« Fix for Safari 3.1 crash with Yahoo! Media Player | Main | Standards, Microformats and Accessibility - this was the Coder's Saturday in Montreal, Canada. »
March 20, 2008
Last week I attended the Web Science Research Initiative's meeting in London with Peter Mika from Yahoo! Research Barcelona. Hosted by IBM on behalf of the WSRI a number of guests were invited to explore the concept of "Web Science". Web Science is the study of the Web, both the human and computing aspects. By studying how the Web is used now it is hoped that we can use the knowledge to improve it in the future.
The meeting was eclectic with people from industry and universities in a diverse range of fields. Zoologists and sociologists were mixing it up with the computer scientists. I know I had a lot of interesting, if strange, conversations.
Tim Berners-Lee, the father of the web, presented the keynote. He tracked the progression of the Web from a tool which has helped humans find information to a powerful data network. He was keen to emphasise that human interaction remains at the core of the success of the Web. It will take a diverse range of skills to understand everything that is the Web. However with understanding will be come more opportunities to make the most of this amazing ecosystem.
In the afternoon there was a panel where Peter Mika answered questions along with representatives of Mircosoft, CapGemini, the universities of Southampton, St Andrews and others. They discussed what Web Science is and how to encourage people who are doing Web Science now to participate in the conversation. The conclusion was that the many facets of the Web can only be understood by the community working together to share and explore the rich and complex environment we have helped to create.
You can find more information on the Web Science Research Institute at webscience.org. They are keen to receive and showcase examples of Web Science in practice. Expect to see more from Yahoo soon on how we put Web Science into action with microformats.
Tom Hughes-Croucher
Y! Developer Network
Posted at March 20, 2008 3:53 AM
Comment Policy: We encourage comments and look forward to hearing from you. Please note that Yahoo! may, in our sole discretion, remove comments if they are off topic, inappropriate, or otherwise violate our Terms of Service.
Copyright © 2008 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
Privacy Policy - Terms of Service - Copyright Policy - Job Openings