as the kinds of ads Australians see when they use online platforms, and the lack of regulatory oversight in areas such as gambling, alcohol, or unhealthy foods We knew that there were few reliable or accurate tools for gathering that kind of information, and that better tools would be useful for many researchers. “With the support of the Australian Research Data Commons, the Australian Internet Observatory brings together a group of researchers and universities with the capabilities to assemble the necessary techniques and systems. It’s not a problem that can be solved within any one discipline or research centre."

New Publication Alert Since the advent of the internet on January 1, 1983, people from all over the world have had the chance to communicate without the constraints of earlier times. This is largely because established methods of communication have evolved. Despite the advantages of the internet, many people around the world are still unable to access and effectively utilize it due to issues like poor infrastructure and the high cost of data subscriptions. Scholars and professionals are still battling issues like the digital divide and inequalities several years after the internet was first created. The 15 West African countries are a part of the Global South’s countries that have experienced and continue to experience digital inequality and divide. Numerous scholars have studied these difficulties; however, none of the studies has specifically constructed big panel datasets using public search queries from Google Trends considering relevant constructs or elements of information-seeking, cultural dimensions and reasoned action and planned behaviour theories. Analysis suggests that how people use the 5Ws and H as search techniques when using search engines, particularly Google, depends on the national values and norms of each country as well as socio-economic and political factors. The countries colonised by the French and the ones colonised by the British differed significantly from one another. According to our study, the ongoing digital gap and inequality in West African countries are caused by a variety of factors, including varying cultural characteristics and informational demands, in addition to poor infrastructure and expensive access to digital platforms. The study also proposes a digital and information seeking cultural discourse (DISCD) framework, owing to the empirical evidence that emerged from the critical linkage that exists between the adopted theories and the cultural discourse studies framework, for further understanding of culture-driven information-seeking and use in other African regions and countries in the Global South. Alexandra Tchomte Rasheed Adebiyi, PhD, arpa Nnamdi Madichie

The Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) has launched the Australian Internet Observatory (AIO), a major new #research facility that will open the ‘black box’ of digital platforms and their algorithms so we can better understand how people use search engines, social media, messaging systems, and other digital services. AIO Program Lead and Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society (ADM+S), RMIT Distinguished Professor Julian Thomas, said digital platforms play a critical role in Australia’s economy and society, yet our capacities to collect and analyse data from digital platforms and observe their activities is very limited. “Over the past decade, there’s been a dramatic transformation in how Australians use digital platforms, how they interact with the automated systems and the digital economy, and how they communicate with machines and each other,” he said.  “Every day, we are now using more platforms, more intensively, for a wider range of activities. But as researchers we’ve had very little visibility of how digital platforms work.” The initiative supports innovative approaches to the collection and analysis of digital social data and internet platforms and the analytical tools and governance required to support cutting-edge research on social, economic, health and environmental issues. The AIO is an initiative of the ADM+S Centre and led by RMIT University in partnership with Swinburne University of Technology, The University of Queensland, QUT (Queensland University of Technology), University of Melbourne and Deakin University, enabled by the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS). Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gV7XavK3 Amanda Lawrence

Five Key Takeaways from This Week's Open Source Media Summary The Biden administration is making a significant shift in its approach to China, placing a strong emphasis on maintaining the United States' technological superiority over China. This strategic move involves a vigorous push for industrial policy, with semiconductors at the forefront of this endeavor. There is a mounting alarm over the practices of social media giants, such as TikTok, in harvesting personal data. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner has officially confirmed that TikTok gathers personal information about internet users as they navigate the web, raising serious privacy and security concerns. The Dutch right-wing coalition platform has put forth proposals that could potentially undermine research funding schemes, curtail research spending, and reduce the influx of international students in the Netherlands. This move has sparked concerns among experts who fear it could stifle higher education innovation and internationalization. China's Ministry of Education has recently approved a limited list of joint university projects with foreign institutions, marking the end of a nearly year-long hiatus. Among the notable approvals is the City University of Hong Kong branch campus in Dongguan. This approval is significant as it signals a renewed openness to foreign university projects in China, with the branch campus set to offer primarily engineering and computer science degrees. Concerns about national security and intellectual property (IP) are intensifying, particularly with cases like Terves vs. Chinese entities. This case highlights foreign entities' potential exploitation of IP challenges and the need for robust protective measures. You can read the entire Open Source Media Summary here: https://lnkd.in/gkz6pPi7

Academics want to set up an African alliance for data access. The European Union has led on legislation addressing restrictions on equitable access to social media platforms for #researchers seeking to use their data to research potential risks of #socialmedia use. But the potential systemic #risks posed by social media platforms are not restricted to the EU. Now academics are seeking ways to secure similar measures in Africa, reports Douglas A. Parry. Without fair and direct access to this data, important questions about individuals and society will remain unanswered. #highered #onlinesafety #accesstodata South African Journal of Science European Commission Stellenbosch University

We're pleased to announce the publication of findings from our EU Media Literacy Policy Study! Carried out between September 2023 and July 2024, this programme of work involved:   🔍 Mapping and reviewing policies supporting media literacy at EU and country levels, with deep dives in the UK, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Romania and Spain. 🎓 Providing insights from Europe’s diverse media literacy initiatives, including those supported by Google, Google.org, and YouTube. 🚀 Assessing the implications of emerging technologies, such as Generative AI. We would like to thank Google for commissioning the work, and our expert advisers at LSE’s Department of Media and Communications for their support and guidance throughout. The full set of findings, including research reports, policy briefs and a children and young people’s summary are now available for download at: https://lnkd.in/eNvsMh3b Join us for a webinar to explore the findings with the study team, on Thursday 16th January 2025, from 14:00-15:00 CET. Register here: https://lnkd.in/ex5XGHms #MediaLiteracy #Europe #Google #LSE

ARTICLE 19 is thrilled to welcome Dr Corinne Cath, PhD as they take on the role of our new Head of Global Team Digital. Corinne is a cultural anthropologist whose work focuses on internet infrastructure and technology policy. Over the past decade, they have worked across academia, civil society, grantmaking, and government to develop a public interest vision for tech rooted in social justice and human rights. Corinne is especially interested in understanding how Big Tech is gaining power through control of key digital infrastructures, including cloud computing, networks, standards, and operating software. ‘In the digital age, human rights can only be protected when we engage with how they'recoded, clouded, and connected,’ Corinne says. With a personal interest in bridging the divide between academics and tech practitioners,Corinne will lead ARTICLE 19’s work on ensuring digital spaces, governance, services and technologies are rooted in human rights and enable a more equitable and sustainable (digital) world. Corinne previously worked as the Vice President of Research at the Open Technology Fund, and as a policy advisor for the US House of Representatives. They graduated from the Oxford Internet Institute’s PhD programme, with a focus on civil society engagement ininternet governance. Corinne is also an ARTICLE 19 alumnus, having been part of the original Global Team Digital that pioneered our groundbreaking work on digital governanceand internet infrastructure.

The Future of the Internet: A Concise Analysis

The Future of the Internet: A Concise Analysis