Web science research initiative brings together academics, scientists, sociologists, entrepreneurs and
decision makers from around the world. These people will create the
first multidisciplinary research body to examine the World Wide Web and
offer the practical solutions needed to help guide its future use and
design.
The discipline of Web Science was proposed by T. Berners-Lee on Nov. 2, 2006 to understand the reciprocal relationship between the Web and society at a number of scales, from technical protocols to emergent social behaviour, to ensure that the Web’s growth will continue, and will benefit society. The need for both analysis and engineering demands an inherently interdisciplinary approach.
Web science is not just modelling the current Web. It is about
engineering new infrastructure protocols by using scientific and
technological tools from many disciplines to understand the human
society that uses them, to create beneficial new systems – which may
involve extremely radical thinking about both technology and society. Such new engineering must respect the invariants of
the Web experience: decentralisation to avoid bottlenecks and allow
increases of scale; serendipitous reuse of information; fairness,
openness and trust. In this way the Web will remain a technology that
enhances human society, and supports human aspiration.
(This text contains extracts from the article Web Science by Kieron O'Hara and from the Web Science Resesarch Initiative website.)
