Web science experts join forces to shape 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. The announcement of the network's creation was made at the WebSci10 conference, held in Raleigh, North Carolina, US, on 26 to 27 April. 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 to work, communicate, shop and study. 'This is yet another important milestone in the progress of web science,' said Sir John Taylor, chair of the WSTNet trustee board. 'We are linking together a group of highly respected research laboratories which are all already making internationally-leading contributions through their research. We look forward to what we can achieve together in the future, through a series of joint research programmes, events and collaborations.' 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. 'WSTNet will extend our global research capabilities in web science as well as ensuring that the subject is built into university syllabuses,' said Professor Dame Wendy Hall, Managing Director of WSTNet and one of the founders of the discipline of web science. 'We will continue to extend the network to other research institutes which are already committed to web science. 'We are delighted to welcome on board all the labs and look forward to further exciting developments in the future,' added Professor Hall, who is also a member of the Scientific Council of the European Research Council (ERC). 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).