E-monitoring and regime improvement in China

Professor Christian Goebel, Vienna University, will speak on "E-monitoring and regime improvement in China: technical capabilities and systemic limitations", at the Australian National University in Canberra, 4:00pm 10 September 2013.

In 2003 I attended a 3-day conference on the Beijing Olympic 2008 Official Website. I was a guest of the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG). One thing I noticed was how Internet literate the Chinese government people and academics were, including those from the People's Daily newspaper.

ANU China Seminar Series

ANU College of Asia & the Pacific

Australian Centre on China in the World 

E-monitoring and regime improvement in China: technical capabilities and systemic limitations

Information technologies are often regarded as “liberation technologies” (Larry Diamond), because mobile phones and the Internet enable citizens to organize and coordinate resistance against autocratic rule. However, all political systems – democracies and autocracies alike – depend fundamentally on information feedbacks to maintain their equilibrium, and digital technologies greatly facilitate the gathering and processing of such information. The better the information flows between regime and society are, the more political authorities are able to fine-tune their policies in line with the stability requirements of the system.

The “liberation technology” perspective misses that information technologies can also serve to stabilize autocratic regimes, for example by enhancing surveillance, accountability, indoctrination, and participation. It follows that improved information flows can both strengthen and undermine autocratic rule, and the puzzle is how autocratic regime elites deal with this dilemma. China is a good case to study this question, because an increasing number of local governments is applying information technologies to strengthen their “social management” (shehui guanli) capabilities.

The talk contributes to a better understanding of the capabilities and limitations of e-monitoring in China by introducing the results of first-hand research an e-monitoring platform in a Chinese province. It illuminates how information technologies are used to gather information about the preferences and grievances of the local population, how this information is processed, and how it motivates government action. On the other hand, it sheds light on the systemic limitations that prevent such solutions from being implemented more broadly than is presently the case.

About the Speaker

Christian Göbel is Professor of Modern China Studies at Vienna University. His current research projects examine the role of change agents in policy innovation in China and the impact of information technology on the operation of non-democratic regimes. He was trained in Political Science and China Studies in Erlangen, Taipei, Heidelberg and Duisburg. Previous to his appointment to Vienna, he held positions in Lund and Heidelberg. He is the author of "The Politics of Rural Reform in China" (Routledge 2010) and "The Politics of Community Building in Urban China" (Routledge 2011, with Thomas Heberer) and has published widely on topics related to state-society relations and political reform in China and Taiwan. ...

Tabloid, Compact Custom Newspapers

In "Tabloid or compact: who cares?" John Harrison (Online Opinion, 11 March 2013) looks at the change in the size of the printed Fairfax newspapers. As he points out the more significant change is the move to online news. However, the other part of the change is in the production process, with the gradual move to one virtual newsroom producing all the papers for one publisher. With this approach, Fairfax will produce essentially one newspaper, then be customized slightly inserting some local stories for Sydney and Melbourne readers to produce the Herald and Age.

Australian Cultural Policy Development

A National Cultural Policy discussion paper was issued by the Mister for Arts Simon Crean, 11 August 2011. Comment is invited until 21 October 2011. Senator Lundy is conducing an on-line and face-to-face "Digital Culture Public Sphere" to collect input for the policy.

The discussion paper is available as a web site, and in two versions as PDF: 2 Mb PDF and 1 MB PDF Print version. It is not clear why the print version is smaller, nor why it is needed at all. Neither of the PDF documents are well formatted for reading on-line. This is not just a minor quibble, as one issue for national cultural policy is the role of digital media. If the staff administering the Arts portfolio cannot format an electronic document correctly, they may not be equipped to understand how this technology is impacting on Australian cultural industries.

Digital Culture in the Discussion Paper

The paper makes the point that "More than 70 per cent of the Australian population have access to
the internet.", also that:

"Emerging technologies present opportunities for Indigenous communities to use new media to present their art, language and culture to wider audiences and to enable traditional cultural practices to be transmitted to future generations."

Opportunities for Education Industry in Digital Culture

The report also makes the point that Australia has a relatively well educated population and "Australia needs to encompass this audience whose expectations of opportunity and access are sophisticated and high.". However, the report fails to make the point that the relationship between education and cultural content is not one way: cultural materials for education is a multi-billion dollar industry which Australia is well equipped to take part in. As more education moves out of the classroom and onto the Internet the opportunities will increase. Addressing this market will also ensure Australia keeps its international student market and the export income they provide.

