Australian Internet Observatory

The Challenge

Websites and digital platforms shape our online experiences and behaviours and play a critical role in almost every aspect of Australia’s economy and society. However, our capacities to collect and analyse data from these digital platforms and observe their activities are still very limited.

The Response

To address the digital transformation challenge, the Australian Internet Observatory will enable researchers across HASS and STEM, as well as government, industry and civil society, to observe, analyse, understand and respond to the benefits and the dangers of digital platforms. 

The Australian Internet Observatory will provide access to large-scale social, economic and cultural data and the analytical tools and governance required to support cutting-edge research on social, economic, health and environmental issues. 

By developing a range of new tools and approaches for digital social data and internet research, the Australian Internet Observatory will create an interconnected ecosystem of people, data and tools united through shared technical standards, distributed technical systems, purposefully aligned governance structures and processes, shared open-source tools, and cross-provision of training.

“With the support of the ARDC, 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. It requires a collaborative, co-operative effort.”

Distinguished Professor Julian Thomas, AIO Program Lead and Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision Making and Society (ADM+S)

Who Will Benefit

• researchers at university research centres and institutes and research organisations including:
  • ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making + Society (ADM+S)
  • ARC Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child
  • Digital Ethnography Research Centre (RMIT), Digital Cultures & Societies (UQ)
  • Digital Media Research Centre (QUT)
  • Social Innovation Research Institute (Swinburne) and the Centre for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning (Deakin)
  • Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation (Deakin)
  • Centre for Resilient and Inclusive Societies (Deakin)
  • Academic Centre of Cyber Security Excellence (UoM)
  • Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Ethics (UoM)
  • Cybernetics Institute (ANU). 
• federal and state government departments and agencies
• civil society organisations concerned with online safety including: ACCAN, Humanitech, Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE), community organisations collecting online hate data (such as Asian Australian Alliance, Call it out, Executive Council of Australian Jewry and Islamophobia Register Australia) 
• corporates in the technology and internet sectors
• media organisations
• GLAM Institutions and research infrastructure facilities and user groups

The Partners

• ARDC
• RMIT University (lead)
• QUT
• University of Queensland
• University of Melbourne
• Swinburne University
• Deakin University

Target Outcomes

The project will produce: 

• data governance frameworks and implementation plans 
• ethical and legal frameworks and guides for working with crowdsourcing methods and social data
• a national research training program
• citizen science data donation program
• an integrated suite of data sourcing and data donation tools including browser extensions, data donation packages and APIs
• generative AI models to create synthetic platform data
• test environments and simulation tools
• an integrated suite of open source machine learning tools and data visualisations.

Expected longer-term outcomes for the wider community include improvements to informed decision-making and public policy, democratisation and participation in the digital sphere, and public debate, improved digital capabilities and inclusion, and greater digital platform accountability and transparency.

Key Resources

• Visit the Australian Internet Observatory
• Read the final project plan for the Australian Internet Observatory
• Read the Response to Project Plan Feedback for the Australian Internet Observatory.