Now 'Web Science' To Help Improve The Internet Now Web science to help improve the Internet

[talktime 0]

Sir Timothy Berners-Lee, the British scientist who invented the World Wide Web, wants to turn the Internet into a science: Web science.
In keeping with this, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Southampton on Thursday announced the launch of the Web Science Research Initiative, a panel that will understand the scientific, technical and social challenges underlying the growth of the Internet, reported news.com.

The WSRI will have its headquarters at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT and at the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton.

The two collaborating universities will raise funds from the corporate world and set up a research centre 'that will sponsor Ph.D. students and ultimately create undergraduate curricula in Web science,' news.com reported.

In a recent article, Berners-Lee had said that the Web has changed the ways people communicate, collaborate, and educate. But with the Net evolving rapidly, it is necessary to understand its potential impact in the future too.

He said that since humans are the creators of Web pages and links between them, their interactions form emergent patterns in the Web at a macroscopic scale. These human interactions are, in turn, governed by social conventions and laws. Web science, therefore, must be inherently interdisciplinary; its goal is to both understand the growth of the Web and to create approaches that allow new powerful and more beneficial patterns to occur.

Do you think its necessary?

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[Hercco 0]

I thought Al Gore invented the internet.

LOL.


Yes, I think "web science" is neccessary. Web is such a huge phenomena and has so much impact on our lives and livestyles that it needs to be studied not just from technological OR humanist point of view, but also with something in-between too. That sounds like something I might have chose to study had it been available when I started my university studies.

[webintern 0]

I read the article yesterday about MIT beginning a curriculum on web science. It is pretty interesting to consider. Computer science, which is now taught in every major university in the world, did not exist a few decades ago. Web science is a logical evolution in computer science education, reflecting the impact computers and the Internet have made in our lives. We may take the world wide web for granted as a chaotic amalgamation of web sites and services; but just as academia focuses on the study of virtually anything (from insects to solar systems), the web is a perfect subject matter to study from engineering, philosophical, and anthropologic standpoints.

[iGuest 3]

Do you think its necessary?

 

Necessary? It depends, really. I mean, Web Science would be probably be something like Economics or Social Sciences. Many people think these are helpful sciences, ones that can help define AND refine our present and future. But they certainly aren't necessary in the conventional sense. After all, going back in time, there was no such thing as Economics or Social Sciences, and yet the sun kept shining .

 

 

So I believe the question is not whether Web Science is necessary or not. It's more about how useful it can be. And, if we keep on comparing it to current sciences, I believe it'll prove to be one of the most useful sciences yet.

 

 

You see, the Internet has changed basically every aspect of our civilization. The change hasn't been restricted to information exchange and collaboration, or even to financial and business matters. It has affected our psyches and thinking methodologies to a degree no one would've imagined even 5 years. Take a quick look at the exponential spread of blogs to get a glimpse of what I'm talking about. Go to Internet-Business forums and watch kids under the age of 15 discussing ways to build money-making Websites, and coming up with new techniques to use Google AdSense and PayPal. Seriously, the Internet changed everything!

 

 

I'm not familiar (yet) with the inner aspect of what Web Science is going to be like, but I imagine it to be the forming of rather complex relationships between our current sciences (such as psychology, social sciences, IT, economics, law, etc.) and a new paradigm of thinking that hasn't been named yet. There's a rather entertaining, yet accurate, description of this paradigm in a book called Cyberia by Douglas Rushkoff. You guys should read it; it's a true eye-opener in many ways.

 

 

These human interactions are, in turn, governed by social conventions and laws. Web science, therefore, must be inherently interdisciplinary; its goal is to both understand the growth of the Web and to create approaches that allow new powerful and more beneficial patterns to occur.

 

I think "patterns" is a word that shouldn't be lightly used in this context. So far, the Internet has proved to be more like a "fractal," where patterns are but a building block for other, much more complex structures. The word "pattern" implies predictability. And while Web Science is, naturally, about understanding the Web and its implications, expecting "patterns" at this point would be, I believe, too much to ask. Perhaps it'd be best if we simply look forward to "temporary trends" .

 

 

 

 

Phew... Sorry for being such a big mouth. It's just that there are certain subjects which I find too good to miss . I'll leave now before I get drawn back in. Have a great day/night, everyone.

[Chesso 0]

I don't exactly know much about what this will mean but it sounds like a good idea.At a first glance I thought it meant they were going to take a look and try and improve the internet in general (hardware as we do, software and maybe even the standard protocols we use), but perhaps not, I'm actually a little bit confused lol.