Table of Contents of the Discussion Paper

1. Message from the Minister
2. Introduction
3. Background
4. The National Cultural Policy – developing a vision for Australia's future
5. Goals and questions
6. Australia in the 21st century – some additional context

Changed business model for communications and media

The Australian Communications and Media Authority reports that communications and media service providers are

The communications sector is bundling of voice and content services, increasing data quotas to encourage consumption of content and developing mobile applications. The media sector is developing internet-based distribution channels, pay-per view and subscription services, internet-based ‘catch-up’ viewing formats and new content for the wireless devices. This detailed in the media release "Media and telcos adapting business to the new digital economy" and the 31 page "Report 4—Changing business models in the Australian communication and media sectors: Challenges and response strategies". (MS Word, 425 kb).

Introduction 1

Summary 3

Fixed-line service providers: Challenges and responses 5

Overview of challenges 5

Other factors affecting PSTN revenue 6

Emerging voice service providers 7

Strategies in defence of voice revenue 7

Mobile service providers: Challenges and responses 9

Overview of challenges 9

Increasing use of data services 9

Mobile applications 11

Internet service providers: Challenges and responses 13

Overview of challenges 13

Service bundling 13

Television broadcasters: Challenges and responses 15

Overview of challenges 15

Increase in digital television content 15

New content delivery platforms 16

ISP content service offerings 17

Radio broadcasters: Challenges and responses 19

Overview of challenges 19

New distribution formats for radio content 19

Digital radio 20

Print news media: Challenges and responses 22

Overview of challenges 22

Trends in online and offline newspaper readership 23

Strategies to increase revenues from online newspaper readership 25

Consumer willingness to pay 26

Introduction

This report is the last in a series of four research reports to be published under the ACMA’s communications report series. Other reports in this series include:

Report 1—Australia in the digital economy: The shift to the online environment

Report 2—Take-up and use of voice services by Australian consumers

Report 3—Australian consumer satisfaction with communications services.

This suite of reports is designed to complement the ACMA Communications report 2009–10 which is produced in fulfilment of reporting obligations under section 105 of the Telecommunications Act 1997 (the Act). The Act requires the ACMA to report on the performance of carriers and carriage service providers with particular reference to consumer benefits, consumer satisfaction and quality of service.

These four reports also form part of the ACMA’s ongoing research and reporting program (Research at the ACMA: research program overview 2010–11), which is available on the ACMA website.

The communications report series seeks to inform ACMA stakeholders about convergence and the digital economy and their impact on communications and media services.

The term ‘digital economy’ covers the global network of economic and social activities that are enabled by digital information and communications technologies such as the internet, mobile and sensor networks.¹

As an evidence-based regulator, the ACMA has an interest in monitoring and understanding the developing digital economy and its impact on the industries that it regulates, particularly in relation to:

regulating for the citizen in an IP-based media and communications environment where usage of voice over internet protocol (VoIP), mobile communications and the internet continues to grow, which in turn provides challenges for safeguards, such as access to the emergency call service and online security

voice regulation, where continued growth in VoIP usage and the number of people identifying mobile phones as their main form of communication poses challenges when it comes to applying regulatory requirements that are based on traditional fixed-line voice services

supporting consumers making informed decisions in an environment of ongoing network, device and service innovation

regulating content in an environment where content is increasingly available on multiple platforms including the internet, mobile and traditional broadcasting networks.

This report presents an overview of some of the major challenges confronting the communications and media sector in Australia arising from the emerging digital economy and ongoing convergence of networks, services and consumer access devices.

This report also examines industry responses to these challenges both here in Australia and overseas.

The ACMA has prepared this report using a range of information and data including:

ACMA data including the ACMA annual industry data request

publicly available industry reports and media coverage of industry developments

consumer survey data including Nielsen Online (relating to web traffic trends in Australia) and Roy Morgan Single Source in relation to changing newspaper readership.

Summary

The internet and digital communications more broadly, have empowered citizens and consumers by providing them with more flexibility in their use of voice and media services, enabling people to ‘mix and match’ services to suit their lifestyle needs.

The internet in particular has changed the way Australians communicate and access content, removing geographical barriers and allowing new forms of communications and information sharing to emerge, such as social networking and user generated content.

The internet has also presented challenges for many businesses in the traditional communications and media sectors because consumers can now access cheaper communications alternatives and more diverse content.

Challenges to established market operators have also emerged as a result of network and device convergence, which has facilitated the blurring of boundaries between communications and media services, allowing increasing cross-sectoral forays in terms of service provision.

In meeting these challenges, communications and media providers within Australia and globally are adopting a number of initiatives which seek to protect existing revenue streams and also enable diversification into other services.

