The 2017 Australian Digital Inclusion Index provides the most comprehensive picture of Australia’s online participation to date.

The report analyses data from the first large scale Australian survey of public wi-fi use. The report highlights shared challenges for public wi-fi users, employers, public wi-fi network providers, and policy-makers to promote public wi-fi security, while retaining the benefits of accessibility offered by this communication technology.

The paper focuses on the link between regional development, social enterprise and digital infrastructure, through analysis of an initiative in Goulburn NSW, in which local entrepreneurs rigged up a wi-fi network, providing free internet access to the public in the city’s main street.

In this seminar Chris K. Wilson argues that the 1992 Broadcasting Services Act inspired the formation of hundreds of new broadcasting organisations (particularly in the community radio sector), encouraged experimentation in broadcasting content, communication infrastructure configuration and media convergence, and impacted the cultural landscape beyond broadcasting.

Are local schools the beating heart of our communities? Or are they underutilised public assets, closed out of school hours and off limits to local residents? • A new discussion paper on the extended use of schools released by New South Wales Labor asks these questions and raises a significant national issue. Australia has more...