ElectricNews.net:News:Berners-Lee fishing for net knowledge
Friday, November 03 2006 |
| The 'Father of the World Wide Web' is casting a net across the Atlantic as MIT and the University of Southampton join him in a project to research the web. |
| Tim Berners-Lee, the British scientist who first conceived the hypertext software that underpins the world wide web, announced that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Southampton will collaborate on the Web Science Research Initiative (WSRI). The initiative will perform research in an effort to understand the scientific, technical and social challenges that lie ahead with the continued growth of the web.
The research will focus on the volume of online information, how it documents aspects of human activity and knowledge, and assess the reliability of this information as well as the social and legal ramifications.
"As the Web celebrates its first decade of widespread use, we still know surprisingly little about how it evolved, and we have only scratched the surface of what could be realised with deeper scientific investigation into its design, operation and impact on society," said Berners-Lee.
The British scientist first proposed the web while developing ways to control computers remotely at CERN, the Geneva-based European Organisation for Nuclear Research, in 1989.
The aim of the WSRI is to allow researchers to scientifically study the web and to find means that will allow the web to grow and be used to its full potential. The initiative will provide a forum for scientists and scholars to collaborate on what is the first scientific research effort specifically designed to study the web and to develop a new discipline of science for future generations of researchers.
The WSRI will be based at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT and at the University of Southampton's School of Electronic and Computer Science. The project's initial plans include joint research projects, workshops and student and faculty exchanges between the two institutions.
The WSRI has received financial backing from Google and IBM and the universities intend to raise more funds from corporations. The initiative will have four founding directors: Berners Lee, Wendy Hall and Nigel Shadbolt from the University of Southampton, and Daniel Weitzner from MIT. |
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