ACS Statement on Social Media Ban

The Australian Computer Society has issued a statement on the Australian social media ban for children under 16. Among other luminaries I get quoted:

"We should be looking at how AI can help create kid-friendly alternatives. If kids are suddenly forced to go cold turkey, we’re risking some pretty severe mental health consequences. Overnight they lose their main way of connecting with friends, and for many young people that’s the only social connection they have. We could actually end up making things worse. There’s a real opportunity here to partner with tech companies to build a safer alternative, instead of cutting them off completely."

The ban has, surprisingly, effected me personally. Today, on the day the ban took effect, BlueSky has told me I have to verify my age. Presumably this is due to the Australian social media ban for under 16 year olds. This is not entirely clear as the notice (below) refers to verifying I am adult, and 16 year olds are not adults. I can read, but not post, until I do. 

I have not been that impressed with the quality of discussion in Bluesky, not because it has kid-unfriendly material, but is a sort of "X for Democrats", full of US political material. I can do without Bluesky, so for the moment will not be age verifying.

The notice: 

'We have partnered with KWS to verify that you’re an adult. When you click "Begin" below, KWS will check if you have previously verified your age using this email address for other games/services powered by KWS technology. If not, KWS will email you instructions for verifying your age. When you’re done, you'll be brought back to continue using Bluesky.This should only take a few minutes.'

Socializing Indonesian Terrorists

The "Digital Indonesia" conference concluded today at the Australian National University in Canberra. The standout presentation today was Nava Nuraniyah from the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict on "Online extremism: the advent of private chat groups and its policy implications". Terrorism is a serious business, but those frequenting extremist chat groups also share interests with the rest of us, including gossip, recipes and shopping.

Digital Indonesia

Greetings from the Australian National University in Canberra, where the Vice Chancellor opened the "Digital Indonesia" conference (being live streamed). The first presentation by Eve Warburton (ANU) is giving a detailed forensic analysis of corruption and incompetence of Indonesia's politicians. It will be interesting to see how the Indonesian delegates react to this.


Program
Day 1, Friday 16 September
 
8.30am Registration
9am Welcoming remarks: Vice-Chancellor Brian Schmidt, The Australian National University
 
POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC UPDATE
 
9.05am Political update
Chair: Greg Fealy, The Australian National University
Eve Warburton, The Australian National University
Discussant: Bayu Dardias, The Australian National University
 
10.20am Morning tea

10.40am Economic update
Chair: Paul Burke, The Australian National University
Günther Schulze, University of Freiburg
Discussant: Muhamad Chatib Basri, University of Indonesia
 
12pm Lunch

1pm DIGITAL POLITICS AND GOVERNANCE
Chair: Edward Aspinall, The Australian National University
E-governance under the Jokowi administration: political promise or
technocratic vision?, Yanuar Nugroho
Executive Office of the President of the Republic of Indonesia
Digital transparency: the Kawal Pemilu story, Ainun Najib (via video recording), Kawal Pemilu
Digital Indonesia in comparison, John Postill, RMIT University

2pm COMMUNICATIONS INFRASTRUCTURE
Chair: Eleanor Lawson, Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Mobile telephony, Emma Baulch, Queensland University of Technology
Bridging ‘the digital divide’, Onno W Purbo, Surya University
Harnessing new data sources for policy development in Indonesia, Diastika Rahwidiati, Pulse Lab Jakarta
 
3.30pm Afternoon tea

3.50pm DIGITAL HUMANITIES
Chair: Amrih Widodo, The Australian National University
Social media and Islamic practice online/offline
Martin Slama, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Digitalising knowledge: education, libraries, archives
Kathleen Azali, ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute, Hacking culture: between art, technology and science, Edwin Jurriëns, University of Melbourne
 
5.20pm Close of sessions, day one
 
6.30pm Conference dinner

Day 2, Saturday 17 September

9am THE DIGITAL ECONOMY
Chair: Stephen Howes, The Australian National University
Digital economy and Indonesia: a look at the potential of creative destruction and the emerging opportunities, Mari Pangestu, University of Indonesia
The digital economy: a start-up approach, Bede Moore, Lazada Indonesia
The Go-Jek effect, Michele Ford, University of Sydney
 
