Project

The Australian Internet Observatory (AIO) is a step-change facility that will support innovative approaches to the collection and analysis of digital social data and internet platforms. It 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.

Key elements of the Australian Internet Observatory

Over four years the project plan aims to deliver:

Data governance frameworks and implementation plans based on NRI Roadmap and linked data principles
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 for text, audio and image generation
Test environments and simulation tools
An integrated suite of open source machine learning tools and data visualisations for analysis and insights

Expected outcomes

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, greater platform accountability and transparency. The Australian Internet Observatory will contribute to key priorities within NCRIS including:

Increased digital skills and capability for researchers across sectors: The Australian Internet Observatory will provide access to new tools and methods and the skills and training needed for a new generation of researchers across all disciplines to use and analyse social data. This will support and enable a new generation of Australian researchers across both HASS and STEM disciplines to gather and analyse mediated data from a range of digital platforms in new ways.
Expand and enhance existing infrastructure and national investments: The Australian Internet Observatory will build on and expand previously funded research infrastructure such as the Digital Observatory and social media collections at GLAM institutions and other partners. It will also make new social data and digital tools available for integration with existing HASS&I RDC streams as well as the ARDC thematic hubs on health and the environment and NCRIS facilities such as AURIN.

The Australian Internet Observatory aligns with many of Australia’s national research and policy priorities, including the Safe and Responsible AI Review, Combating Misinformation and Disinformation Bill, Digital Inclusion Strategy, 2021 NRI Roadmap, Digital Economy Strategy, Australian Data Strategy, National Data Availability and Transparency Act (2022), and the ACCC Digital Platform Services Inquiry 2020-25.

Innovative technology and national capabilities: The Australian Internet Observatory draws on a suite of innovative ‘critical simulation’ methods for collecting and analysing data from digital platforms, such as data donations, synthetic data and crowdsourcing approaches, combined with machine learning, natural language, image processing and other technologies. Australian researchers are at the forefront of experimentation with these approaches which are also being adopted by leading research groups in Europe and the US. It will ensure Australian researchers have access to internationally competitive and innovative tools and distributed platforms to help researchers and communities use, annotate, extend and analyse mediated social data.

A national system for curating and analysing social and human behaviour data from diverse sources will provide a cost-effective response to cross-cutting issues such as the need for system-wide enhancements to NRI including integrated datasets, software analysis tools and platforms, and contribute to national digital research infrastructure (NDRI).

Expanded social data access and collections: Digital platforms, their architecture, algorithms and content are complex and diverse, comprising quantitative, computation, and qualitative data (including structured numeric and text data, text and documents, images, video and audio). The Australian Internet Observatory will support innovative methods for collecting data from digital platforms, such as through data donations, synthetic data and crowdsourcing approaches. This will be combined with state-of-the-art data science to analyse data at scale including machine learning, generative AI, image processing, emulation environments and other technologies.
Collaboration across institutions and sectors: The Australian Internet Observatory is a multi-institutional partnership operating under a distributed governance model. LIke the rest of the HASS&I RDC, we are committed to a community-driven approach to access and governance of Indigenous data, cultural collections, the need for authentication and authorization of research groups and communities, and the pressing need for tools and skills to enable data-intensive humanities and social science research. Australia’s national research infrastructure framework has not yet responded to the major challenge of collecting, analysing and connecting the national social data and analytical tools required to support research on the social, cultural and economic benefits and challenges of digital transformation.