Burning Platforms

Identity Crisis

After the string of hacks in late 2022 the government has developed a new online identity wallet. What is the logic behind it? Will it provide better privacy for citizens? And should we trust government with our data anyway?
 
Welcome to Burning Platforms: De-Coding the Power and Politics of Big Tech. 
 
 
This week Peter Lewis, Lizzie O'Shea, and Dan Stinton are joined by Professor Ed Santow, Director for Policy & Governance at the Human Technology Institute, and Industry Professor for Responsible Technology at the University of Technology Sydney.
 
Burning Platforms is brought to you by the Centre of the Public Square - an initiative of Per Capita.
 

Chokepoint Capitalism

Welcome to Burning Platforms: De-Coding the Power and Politics of Big Tech. 
 
This week, we speak with Rebecca Giblin and Cory Doctorow, authors of new book 'Chokepoint Capitalism' and explore how creatives can break free of Big Tech and Big Content
 
Burning Platforms is brought to you by the Centre of the Public Square - an initiative of Per Capita.

Burning Platforms Live in Melbourne

The final Burning Platforms of 2022 reflects on the year that was, including Elon Musk, tech regulation, privacy and more. Plus we held quizzes, played 'Dan or bot', and launched new book 'Disconnect'!
Burning Platforms is brought to you by the Centre of the Public Square - an initiative of Per Capita.

The End of the (Big Tech) World as we know it

Twitter is imploding before our eyes under Elon Musk, Meta is shedding staff and stock prices, and the crypto winter freezes out more people as FTX collapses. Is this the end of the (Big Tech) world as we know it? And are we all feeling fine? What will happen next?
 
Welcome to Burning Platforms: De-Coding the Power and Politics of Big Tech. 
 Join Peter Lewis, Lizzie O'Shea, and Dan Stinton for this week's analysis of the politics of technology from around the world.
 
Burning Platforms is brought to you by the Centre of the Public Square - an initiative of Per Capita.

Navigating the Metaverse

Welcome to Burning Platforms: De-Coding the Power and Politics of Big Tech. 
 
As we move deeper into the new phases of the internet should we be building in guardrails and redlines around this new technology?
And even if we should, can we? 
 
This week, the Burning Platform panel deep dives into the metaverse with the Founder of the Responsible Metaverse Alliance, Dr Catriona Wallace.
 
Burning Platforms is brought to you by the Centre of the Public Square - an initiative of Per Capita.
 

Resilience or Redesign - Approaching our Tech Future

As part of the 2022 NetThing Internet Governance Conference, Burning Platforms will ask - "Do we need to build our resilience against a worsening tech world, or should we design a better one?"
 
As the tech harms pile up and change us and our society, we deep dive into a new book 'Disconnect - why we get pushed to extremes online and how to stop it' which showcases online conspiracy theorists, freedom fighters, trolls, screen addicts and more and we will unpack whether our current tech landscape is inevitable or if there's a better way forward.
 
Burning Platforms is brought to you by the Centre of the Public Square - an initiative of Per Capita.
 

Dead End: How Tech is driving gridlock

The future of transportation is abuzz with disruption, from ride-sharing to electric vehicles to AI traffic flows.
 
Burning Platforms asks - will these build transport systems for the better or worse? With special guest Paris Marx, Author of Road to Nowhere: What Silicon Valley Gets Wrong about the Future of Transportation, and host of 'Tech Won't Save Us'.
 
Burning Platforms is brought to you by the Centre of the Public Square - an initiative of Per Capita.
 

Breached As - the Optus data leak

Welcome to Burning Platforms: De-Coding the Power and Politics of Big Tech. 
 
This episode we look at the huge data breach at Optus, and ask whether this breach is a feature or a bug of a world where mass data collection has now been normalised.
 
Burning Platforms is brought to you by the Centre of the Public Square - an initiative of Per Capita.
 

The Dark Arts of Online Advertising

Burning Platforms goes under Big Tech’s hood with new research into the increased opacity of online advertising - and the impact of that secrecy on public discourse.
With special guests:
Nicholas Carah, Associate Professor at University of Queensland
Aimee Brownbill, Senior Research and Policy Advisor at Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education
Burning Platforms is brought to you by the Centre of the Public Square - an initiative of Per Capita.

Algorithmic Asylum

With a proliferation of wellness technologies, the human mind is emerging as the latest frontier in the spread of tech solutionism.
This week’s Burning Platforms digs deep into a new report ‘Digital Futures in the Mind’ which looks at how algorithmic solutions can have both a positive and negative impact on mental health.
Our special guest is report co-author Dr. Piers Gooding from Melbourne University Law School.
 
With a proliferation of wellness technologies, the human mind is emerging as the latest frontier in the spread of tech solutionism.
This week’s Burning Platforms digs deep into a new report ‘Digital Futures in the Mind’ which looks at how algorithmic solutions can have both a positive and negative impact on mental health.
Our special guest is report co-author Dr. Piers Gooding from Melbourne University Law School.
 
Burning Platforms is brought to you by the Centre of the Public Square - an initiative of Per Capita.
 
Burning Platforms is brought to you by the Centre of the Public Square - an initiative of Per Capita.