Johanna Weaver, Director of the Tech Policy Design Centre at the Australian National University, discusses current tech policy challenges, the Australian approach to tech policy, and the Centre's work. They explore the mission of shaping technology for humanity, the importance of coordination in tech policy, and the activities of the centre in developing tech policy, including the tech policy atlas for AI regulation analysis.
The Tech Policy Design Centre aims to co-design solutions with people, emphasizing the importance of involving them in conversations about technology and its impact on society.
The Tech Policy Design Centre advocates for better coordination processes across multiple stakeholders, including government departments, regulators, and industry, to ensure better tech policy outcomes.
Deep dives
The Tech Policy Design Centre's Mission
The Tech Policy Design Centre at the Australian National University is focused on maturing the tech policy ecosystem in Australia to shape technology for the long-term benefit of humanity. Their mission is to uplift the capacity of governments to regulate digital technologies effectively and provide supporting infrastructure to facilitate this. They emphasize the importance of involving people in conversations about what they want from technology and aim to co-design solutions rather than just admiring the problems. The Centre's name reflects their focus on technology policy in its broad sense and implies the active and creative nature of their work.
Coordination Challenges in Tech Policy Development
The development of tech policy often happens in silos, lacking the established coordination processes seen in other fields of policy. This lack of coordination leads to a fragmented approach to policy development. To address this challenge, the Tech Policy Design Centre advocates for better coordination processes across multiple stakeholders, including government departments, regulators, and industry. They propose a model to streamline coordination at the ministerial level, encourage collaboration among regulators, and upskill public servants in the field of technology policy. The aim is to bring the expertise and knowledge of all stakeholders together to ensure better tech policy outcomes.
The Role of Industry in Tech Policy Design
Industry has a crucial role to play in tech policy design. The Tech Policy Design Centre believes in collaborating with industry, government, civil society, and academia to achieve the right outcomes. They emphasize the need for industry engagement throughout the policy design process, starting from the early stages of policy development rather than just during consultations. The Centre encourages industry to contribute their expertise and influence policy design, recognizing that their involvement can make a significant impact on shaping the future of technology regulation. They also provide resources, such as their tech policy process and principles, to guide industry and facilitate their participation.
The importance of tech policy as a subset of public policy has emerged forcefully into the spotlight in recent years.
With new technologies rapidly transforming societies, countries and governments all around the world are now grappling with the best way to shape these technologies to serve our collective long-term interests.
This week we sit down with Johanna Weaver, Director of the Tech Policy Design Centre at the Australian National University, to discuss this important area of policy.
We explore Johanna’s perspective on current tech policy challenges, the Australian approach to tech policy, and learn more about the Centre’s work.
Links:
Tech Policy Design Centre https://techpolicydesign.au
Tech Policy Design Centre (LinkedIn) https://www.linkedin.com/company/techpolicydesigncentre?originalSubdomain=au
Global Tech Policy Atlas https://techpolicydesign.au/tech-policy-atlas
Credits:
Editing and post-production by Martin Franklin (East Coast Studio) eastcoaststudio.com.au
Music by Bensound.com
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