Web science experts create an alliance for Net's future
A network of international, world-class web researchers has created an alliance to support research and education programmes into web science. The Web Science Trust Network of Laboratories (WSTNet) will count some of the leading academic researchers in web science among its members and will help enhance the growing influence of the Web.
Web Science Trust Network of Laboratories (WSTNet)'s goal is to foster multidisciplinary research into web science. The network will be run by the Web Science Trust, which is hosted by the University of Southampton in the UK, and will bring together top players in academia and industry as well as business leaders, entrepreneurs and policymakers from all over the world to push forward the frontiers of the Internet and address its future challenges, potential and direction.
The importance of web science is proliferating as the influence of the Internet spreads into every corner of society, giving opportunities undreamt of just 20 years ago. The Web has transformed society and is the ultimate important information hub on the planet with millions of people using it every day.
A series of agreements between the members of WSTNet will allow the laboratories that belong to the network to provide support for research and development of web science.
The network will organise many events including workshops, conferences, meetings and summer schools, and will identity opportunities for fundraising and public events as part of its drive to advance web science. It will also organise the ongoing series of WebSci conferences, the first of which was held in Athens, Greece, last year. This year, WebSci10 conference has been held in Raleigh, South Carolina, US, on 26 to 27 April.
The 10 founding laboratories of WSTNet are the University of Southern California (US), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US), Vrije Universiteit (the Netherlands), Digital Enterprise Research Institute (Ireland), Universität Koblenz-Landau (Germany), Oxford Internet Institute (UK), Northwestern University (US), Tsinghua-Southampton Web Science Laboratory Shenzhen (China), Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (US), and the University of Southampton (UK).