The Web Science Trust (WST) is a UK Charitable Trust with the aim of supporting the global development of

Web science Web science is an emerging interdisciplinary field concerned with the study of large-scale socio-technical systems, particularly the World Wide Web. It considers the relationship between people and technology, the ways that society and technolo ...

. It was originally started in 2006 as a joint effort between

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

and

University of Southampton The University of Southampton (abbreviated as ''Soton'' in post-nominal letters) is a public university, public research university in Southampton, England. Southampton is a founding member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universit ...

to formalise the social and technical aspects of the

World Wide Web The World Wide Web (WWW or simply the Web) is an information system that enables Content (media), content sharing over the Internet through user-friendly ways meant to appeal to users beyond Information technology, IT specialists and hobbyis ...

. The trust coordinates a set of international "WSTNet Laboratories" that include academic research groups in the emerging area of Web science. It was first announced at MIT on 2 November 2006 as the Web Science Research Initiative (WSRI), changing its name in 2009 to the Web Science Trust.

Tim Berners-Lee Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee (born 8 June 1955), also known as TimBL, is an English computer scientist best known as the inventor of the World Wide Web, the HTML markup language, the URL system, and HTTP. He is a professorial research fellow a ...

originally led this program, now run by a Board of Trustees, which aims to attract government and private funds to support their many activities. The Web Science Trust supports curriculum development in universities and research institutions to train

future generations Future generations are Cohort (statistics), cohorts of hypothetical people not yet born. Future generations are contrasted with current and past generations and evoked in order to encourage thinking about intergenerational equity. The Moral agenc ...

of Web Scientists. Given the similarities between Web Science and Information Science, Web Science overlaps with the interests of the

ISchool An information school (sometimes abbreviated I-school or iSchool) is a university-level institution committed to understanding the role of information in nature and human endeavors. Synonyms include school of information, department of informat ...

movement, particularly in the United States, but focuses more specifically on the Web itself. The annual Web Science conference brings together participants from many fields including those studying both the social and the computational aspects of the World Wide Web. Areas of interest include: *

Social network A social network is a social structure consisting of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), networks of Dyad (sociology), dyadic ties, and other Social relation, social interactions between actors. The social network per ...

s * Social machine *

Collaboration Collaboration (from Latin ''com-'' "with" + ''laborare'' "to labor", "to work") is the process of two or more people, entities or organizations working together to complete a task or achieve a goal. Collaboration is similar to cooperation. The ...

* Understanding

online community An online community, also called an internet community or web community, is a community whose members engage in computer-mediated communication primarily via the Internet. Members of the community usually share common interests. For many, on ...

* Analyzing the human interactions inherent in

social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...

* Web observatories * Developing "accountability" and other mechanisms for enhancing

privacy Privacy (, ) is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively. The domain of privacy partially overlaps with security, which can include the concepts of a ...

and trust on the Web.

Key personnel

Directors/trustees *

Wendy Hall Dame Wendy Hall (born 25 October 1952) is a British computer scientist. She is Regius Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton. Early life and education Wendy Hall was born in west London and educated at Ealing Grammar ...

(managing director) *

Nigel Shadbolt Sir Nigel Richard Shadbolt (born 9 April 1956) is Principal of Jesus College, Oxford, and Professorial Research Fellow in the Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford. He is chairman of the Open Data Institute which he co-founde ...

James Hendler James Alexander Hendler (born April 2, 1957) is an artificial intelligence researcher at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, United States, and one of the originators of the Semantic Web. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administra ...

* Noshir Contractor * JP Rangaswami (chairman) * George Metakides * Steffen Staab * Anni Rowland-Campbell * Bill Thompson Fellows *

(also Founding Director) * Sir John Taylor Patron *

Rennie Fritchie, Baroness Fritchie Irene Tordoff Fritchie, Baroness Fritchie, DBE (née Fennell; born 29 April 1942 in Fife, Scotland), known as Rennie Fritchie, is a British life peer and former member of the House of Lords. Life/career Irene Tordoff Fennell, daughter of Mr an ...

Conferences

The first Web Science conference (WebSci09: Society on Line) was sponsored in part by WSRI and was held in Greece in March 2009. The conference had over 300 registrants from a number of fields including computing, social science, law, economics, philosophy, psychology. The conference has since continued as a yearly event. The first fully virtual Web Science conference was held in July 2020 as a result of travel restrictions arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bibliography

* * * *
Web Science: Studying the Internet to Protect Our Future
an article by

References

External links

*
Press release

Audio: Web Science: A Conversation with the Inventor of the Web
History of computing in the United Kingdom Information technology organisations based in the United Kingdom Massachusetts Institute of Technology Science and technology in Hampshire University of Southampton Web science 2006 establishments in England {{Web-stub

Key personnel

Conferences

See also

Bibliography

References

External links