Citizen consultation from above and below : the Australian perspective

Citizen engagement and e‐government initiatives in Australia remain somewhat underdeveloped, not least for a number of fundamental structural reasons. Fledgling initiatives can be divided into a number of broad categories, including top‐down government consultation through blogs and similar experimental online sites operated by government departments; bottom‐up NGO‐driven watchdog initiatives such as GetUp!’s Project Democracy site, modelled on projects established in the UK; and a variety of more or less successful attempts by politicians (and their media handlers) to utilise social networking tools to connect with constituents while bypassing the mainstream media. This chapter explores these initiatives, and discusses the varying levels of success which they have found to date.

Exploring the Pro‐Am interface between production and produsage

This conference celebrates the passing of 40 years since the establishment of the Internet (dating this, presumably, to the first connection between two nodes on ARPANET in October 1969). For a gathering of media scholars such as this, however, it may be just as important not only to mark the first testing of the core technologies upon which much of our present‐day Net continues to build, but also to reflect on another recent milestone: the 20th anniversary of what is today arguably the chief interface through which billions around the world access and experience the Internet – the World Wide Web, launched by Tim Berners‐Lee in 1989.

Doing social media : some fundamental principles

Facebook has clocked up some 400 million registered users worldwide; Twitter has just reached the 100 million mark. Within these communities, Australians appear to be particularly active: we lead the world by spending nearly eight hours per month using social media. These figures highlight the fact that for most businesses, social media are now important for engaging with customers.

Mapping the Australian networked public sphere

This article reports on a research program that has developed new methodologies for mapping the Australian blogosphere and tracking how information is disseminated across it. The authors improve on conventional web crawling methodologies in a number of significant ways: First, the authors track blogging activity as it occurs, by scraping new blog posts when such posts are announced through Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds. Second, the authors use custom-made tools that distinguish between the different types of content and thus allow us to analyze only the salient discursive content provided by bloggers. Finally, the authors are able to examine these better quality data using both link network mapping and textual analysis tools, to produce both cumulative longer term maps of interlinkages and themes, and specific shorter term snapshots of current activity that indicate current clusters of heavy interlinkage and highlight their key themes. In this article, the authors discuss findings from a yearlong observation of the Australian political blogosphere, suggesting that Australian political bloggers consistently address current affairs, but interpret them differently from mainstream news outlets. The article also discusses the next stage of the project, which extends this approach to an examination of other social networks used by Australians, including Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr. This adaptation of our methodology moves away from narrow models of political communication, and toward an investigation of everyday and popular communication, providing a more inclusive and detailed picture of the Australian networked public sphere.

The probability archive : from essence to uncertainty in the growth of knowledge

From a ‘cultural science’ perspective, this paper traces one aspect of a more general shift, from the realist representational regime of modernity to the productive DIY systems of the internet era. It argues that collecting and archiving is transformed by this change. Modern museums – and also broadcast television – were based on determinist or ‘essence’ theory; while internet archives like YouTube (and the internet as an archive) are based on ‘probability’ theory. The paper goes through the differences between modernist ‘essence’ and postmodern ‘probability’; starting from the obvious difference that in a museum each object is selected by experts for its intrinsic properties, while on the internet you don’t know what you will find. The status of individual objects is uncertain, although the productivity of the overall archive is unlimited. The paper links these differences with changes in contemporary culture – from a Newtonian to a quantum universe, progress to risk, institutional structure to evolutionary change, objectivity to uncertainty, identity to performance. Borrowing some of its methodology from science fiction, the paper uses examples from museums and online archives, ranging from the oldest stone tool in the world to the latest tribute vid on the net.

Imperception? Dreamtime 2.0 Down Under

The Northern Hemisphere slumbers, dreaming that – one day – it is going to split up its empire, before the seas boil and the towers collapse. During this same dark night, Australia is wide awake, chirpy as a Canadian, strapping as a Bondi blonde, having an election...

Grown-Up Government: Bindi for Prime Minister! (Or President!).

Last week I called the Australian federal campaign the Inception election. As we lurch toward voting day on August 21, reality has tried to kick in, but to little avail. The two leaders, Prime Minister Julia Gillard (Labor) and challenger Tony Abbott (Liberal), both of whom recently toppled their predecessors in party-room coups, are now frantically searching for their own identity. And that’s what the election itself is increasingly about. Even though both have substantial track records as ministers, they are untried as national leaders. The real conundrum of the campaign – for them, if not for voters – is: Who the heck are these people?

Social network markets and 'public thought'

This paper approaches its topic in a somewhat crabwise manner, but hopefully by that means it may succeed in reaching its objective without being eaten alive. It comprises a critique of a recent internet post called ‘The Shock of Inclusion’ by Clay Shirky (his contribution to The Edge World Question of 2010), in which he claims (among other things) that ‘the average quality of public thought has collapsed.’

Studying creative industries?

The ‘creative industries’ idea does not belong to anyone, and its orphan status in the disciplinary family has been one of its continuing problems. No existing science developed a theory that could then be tested, using formal hypotheses, experiments, fieldwork, data-analysis and the like.

Creative industry and world city construction : Beijing as a creative world city

The study of the creative industries is not much more than a decade old. What makes it fascinating is that it is dealing with a rapidly evolving process, where a good deal of Schumpeterian ‘creative destruction’ – of old industries, business models, and some familiar cultural and creative pursuits – can already be observed. What happens next – and who will be the winner – is hard to predict. Furthermore, the creative industries encompass both large-scale ‘industry’ (media, publishing, digital applications) and individual creative talent; both economic and cultural values, and both global reach and local context. Thus, the challenge is to integrate ‘top-down’ policy and planning with ‘bottom-up’ experimentation and innovation. There is always the promise that this new creative ecology will provide some novel answers to problems of wealth-creation for emergent economies, new solutions to problems of intellectual emancipation for individuals, and sustainable development for that most intense incubator of creative ideas, the city.

Creativity as emergence : policy issues for creative cities

The creative industries concept was born in the UK, nurtured in Australia (among other countries), but is now being implemented most vigorously in China. The UK and Australia seem to be pulling back from the concept: • Critical response to CI policy in the UK; and post-GFC cutbacks limit scope for government action. • Australia relies on the resources boom; even though recent WIPO report puts Australian ‘copyright industries’ at over 10 percent of GDP (second only to the USA at 11%). Not surprisingly the USA remains happy with the term ‘copyright industries.’ This faltering policy environment in advanced countries may work to their own longer-term economic detriment. The creative industries’ transformative impact on the global economy may come instead from China.

Digital storytelling around the world

‘Digital storytelling’ is a workshop-based practice in which ‘ordinary’ people are taught to use digital media to create short audio-video stories, usually about their own lives. The idea is that this puts the universal human delight in narrative and self expression into the hands of everyone in the digital age; and potentially brings individual experience, ideas, creativity and imagination to the attention of the whole world. It gives a voice to the myriad tales of everyday life as experienced by ordinary people in their own terms. Despite its use of the latest technologies, its purpose is simple and human.