Within the communications sector, these response strategies have typically tended to include:

bundling of voice and content services, such as IPTV, to existing broadband subscribers

expansion of data download quotas to broadband subscribers to facilitate increased consumption of data services

more generous mobile caps and pricing packages to facilitate the development of the mobile content service market

handset and handset application innovations, as evidenced by the emergence of the next generation of wireless devices such as smartphones

offering further incentives to customers on the condition of retaining existing traditional fixed-line telephone service.

Within the broadcasting and print newspaper sectors—both faced with increased audience and readership fragmentation—these strategies have tended to focus on a number of initiatives including:

development of online distribution channels to increase the profile of content and services in the face of growing online participation

attempting to monetise content on the internet, through the introduction of pay-per view or subscription services to select ‘premium’ content

meeting audience demand for flexibility in content viewing and content format—typified by the emergence of catch-up viewing formats

development of video content specifically for the next generation of new consumer tools, such as smartphones and other wireless devices

development of new content sources, where consumers are able to access a greater variety of content nationally and globally, such as with digital television, digital radio, IPTV and internet radio.

In addition, established communications and media players today are increasingly faced with new market entrants, which are able to draw on their market presence in a particular sector to move into areas not traditionally in their domain. Companies such as Google are utilising market presence in their traditional areas of operation to package and provide a broader suite of services to customers. Voice and content services, for example, are an increasing part of these new service offerings. As consumers are presented with opportunities to bypass traditional communications and media options, additional pressure is likely to be placed on established revenue streams.

1 Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Australia’s Digital Economy: Future Direction, 14 July 2009.

From: Report 4—Changing business models in the Australian communication and media sectors: Challenges and response strategies, ACMA, 13 January 2011

Getting the message on NBN online

According to media reports Prime Minister Gillard announced an expansion of the NBN (National Broadband Network) on Friday. The frustration with such reports is finding out exactly what was announced. There were 454 news items about this on Google news. I went to the ALP web site and looked for NBN on the front page. There was a panel on the top of the page which said "National Broadband Network" but before I could click on it, this disappeared and was replaced with an item on health. So I went back to the Google news to see if any of the news items had a link to anything substantial. It is very frustrating that all the news items appear to be written from essentially the same media release, speech text, or press conference transcript, but it is very difficult to find these source documents.

What I did find was a link to "Reverse PR". This is to a media release from Senator Kate Lundy and the other Canberra ALP candidates about the NBN, issued after the PM's speech. What is interesting about this is that the media release is on a specialised media release distributing service, supported by web ads. Anyone can submit a media release to the service and subscribe to receive the releases. There is a very efficient mobile edition and access via RSS feed. Google then aggregates this alongside more traditional news sources.

If the parties were to use this, or similar services, for their major announcements I might then be able to find the details, in amongst the media reports. Of course if they were to design good web pages I might be able to find their polices more directly.

Internet Transforming Politics and the Media

One example of a journalist who cannot be accused of not giving a topic the depth of analysis it deserves is the ABC's Eleanor Hall. She has just completed studies at Oxford University Internet Institute on the use of the Internet in politics. Her carefully researched 37 page Trinity Term Reuters Institute Fellowship Paper "Politics in the Youtube Age: Transforming the Political and Media Culture?", is available online. She argues that Obama's use of the Internet was not the grassroots campaign it was portrayed as, but had strong central coordination.

I concluded that the Obama campaign is less revolutionary than it at first appears and that there are a range of reasons why it is unlikely that British politicians will follow even some of the more riskfree elements of the Obama e-campaign.

The Obama campaign showed that online social networking can be a powerful political tool and the US President’s web supporters are justified in claiming this as the first election victory for YouTube politics. But it also showed that a web 2.0 community can be harnessed to a fairly traditional campaign hierarchy and could be open to manipulation by the very political gatekeepers it claims to
be challenging.

Obama’s is a story of how web 2.0 helped an outsider to get into the race for the White House but then how the candidate’s campaign used social networking to increase several important levers of its power. The campaign amassed a huge database of supporter contacts and information, it raised the biggest war chest of funds in US history and it used the web to marshal and direct its online supporters. It also used the internet to counter one of the other political power centres in the campaigning environment, the mainstream media. In doing all of this there were negotiations made and, sometimes uneasy, alliances formed.

The Obama team directed political activity but did not squash dissent, as campaign directors in a TV age campaign might have done. It broke away from the old “war room” approach to data that was characterised by secrecy and central control and gave supporters more autonomy in the way they involved themselves in the political campaign. The web 2.0 community showed it was powerful and Obama’s embrace of it meant many more citizens did engage in the political process. But this was still a political campaign with the goal of winning power and was strikingly similar in key respects to an old-style top down, command and control political operation.

