The Australian Internet Observatory (AIO) is a new initiative for landmark National Research Infrastructure that would provide the tools and capabilities to gather and analyse online user experience data, algorithms and interactions, making social data dramatically more useable for Australian researchers—across universities, government, industry and civil society.

The next decade will see a new wave of digital transformation and many challenges in the way data, communication and digital platforms operate. Large-scale online data has the potential to substantially contribute to the capacity of business, government and the community to understand and address Australia’s major social, economic and public policy challenges.

There is now a global network of activities, goods and services that are enabled by information and communications technologies, such as social media, artificial intelligence and e-commerce, which impact almost every part of Australia’s economy and society. Currently the tech sector contributes $122 billion to Australia’s GDP, representing 6.6% of the economy however without dedicated investment in national research infrastructure (NRI) we risk falling behind in research and innovation with emerging technologies.

Despite the vast quantities of social data now circulating, our capacities to analyse large-scale social data are still very limited. There is also a need to develop new skills in digital research and data analysis among researchers in Australia.

Australia’s NRI 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.