The Australian Internet Observatory has conducted a public webinar on doing Digital Platform research using our infrastructure, presenting current progress and emerging directions in its development of national research infrastructure for digital platform data.
The webinar provides a detailed overview of AIO’s evolving data donation tools and research capabilities, designed to support rigorous, ethical and reproducible research into digital platforms. It highlights methodological considerations underpinning data donation approaches, including issues of consent, data governance and interoperability across research domains.
In this presentation AIO partner leads, Prof Dan Angus and Prof Nic Carah and AIO Engagement Lead, Dr Amanda Lawrence, provide:
- An overview of the digital platform research challenge
- How AIO supports new data collection methods for digital platforms such as data donations methods
- How these methods can be combined with other approaches for critical insights on a range of topics Q&A
- Discussion on how AIO can support your research and methods
Particular attention is given to how AIO is enabling cross-disciplinary inquiry, supporting researchers working across Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS), as well as health, environmental science and information and communication technology. The webinar outlines the technical architecture being developed to facilitate scalable data collection while maintaining privacy-preserving safeguards aligned with national and institutional requirements.
The presentation also reflects on lessons learned to date, including challenges in participant recruitment, data standardisation and platform variability. These insights are positioned as critical to refining both the infrastructure and the associated research methodologies.
Importantly, the webinar situates AIO within the broader Australian and international research ecosystem, emphasising its role in strengthening sovereign capability in digital platform research. It also outlines planned enhancements to tooling, user workflows and analytical capacity, signalling a forward-looking agenda responsive to community needs.
Researchers and stakeholders engaged in digital methods, computational social science and platform governance are encouraged to view the webinar to gain a comprehensive understanding of AIO’s current trajectory and opportunities for engagement.
