As part of our annual Society 4.0 initiative, we held a series of events focused on enabling positive change for society in the wake of digital disruption.  

The main forum explored the opportunities offered by data analytics and technology to facilitate community collaboration. Speakers included Alice Martin (New Economics Foundation) and Kristi Mansfield (Seer Data and Analytics) and the themes covered included communities powered with data, public interest technology, and work and wellbeing.  

Satellite activities included: 

  • Two masterclasses — Patrick Atwater from ARGO Labs and Stefaan Verhulst from GovLab explored the idea of working with data collaboratives by drawing on their organisations’ data research symposium to explore the development, maintenance, loss and restoration of trust in the digital age in the context of law and justice, relationships and work.  
  • A public lecture — Alice Martin from the New Economics Foundation and Kath Blackham from Versa discussed ‘A Shorter Working Week’, looking at the future of work and wellbeing. 

Masterclass videos

Society 4.0 Masterclass: Stefaan Verhulst and Jane Farmer

Stefaan Verhulst is an international thought-leader and animateur of community data collaboratives. In this video, he explores the concept of community data collaboratives, their potential for good and the technicalities of establishing and using one for good.

Society 4.0 Masterclass: Stefaan Verhulst and Jane Farmer

Society 4.0 Masterclass: Patrick Atwater

Patrick Atwater is the Founder and Water Project Manager of ARGO Labs and a senior research analyst at California Forward. In this video, he looks at the future of water data in Australia through the exploration of California’s world-leading water data collaborative, explaining how they used massive amounts of data to achieve the most efficient use of water during a drought.

Society 4.0 Masterclass: Patrick Atwater

Research symposium podcasts

Panel 1: Law and justice

Convened by Associate Professor Diane Sivasubramaniam, this panel explored how new and emerging technologies can promise or threaten to transform how we conceptualise rights and responsibilities, make laws and achieve justice.

Download the introduction to this panel [PDF 225KB] by Associate Professor Diane Sivasubramaniam.

View transcript [PDF 260KB]
Panel 1: Law and justice

Panel 2: Relationships

Convened by Dr Julian Oldmeadow, this panel explored the consequences of new and emerging technologies for our relationships with ourselves, our children and other people.

Download the introduction to this panel [PDF 210KB] by Dr Julian Oldmeadow.

View transcript [PDF 260KB]
Panel 2: Relationships

Panel 3: Work

Convened by Dr Sam Wilson, this panel explored the consequences of digitisation, automation and artificial intelligence for work, careers and organisations.

Download the introduction to this panel [PDF 212KB] by Dr Sam Wilson. 

View transcript [PDF 290KB]
Panel 3: Work

Contact the Social Innovation Research Institute

If your organisation would like to collaborate with us to solve a complex problem, or you simply want to contact our team, get in touch by calling +61 3 9214 8180 or emailing sii@swinburne.edu.au.

Contact us