10.30am Morning tea

11am DIGITAL MEDIA
Chair: Marcus Mietzner, The Australian National University
The media industry, Ross Tapsell, The Australian National University
State crackdowns online, Usman Hamid, The Australian National University

12pm SECURITY
Chair: Ken Setiawan, University of Melbourne
Online extremism: the advent of private chat groups and its policy implications, Nava Nuraniyah, Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict
Cybersecurity, Budi Rahardjo, Bandung Institute of Technology
 
1pm Lunch


2pm End of conference

Bridging the Digital Divide in Indonesia

Onno Purbo, from STKIP Surya (Indonesia) will speak on "Bridging the 'digital divide' in Indonesia", at the Australian National University in Canberra, 12:30 pm, 29 June 2016:

"Indonesia's internet penetration is only around 20%, far below other countries in Southeast Asia including Malaysia (68%), Vietnam (52%) and the Philippines (44%). This presentation will review the predicament Indonesia faces, which is poor Internet access to rural areas and villages. For many years, the Indonesian government has tried to rectify this problem. In this presentation I will examine 'top-down' government approaches, as well as 'bottom up' community-based self-financing approaches. ...

I will argue that the simplest option to increase internet penetration in Indonesia is to improve the empowerment processes of citizens, and conduct larger surveys before infrastructure deployment is implemented by the government. This is essential to ensure that future 'top-down' policies do not follow the path of their predecessors." From "Bridging the 'digital divide' in Indonesia", Onno Purbo.

For more on Onno Purbo, see "We need to cultivate human capacity, Onno" by Robbie Mitchell, APNIC, 28 Aug 2015

Study of the Chinese Internet

Greetings from the Australian National University in Canberra, where Professor Geremie R Barmé, Director, of the Australian Centre on China in the World, where is is opening "Studying the Chinese Internet" (研究中国互联网／ 研究中國互聯網).  A small group spent yesterday learning social network analysis today, using the free open source NodeXL and VOSON software. Today'ss presentations discuss the results of using such research.

Professor Barmé mentioned an article he co-authored in Wired magazine in 1998, where they coined the term: The Great Firewall of China".

Day 1 (Thursday 31 July) – Small group training in social media analysis

Instructor: Dr Robert Ackland, Guest lecturer: Prof Jonathan Zhu

Day 2 (Friday 1 August) – Research presentations
9.00 Welcome

9.15-10.30 Keynote presentation

“Charting the Landscape of Chinese Social Media: What We Know and What We Don’t Know from Existing Research”, Professor Jonathan Zhu, Web Mining Lab, City University of Hong Kong
中国社会化媒体研究的已知与未知 / 中國社會化媒體研究的已知與未知

Professor Zhu commented that while the Chinese Internet was heavily controlled domestically, the government also allows (and encourages) the companies to be publicly listed on Western stock exchanges. Also he commented that as these companies are listed on sock exchanges, their reported statistics are likely to be accurate, due to strict commercial law (as an example, Weibo has to report more accurate user numbers). However, he said these were less insightful than consultant's analysis and academic papers (which might be less accurate).

Tencent earns most revenue from e-commerce, other leading sites from advertising. China has 632M Internet users, 83% mobile, with a 47% penetration rate (but there may be less than 100M active social media users). Instant messaging is most popular, blogs second most popular (Professor Zhu is sceptical of this figure), then microblogging and BBS. He commented BBS were still a livery source of discussion in China.

Professor Zhu  commented that much of the literature about the Internet in China is based on case studies and is anecdotal, rather than being statistical (what in social science is called "qualitative"). He gave as an example "The Power of the Internet in China: Citizen Activism Online" ( Guobin Yang, 2011). Also he commend that many studies have been by computer scientists and may be unknown to social researchers. Hopefully he has seen my paper. ;-)

Professor Zhu used Hasswell's 5W model of communication to categorise research on Chinese social media. The studies primary dealt with the communicator and audience, not content, media, or effects. The studies showed that media professionals, the elite and government officials are important sources of information on Chinese social media. One interesting finding was that police were early social media users.

