A joint research programme into the future of web science is being co-led by worldwide web inventor Tim Berners-Lee.
The Web Science Research Initiative (WSRI), being undertaken by the University of Southampton and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), aims to analyse and help shape the web’s evolution by producing the fundamental scientific advances necessary for its future design and use.
WRSI will generate a research agenda for understanding the scientific, technical and social challenges underlying the growth of the web. Much attention will focus on the volume of information on the web as it documents more and more aspects of human activity and knowledge.
Research projects will consider how we access information and assess its reliability, by what means we can assure it complies with social and legal rules and how the web will be preserved over time.
Initial plans call for joint research projects, workshops and student/faculty exchanges between the two institutions.
Berners-Lee, a senior research scientist at MIT and professor at the
University of Southampton, says the web has considerable untapped potential.
‘As the web celebrates its first decade of widespread use, we still know surprisingly little about how it evolved, and we have only scratched the surface of what could be realised with deeper scientific investigation into its design, operation and impact on society,’ he said.
Nigel Shadbolt, professor of artificial intelligence at theUniversity of Southampton and one of the four founding directors, said: ‘The web is not just about computers - it is about people and networks. It is the largest construct humanity has built and needs to be analysed and studied in its own right.’
The WSRI will provide a global forum for scientists and scholars to collaborate on the first multidisciplinary scientific research effort specifically designed to study the web at all scales of size and complexity.
What do you think? Email us at: feedback@computing.co.uk
Related stories
reader comments