The Town Crier – Debut Edition
Hear Ye! Hear Ye!
Welcome to the first instalment of The Town Crier, the mouthpiece of our new initiative, The Centre of the Public Square, which we launched in late 2023 with Per Capita.
As the name implies, The Centre’s focus is on building platforms for better public discussions about the issues that impact us as citizens.
It starts by calling out how the global digital platforms are distorting public discourses to meet their own exploitative business models in a way that is undermining trust in public institutions and dividing citizens into angry tribes.
But this project goes deeper than pure critique, by piloting new ways to create better civic experiences for citizens who want to engage in their communities and build the countervailing power our system so desperately needs.
These are big ideas. But the focus of the Centre is to break them into simple chunks, experimenting with new models and hypothesis, while casing a critical eye on new technology and government’s policy responses.
Most importantly, we want to make this a fun experience for those who want to be involved – giving you the opportunity to participate in lively but respectful public debates where you feel seen, heard and valued.
The Town Crier will be an anchor for this work, giving you access to the latest events, policy debates and ideas in a fortnightly email.
Burning Platforms
Burning Platforms is our fortnightly public discussion, looking at the politics of technology. It was a project we started during the pandemic and has been running, first as a zoom and then as a webinar.
Over the coming months we plan to make Burning Platforms a live stream where the audience guides the action, but while we build that audience we are recording as a straight panel discussion.
Our first Burning Platforms of 2024 finds the regular panel of myself, Digital Rights Watch chair Lizzie O’Shea and Health Engine CEO Dan Stinton ask some big questions:
· Are Doxxing laws our best chance at privacy reform? Lizzie weighs up the merits of the Albanese Government’s push to introduce special legislation to outlaw the malicious publication of personal information in the context of broader reforms.
· Will Open AI’s Sora save the media or kill it? Dan makes the case that AI generated video might, perversely, reinforce the need for trusted reality gatekeepers.
· Is LinkedIn Our Last Chance Saloon? I wonder whether I need to initially embrace the sewer of politeness that is the last platform standing.
We also dive deep with Australian academic Dr Nick Suzor about his bizarre journey from academic critic to member of the Meta Oversight Board.
You listen to the latest Burning Platforms here.
You can watch the latest Burning Platforms here.
Policy Update
Part of creating better digital experiences involves holding to account the digital platforms and government policy which manages this space. Recent policy updates include:
· Meta won’t renew News Media Bargaining Code deals - Meta confirmed they won’t be renewing deals done under the code, worth approx. $200 million going to newsrooms: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-01/meta-won-t-renew-deal-with-australian-news-media/103533874
· Government endorses ‘world first’ cyber security guidelines - After a string of national cyber incidents, the government endorses new governance guidelines that hold Australian directors to account: https://www.aicd.com.au/content/dam/aicd/pdf/news-media/research/2024/governing-through-a-cyber-crisis-280324.pdf
· New child safety standards met with resistance - The eSafety commission’s new child safety standards for detecting child abuse material resisted by tech companies who say it will make it more difficult: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/feb/29/australia-ai-safety-security-laws-microsoft-chatgpt
Worth Clicking
Amy Denmeade does the work no algorithm has the capacity to do and identifies the pearls of wisdom from the sea of noise around technology.
· When Two Bros Go to War – Elon Musk is suing Sam Altman and Open AI for pursuing profits instead of the non-profit’s founding mission to develop AI that benefits humanity: https://techcrunch.com/2024/03/01/elon-musk-openai-sam-altman-court/
· Data Dis-trust – a new study from Uni of NSW’s Consumer Policy Research Centre reinforces the need for privacy reform: https://cprc.org.au/report/singled-out
· Can platforms be democratic? A new paper from the Lowy Institute argues for new deliberative models of platform democracy - https://www.lowyinstitute.org/publications/overcoming-digital-threats-democracy
· Proof of the Pudding - The Mark Up’s Julie Angwin launches a new media venture - https://www.proofnews.org/a-letter-from-our-founder/
Spread the Word!
If you know others who would be interested feel free to pass this newsletter on – they can join the Centre of the Public Square by clicking here.