What receives less mention are "grassroots" opinion leaders (as they are usually anonymous), e-marketeers and foreign individuals and entities.What was not mentioned was what role government entities marketing as something else play. The DARPA is studying Social Media in Strategic Communication (SMISC). In terms of content,

Professor Zhu said the conventional view shown in research was the contentious nature of the content and the strong censorship presence by government. But he commented most social media is used for entertainment not political comment and it is not clear how much censorship is self-censorship. He commented that some early research showed that 20% of posts were jokes, whereas only 3% were political commentary.

In terms of media, Weibo has been compared with Twitter in many academic studies.However, other platforms have not been studied, even though they are at least as popular as Weibo (but harder to get data about).

Professor Zhu pointed out that most researchers concentrate on the active users, who are probably only 12% to 20% of Chinese Internet users. He said this impacted on the ultimate question about the Internet in China: what effect does it have?

10.30-11.00 Morning tea

11.00-12.30 Paper session 1

“A Web Analysis of HIV Information Delivery in China”, Dr Robert Ackland, Australian National
University and Dr Jiaying Zhao, Australian National University
爱滋病信息的传递 :
基于网络的分析 / 愛滋病信息的傳遞 :
基於網絡的分析
“Predicting Depressed Individuals with Suicide Ideation Using Social Media Data”, Jin Han, Australian
National University
微博社交网络抑郁用户识别 / 微博社交網絡抑鬱用戶識別
“Analyzing Events in Chinese Microblogs”, Dr Lexing Xie, Australian National University
社交网络上的新闻事件分析 / 社交網絡上的新聞事件分析

12.30-1.30 Lunch

1.30-3.00 Paper session 2

“Preliminary Analysis of Muslim Networking on the Chinese Web”, Dr Wai Yip Ho, Hong Kong Institute of
Education and Dr Robert Ackland, Australian National University
中国穆斯林网络的初步分析 / 中國穆斯林網絡的初步分析
“Multiple Identity Formation via Social Media by Professional Chinese Immigrants to Australia”, Dr Jerry
Watkins, University of Canberra and Dr Chong Han, University of Western Sydney
社交媒体上的多重身份构建:以澳大利亚中国技术移民为例 /
社交媒體上的多重身份構建:以澳大利亞中國技術移民為例
“Human Flesh Searching in the Greater China Region”, Dr Lennon Chang, City University of Hong Kong
分析大中华地区人肉搜索之现象 / 分析大中華地區人肉搜索之現象

3.00-3.30 Afternoon tea

3.30-4.30 Paper session 3

“Institutional Analysis of Chinese Internet Governance: Some Tentative Thoughts”, Ryan Manuel,
Australian National University
关于互联网体制与管理若干问题的分析 / 關於互聯網體制與管理若干問題的分析

Ryan outlined some of the complexity of China's Internet regulation system. There are multiple ministries involved in Internet regulation, under the central secretariat. He argues that large Internet companies will do well out of this, as they can take much of the cost of the implementation of central censorship requirements off local government. The major Chinese Internet companies have close party connections. It would seem to me that the Chinese system for Internet regulation is an adaptation of the system used for conventional media. In addition to censorship there are state paid posters of material (as well as the "Water Party" commercial Internet PR companies).

“Internet Use in China: Citizens, Consumers, and Social Consumption in Chinese”, Dr Michael J. Jensen, University of Canberra and Wei Si, University of Canberra
因特网在中国的应用 :
公民 ,
消费者与社会消费 / 因特網 在中國的應用:公民,消費者與社會消費

Wei Si described an image based interface for a social media application, changing from something text based (which looked like Facebook to me), improved user acceptance. One thing which occurred to me was how much China's Internet user behaviour was influenced by using a mobile device first. Most Australian users will have used a PC interface for Internet use before moving to a mobile device.

4.30-5.00 Wrap up

: