Web Science and Its
Impact on the Future Web
Bebo White
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory/Stanford University
NUST, March 2015
Caveats
I am not going to list individual rich or active
areas of Web research
Such lists are always subjective and incomplete
I hope to provide an encompassing overview of
Web research and suggest a paradigm and
methodology for accomplishing it
Happy Birthday WWW!
The largest and most successful information
artifact in human history
Reflections on its multidisciplinary impact and
impact
But little said about its future and how to
support research
Assertion #1 – Goals of
Web Research
To understand the Web “through the eyes of
those who affect it and are affected by it”
To examine the Web as a new instrument for
human (and perhaps non-human) interaction
To learn how to “engineer” the Web “for
maximum benefit”
Assertion #2
The direction of Web research may not always
“track” with conference/journal/article
submissions, product announcements,
hardware/software advancements
Web Evolution
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Assertion #3
There is confusion between Web evolution and
Web discovery
New “Web versions” are simply new elements
of the Web “revealing themselves”
Web Engineering
“Web Engineering actively promotes systematic, disciplined
and quantifiable approaches towards successful
development of high-quality, ubiquitously usable Webbased systems and applications.” (Wikipedia).
A goal of Web Engineering is to distinguish Web-based
development from the traditional methods found in
Software Engineering.
But, where is the Science?
Web Science
Web Science asserts that the Web can be viewed as a
new (and unique) technical and social phenomenon that
cannot be generally described in the context of another
natural, social, or man-made (i.e., technological) science
The Web can (and should) ) be studied as a single/
growing entity (“in situ”) rather than strictly in terms of
its underlying parts (e.g., computer protocols)
Web Science was introduced to ICWI in 2008
Consider Web Topology
How to explain this
distribution
It is not random
It is greater than its parts
Assertion #4
A major aspect of Web research is not about
technology
“Living organisms, when allowed to make freely willed
decisions, seem to end up obeying some kind of
mathematical law.” (Gandhi Viswanathan, theoretical
physicist, Federal University of Alagoas, Brazil).
The understanding of a science is a goal of research;
the application of a science drives innovation
Web Evolution
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Assertion #5
Web Science provides a multi-disciplinary paradigm for
discovering the future of the Web
Studies in Web Science are critical Web research challenges for
the next decade
How can this be implemented?
How will researchers from multiple disciplines collaborate
effectively?
How can Web Science discoveries be applied to Web Engineering?
Social Machines
The significance of the Turing machine for classical
computation stemmed from its establishing a common
model through which the limits and properties of
computation could be effectively interrogated
New kinds of "machines" governed not purely by
computational processes, but by collective social
processes resulting from the amalgam of individual action
and coordination, mediated and enabled by the shared
communication substrate of the Web
(Shadbolt et.al.)
Web Observatory
Astronomers obtain a very high resolution picture of the sky
from small telescopes a long distance apart.
Many Web labs, contributing across the globe, help build an
accurate picture of human activity at planetary scale.
transcending parochial social, political, economic, legal
interpretations
Web Observatory
Network
Partners contribute their insight and experience, and
benefit from the network and business intelligence insights
Observatory events are hosted bringing together thought
leaders to learn from each other
Data sets, open or closed, can be brought in to the project
Analytics and tool sets can be contributed
Joint research and projects can be agreed
How often are we present at the
beginning of a new science and the
opportunity to research it?
Thank you! Questions? Comments?
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