Media(ted) Data Co-Design Workshops

About the Event

The Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) invites the research community to join workshops to co-design a national research infrastructure program that will support researchers to use and analyse social data.

The new program is part of the ARDC’s HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons, which is establishing long-term, enduring national digital research infrastructure to support researchers to harness research data to enhance Australian social and cultural wellbeing, and help understand and preserve our culture, history and heritage.

Last year, the HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons was awarded $25 million from the Australian Government’s 2023 National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) Funding Round, which is in addition to the the $8.9 million received from NCRIS to establish the HASS and Indigenous RDC, which was launched in 2021.

The new funding from the Australian Government will be invested through the ARDC’s co-design and co-investment approach to building digital research infrastructure. 

In this workshop, we seek input from the HASS and Indigenous research community to co-design the programs and projects that will meet the digital infrastructure needs of researchers now and in the future.

The HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons is committed to enabling capable people, effective institutions, innovative technology, relevant data and collaborative governance with the aim of elevating research capability in the HASS and Indigenous research sectors.

About the media(ted) data research infrastructure program

The program will provide the skills and training needed for a new generation of researchers across all disciplines to use and analyse social data, providing real-time understanding of diverse contexts and complex social, cultural and economic issues.

Social data is publicly available data shared by social media users, including their location, language and the content shared.

A national system for curating and analysing social and human behaviour data from diverse sources aligns with the commitment of the HASS&I RDC to enable capable people, effective institutions, innovative technology, relevant data and collaborative governance with the aim of elevating research capability in the HASS and Indigenous research sectors.

This new program does not intend to start from scratch. It is based on the proposal for the Australian Social Data Observatory and incorporates existing research infrastructures including the Australian Digital Observatory and partnerships with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making + Society, the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child and the US National Internet Observatory.

The ARDC’s co-design process for developing national research infrastructure

We seek to develop infrastructure that creates the greatest impact for research and researchers by co-designing that infrastructure with the people who will benefit from it. Co-design will involve a wide range of stakeholders with different experience and expertise. Our aim is to include all the perspectives necessary to allow a consideration of specific researcher needs, balanced by relative needs and priorities, and what is practically possible to address.

We will be holding 2 open co-design workshops to better understand the current challenges around using and analysing publicly available social media data. We will discuss the investment opportunity that ARDC has identified, with the aim of learning: 

• what outcomes and developments would be of most benefit 
• what will be both valuable and feasible
• how our investments can align with other activity in the sector. 

Workshop participants are expected to actively participate in discussions. We encourage participants to attend both workshops if possible. A summary of the discussions will be made available after each workshop. 

The process we will follow is described in the HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons Co-Design Framework, and is based on established methods such as the TACSI Co-Design Framework. Development of our co-investment activities will follow these steps: 

1. Problem Identification
2. Project Shaping
3. Project Planning
4. Endorsement. 

The Problem Identification and Project Shaping phases will be conducted through open co-design workshops. We will seek community feedback on the draft project plan, and the final plan will be reviewed by the HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons Advisory Panel prior to endorsement.

The planned work will be delivered as a contracted co-investment activity. The ARDC will enter into a single 4-year contract with the lead organisation, who will sub-contract external partner organisations on the project team as required.

Who will be speaking?

• Jenny Fewster, Director, HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons, ARDC
• Professor Julian Thomas, Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, and a Distinguished Professor in the School of Media and Communication at RMIT University
• Professor Jean Burgess, Professor of Digital Media in the Digital Media Research Centre and School of Communication, QUT, and Associate Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society

Who should attend?

• HASS and Indigenous research community, including academics, researchers and citizen scientists, particularly those involved in data-driven research
• researchers using social data from all disciplines
• senior decision makers at research, GLAM and Indigenous institutions, industry and NGOs
• those who collect and manage data for use by research
• research infrastructure providers and digital skills trainers

What participants will gain from the session? 

• Learn about the program and partnership opportunities
• Contribute your use cases and experience to shape the development of infrastructure for social data research

Join more ARDC co-design workshops

This program is one of a series of co-design workshops we’re running in February 2024 for the HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons.

Please also consider registering for:

• Creative arts
• Improving Indigenous Research Capabilities
• Language Data Commons of Australia

Further ARDC resources

• HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons
• Resources for HASS and Indigenous research

Will the session be recorded?

Yes, the session will be recorded, provided to all registrants and published online.

Have questions?

Email [email protected]

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Please note that this event may be recorded and published by the ARDC. This may include your contributions during the session. ARDC respects the privacy of individuals. Information collected is in accordance with the ARDC Privacy Policy.

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