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This concise text will help readers understand the ongoing fascination with do-it-yourself media around the world. Ellie Rennie explains how community media has, since its beginning, challenged the mainstream. A clear and useful guide for students, Community Media lays out the terrain in which community media theory and advocacy have located themselves, including the ideals of participation, community, and social change

There is no one set definition for the phrase "ad hoc networks". The term refers to the ability for members of a network to establish a network connection between devices. Ad hoc networks are relevant both in technical terms of certain network infrastructures, as well as in terms of the social, political and economic modes of self-organisation they enable. This requires people to combine software and hardware tools to set up peer-to-peer infrastructure that provides access to temporary information networks, as well as networking standards and policy frameworks. When long-standing, these can adapt to become local area networks. An example of an ad hoc network is a temporary cryptocurrency economy, such as a Decentralised Autonomous Organisation, which can connect people, information, and resources online and in person for a specific purpose.

The economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic prompted many governments to provide emergency payments to citizens. These one-off and recurring payments revealed the shortcomings of existing financial infrastructures even as electronic payments replaced cash for everyday expenses. Delays in getting government payments to citizens in many countries focused attention on the potential benefits of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). This article outlines the social and economic policy choices involved in designing a CBDC and the consequences of these choices for privacy. Priorities including preventing the criminal abuse of the financial system, geopolitical concerns and private sector innovation compete with, and potentially undermine, privacy. We identify and categorize four key privacy risks as 'losses' associated with current CBDC models: loss of anonymity, loss of liberty, loss of individual control, and loss of regulatory control.

In 2007, Australia's Commonwealth Government took a dramatic new approach to the governance of remote Indigenous communities. The 'Northern Territory Intervention' aimed to combat abuse and violence in remote Indigenous communities, and included far-reaching changes to welfare administration, employment programmes and policing. This paper considers a hitherto obscure aspect of the Intervention: the surveillance of publicly funded computers and internet use. Between 2007 and 2012, providers of internet and computer access facilities in the affected communities were required to audit and record computer use. In this paper we examine the legal and policy dimensions of this case of governmental surveillance, using interviews, published materials and documents obtained through freedom of information processes.

In 2007, Australia's Commonwealth Government took a dramatic new approach to the governance of remote Indigenous communities. The 'Northern Territory Intervention' aimed to combat abuse and violence in remote Indigenous communities, and included far-reaching changes to welfare administration, employment programmes and policing. This paper considers a hitherto obscure aspect of the Intervention: the surveillance of publicly funded computers and internet use. Between 2007 and 2012, providers of internet and computer access facilities in the affected communities were required to audit and record computer use. In this paper we examine the legal and policy dimensions of this case of governmental surveillance, using interviews, published materials and documents obtained through freedom of information processes.

In September 2015, the Swinburne Institute for Social Research commenced a two - year research project on safety and wellbeing as they relate to communication technologies, in remote Aboriginal communities and towns. This report provides an overview of findi ngs from the first phase of the project. A final report will be available in mid 2017. Telstra is funding the project as an action within the 'Connection and Capability' priority focus area of its Reconciliation Action Plan 2015 - 18. The research has been i nitiated for the benefit of Indigenous people and is being conducted to inform Telstra's strategy regarding cyber safety for this particular consumer group. It is also intended to inform social and community obligations related to Telstra's recent partners hip with the Northern Territory Government to extend mobile phone reception to remote areas, including Indigenous communities. The first , needs - analysis phase of the project, conducted from September 2015 to June 2016, involved seeking feedback on these is sues from a cross - section of Northern Territory (NT) Aboriginal people living in a regional centre, a larger community and a smaller settlement, with different histories of exposure to I nformation and C ommunication T echnology (ICT). As described in this re port, we found that there are particular mobile phone practices and internet uses occurring among remote Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory leading to identifiable cyber safety problems. Some of these practices, and the resulting issues, appear to be different from those experienced by other segments of the Australian population

Australia's Commonwealth Government communications funding programs are promoting the extension of internet services to remote Indigenous communities via shared community facilities. Meanwhile, mainstream delivery programs have largely moved on to focus on individual users. Indigenous Australians are far less likely to access the internet within the home than non-Indigenous Australians, suggesting that Australia's 'digital divide' is not simply a matter of access, but the context within which access occurs. The Commonwealth's National Broadband Strategy aims to place broadband communications at the centre of a new digital economy. As the benefits of fast Internet become more tangible, the stakes for those who do not have affordable access also increase. In this paper we set out a case for reconsidering the notions of public and private in terms of internet infrastructure, access and use. Employing policy analysis, available home internet data and a survey of community-based ICT projects, this paper investigates the relationship of broadband policy and other infrastructures, including the politics of housing and 'township', as well as economic and social factors.