Media releases

A Federation University Australia-commissioned short film called Data Democracy has been accepted into the Silicon Valley International Film Festival in the United States.

The film explores the concepts of a data democracy and will screen at an event where tech industry leaders congregate to view the films and engage with their creators.

Silicon Valley is home to many of the world’s biggest tech companies, including Google, Apple, eBay and Facebook.

Associate Professor Peter Dahlhaus, from the Centre for eResearch and Digital Innovation (CeRDI), said the film title referred to the ideal system in which data could be accessed in a timely and equitable way, and was a key focus of the Centre and its research partnerships.

CeRDI is located within Federation University at Ballarat and is a global leader in data interoperability. It has developed many award-winning, web-based spatial information and knowledge portals, which provide public access to data sets that are often hidden from view.

There are many public benefits from accumulating, federating and aggregating data, but the use of data by governments and private institutes has become highly controversial, raising important questions about access, rights and community interest in the digital and geospatial age.

The concept of data democracy is all about being able to see each other's data as much possible in order to do any planning or decision-making.

The Director of CeRDI, Associate Professor Helen Thompson, said data democracy was an issue of national and global significance, and the commissioning of a short film was an effective way to advocate for change in how people work with and think about data.

CeRDI commissioned independent film production company Wind & Sky Productions for the film, which had been entered in the festival because it was designed to catch the attention of Silicon Valley’s tech workers.

Quotes attributable to Federation University Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Duncan Bentley

 “This film will screen at a renowned international film festival in Silicon Valley that is home to many of the world’s tech heavyweights and I am so proud that our brand and our film will be showcased in front of the global heads of companies such as Apple, Google and Facebook.”

Quotes attributable to Director of CeRDI, Associate Professor Helen Thompson

“Working with data is central to the research that CeRDI conducts. Data capture and data sharing through online platforms provides the foundation to enable discoveries that can build new knowledge and improve decision making to enhance current practices.”

“Other projects where we've partnered on with films have been more about a specific initiative like Online Farm Trials or Visualising Victoria's Groundwater. This one is much more around a philosophy that we think will fuel those future impacts that the university can have when it partners with others around data.”

Quotes attributable to Principal Research Fellow, CeRDI, Associate Professor Peter Dahlhaus

“One of the things that's happened in the last couple of decades is that we've seen a shift in the collection of data from the public sector to the private sector, so where in the past the government was more or less the keeper of all data, more and more we're seeing that shift to the private sector,”