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Web science: a new frontier

27 - 28 September 2010 09:00 - 17:00

 

Organised by Professor Nigel Shadbolt (University of Southampton), Professor Dame Wendy Hall (University of Southampton), Professor James Hendler (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) and Professor Bill Dutton (University of Oxford).

The World Wide Web has changed almost every aspect of modern life. It touches us all. The Web's billions of pages, links and other resources comprise the largest information fabric in the history of humanity. Yet the Web is rarely approached as an object of scientific study.

What processes have driven the Web's growth, and will they persist? How does large-scale structure emerge from a simple set of protocols? How does the Web work as a socio-technical system? What drives the viral uptake of certain Web phenomena? What might fragment the Web? This interdisciplinary meeting discussed these and other issues as it presents the components of a Science of the Web.

Video recordings of many of the presentations are available below.

The proceedings of this meeting have been published in a special issue of Philosophical Transactions A.

This discussion meeting was followed by a satellite meeting, Web science: exploring the frontier.

Tweet about this meeting using #RSWebSci, or follow us on Twitter @RSWebSci

Organisers

  • Professor Nigel Shadbolt FREng, University of Southampton, UK

    Nigel Shadbolt is Deputy Head (Research) of the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton. He is a Director of the Web Science Trust, and of the Web Foundation – organisations that seek to advance our understanding of the Web and promote the Web's positive impact on society.

    In June 2009 together with Sir Tim Berners-Lee he was appointed a Government Information Advisor to help transform public access to Government information – work which resulted in the data.gov.uk site. In May 2010 the Coalition Government appointed him to the Public Sector Transparency Board that will oversee public data release.  

  • Professor Dame Wendy Hall DBE FREng FRS, University of Southampton/Web Science Trust, UK

    Dame Wendy Hall DBE FREng FRS is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton, and is Dean of the Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering.

    With Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Sir Nigel Shadbolt she co-founded the Web Science Research Initiative in 2006 and she is currently a Director of the Web Science Trust, which has a global mission to support the development of research, education and thought leadership in Web Science.

    She became a Dame Commander of the British Empire in the 2009 UK New Year's Honours list, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in June 2009.

    She was President of the ACM, was Senior Vice President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, a member of the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology, a founding member of the European Research Council and was President of the BCS. She was Chair of the European Commission’s ISTAG 2010-2012.  She is currently a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Council on Robotics and Smart Devices.

  • Professor James Hendler, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute/Web Science Trust, USA

    James Hendler is the Tetherless World Professor of Computer and Cognitive Science, and the Assistant Dean for Information Technology and Web Science, at Rensselaer. He is also a faculty affiliate of the Experimental Multimedia Performing Arts Center (EMPAC), serves as a Director of the UK Web Science Trust, and is a visiting Professor at the Institute of Creative Technology at DeMontfort University in Leicester, UK. Hendler was the recipient of a 1995 Fulbright Foundation Fellowship, is a member of the US Air Force Science Advisory Board, and is a Fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence, the British Computer Society and the IEEE. He is theEditor-in-Chief emeritus of IEEE Intelligent Systems and is the first computer scientist to serve on the Board of Reviewing Editors for Science. In 2010, Hendler was named an “Internet Web Expert” by the US government.

  • Professor William Dutton, Oxford Internet Institution, University of Oxford, UK

    Professor William H Dutton is Director of the Oxford Internet Institute, Professor of Internet Studies, University of Oxford, and Fellow of Balliol College. Before coming to Oxford in 2002, he was a Professor in the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California, where he is now an Emeritus Professor. In the UK, he was a Fulbright Scholar 1986-87, and was National Director of the UK's Programme on Information and Communication Technologies (PICT) from 1993 to 1996. His recent publications on the social aspects of information and communication technologies include Society on the Line (Oxford University Press, 1999), and Transforming Enterprise, co-edited (MIT Press, 2005), and World Wide Research: Reshaping the Sciences and Humanities, co-edited with P Jeffreys (MIT Press, 2010).