As for British politicians emulating elements of the Obama e -campaign to re-engage citizens and reinvigorate the democratic process, most players agreed it appears unlikely to happen any time soon, despite the expenses crisis. While many MPs and citizens are increasingly using web 2.0 to engage in politics, institutional and cultural differences between the US and the UK make it unlikely Britain will ever see Obama-levels of enthusiasm for using web 2.0 in political campaigns. ...

From: Politics in the Youtube Age: Transforming the Political and Media Culture?, Eleanor Hall, Trinity Term, Reuters Institute Fellowship, University of Oxford, 2009

Australian Science Media Centre

Had a call from the Australian Science Media Centre (AusSMC) with a query from a journalist. This is an interesting looking independent, non-profit service for connecting the media to the scientific community. They are sponsored by several Australian governments and media organisations.

What is the news from 1911?

Google now has a news archive which can show a timeline, with news items sort by dates mentioned in the articles. I was looking for my name and was surprised to find a mention for 1911. This turned out to be a blog posting from me about Marion Mahony Griffin's sketches of for the 1911 Canberra design competition. This was quoted in the Technorati blog, which apparently rates as a news source for Google.

The distinction between a media release, a blog and a newspaper seems to be blurring. This will take some getting used to. I am more comfortable with the old fashioned system, where the journalist took a copy of my media release and rewrote it to pretend it was their own work. ;-)

Online journalism with Crikey.com, Canberra

Recommended:

National Library of Australia Digital Culture talk

The internet revolution has been the greatest structural shock to hit the mainstream media since the introduction of television. Crikey.com founder Stephen Mayne will assess how online journalism is fundamentally changing traditional media and whether any of the so-called 'user-generated content' of Web 2.0 should even be called journalism. Whilst some media companies are now embracing the internet as an opportunity and dominating the space, many are feeling seriously threatened. And with such an extraordinary fragmentation and proliferation of information in cyberspace, what is the role of libraries in recording journalism's traditional 'first draft of history approach' to the news as it unfolds?

Date: 29 August 2007
Time: 12.30 to 13.30
Venue: National Library of Australia Theatre
Entry: Free

The speaker, Stephen Mayne, will be introduced by Michele Huston, Director Web Publishing, National Library of Australia.

Bobby Graham
Web Content Manager
Web Publishing Branch, IT Division
National Library of Australia
Tel: +61 2 6262 1542

Climate Change Announcement by Australian Prime Minister

The Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, made a brief statement on Climate Change on 17 July 2007 (136 seconds). What seems to have got much of the attention is that it was done using Internet technology.

Today I am announcing a further $627 million in practical new measures to tackle global warming, bringing total spending on climate change initiative since 1996 to about $3.4 billion.

This will include $336 million for green vouchers for schools to improve energy and water efficiency.

Every school in Australia will be eligible for a voucher of up $50,000 to help install solar hot water systems and rainwater tanks.

Not only will this help reduce energy and conserve water, but it will provide students and our school communities with a first-hand lesson in how we can act locally to preserve the environment.

I will also be announcing a `cap and trade' emissions trading system that will help Australia substantially lower our domestic greenhouse gas emissions at the lowest cost. ...

As well as the text transcript on the web, there is a Flash video version on the same page, a link to a 5.9 Mbyte high quality version, and an audio version.

The video was also made available on YouTube. However this is a risky communications strategy: it is difficult to tell the official announcement from the spoof by John Clarke and Dawe.

The statement followed the Prime Ministerial Task Group on Emissions Trading Final Report.

China New Media Conference 2007: Money, Art and Governance

These are some thoughts on the China New Media Conference in Brisbane last week. Items from the event are listed under "China".

The essential point seemed to be that you could do online digital media in China for profit, or artistic purposes, and slip in a little political comment in it, as long as you were careful to self censor.

One theme running through the conference was the effect of the Beijing Olympics on new media. I was with the skeptics on that one. The Olympics is not going to see a blossoming of digital video art on 3G phones and the like.

QUT's Kelvin Grove campus, where the event was held, is most impressive. Having part of the ABC on site (relocated from the abandoned Toowong offices) ads to the media atmosphere. The campus is an interesting combination of education, business and real estate development.

The QUT's digital art gallery I was less impressed with: this is essentially a big white empty building (with as much warmth as the NASA Vehicle Assembly Building) . In place of art, it has images projected on the blank walls. It would have helped if they had thought to install some human comforts, such as a toilet.

Thanks to the Online Opinionites for buying me pizza. There is a discussion of China and democracy running in the OO forum.

ps: What was the Wiki conference some people were at in the same venue?