Web science

File:Human Behavior Co-constituting the Web.png

Web science is an emerging interdisciplinary field concerned with the study of large-scale socio-technical systems, particularly the World Wide Web.{{Cite journal

| last1 = Berners-Lee

| first1 = T.

| author-link1 = Tim Berners-Lee

| last2 = Hall

| first2 = W.

| author-link2 = Wendy Hall

| last3 = Hendler

| first3 = J.

| author-link3 = James Hendler

| last4 = Shadbolt

| first4 = N.

| author-link4 = Nigel Shadbolt

| last5 = Weitzner

| first5 = D.

| title = Computer Science: Enhanced: Creating a Science of the Web

| url = http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/262615/

| doi = 10.1126/science.1126902

| journal = Science

| volume = 313

| issue = 5788

| pages = 769–771

| year = 2006

| pmid = 16902115

| s2cid = 5104030

| access-date = 2021-11-26

| archive-date = 2021-04-24

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210424135357/https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/262615/

| url-status = live

| url-access = subscription

}}{{Cite journal| doi = 10.1145/1364782.1364798| last1 = Hendler| first1 = Jim| author-link1 = Jim Hendler| last2 = Shadbolt| first2 = Nigel| author-link2 = Nigel Shadbolt| title = Web science: an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the web| last3 = Hall| first3 = Wendy| author-link3 = Wendy Hall| last4 = Berners-Lee| first4 = Tim| author-link4 = Tim Berners-Lee| last5 = Weitzner| first5 = Daniel| journal = Communications of the ACM| volume = 51| issue = 7| year = 2008| url = http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/266555/1/CACM.pdf| doi-access = free| access-date = 2021-11-26| archive-date = 2021-01-23| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210123023447/https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/266555/1/CACM.pdf| url-status = live}} It considers the relationship between people and technology, the ways that society and technology co-constitute one another and the impact of this co-constitution on broader society. Web Science combines research from disciplines as diverse as sociology, computer science, economics, and mathematics.{{cite web|url=http://www.slideshare.net/webscikorea/why-do-we-need-web-science-research|title=Why Do We Need Web Science Research?|date=6 December 2009|access-date=29 June 2011|archive-date=19 October 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121019202249/http://www.slideshare.net/webscikorea/why-do-we-need-web-science-research|url-status=live}}

An earlier definition was given by American computer scientist Ben Shneiderman: "Web Science" is processing the information available on the web in similar terms to those applied to natural environment.{{cite journal | doi = 10.1145/1247001.1247022 | title=Web science | journal=Communications of the ACM | date=2007 | volume=50 | issue=6 | pages=25–27 | first=Ben | last=Shneiderman| s2cid=37743564 }}

The Web Science Institute describes Web Science as focusing "the analytical power of researchers from disciplines as diverse as mathematics, sociology, economics, psychology, law and computer science to understand and explain the Web. It is necessarily interdisciplinary – as much about social and organizational behaviour as about the underpinning technology."{{cite web|url=http://www.southampton.ac.uk/wsi/about/what_is_web_science.page?|title=What is Web Science? – Web Science Institute – University of Southampton|access-date=2021-11-26|archive-date=2021-11-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211122132050/https://www.southampton.ac.uk/wsi/about/what_is_web_science.page|url-status=live}} A central pillar of Web science development is Artificial Intelligence or "AI". The current artificial intelligence that in development at the moment is Human-Centered, with goals to further professional development courses as well as influencing public policy. Artificial intelligence developers are focused on the most impactful uses of this technology, while also hoping to expedite the growth and development of the human race.

Areas of activity

=Emergent properties=

Philip Tetlow, an IBM-based scientist influential in the emergence of web science as an independent discipline,{{cite web | url=https://www.southampton.ac.uk/wsi/news/2015/03/wsi-distinguished-lecture-phil-tetlow.page | title=WSI Distinguished Lecture, Dr Phil Tetlow | Web Science Institute | University of Southampton }} argued for the concept of web life,{{cite book | first=Philip D. | last=Tetlow |title=The Web's awake: an introduction to the field of Web science and the concept |year=2007 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HBskd46jR10C&dq=Gopala+Hemachandra&pg=PA79 |isbn=978-0-470-13794-9 }} which considers the Web not as a connected network of computers, as in common interpretations of the Internet, but rather as a sociotechnical machineNijholt, A. (2009) Socio-Technical Implementation: Socio-technical Systems in the Context of Ubiquitous Computing, Ambient Intelligence, Embodied Virtuality, and the Internet of Things. In: Handbook of Research on Socio-Technical Design and Social Networking Systems. IGI Global. capable of fusing together individuals and organisations into larger coordinated groups. It argues that unlike the technologies that have come before it, the Web is different in that its phenomenal growth and complexity are starting to outstrip our capability to control it directly, making it impossible for us to grasp its completeness in one go. Tetlow made use of Fritjof Capra's concept of the 'web of life' as a metaphor.{{cite book| last=Capra | first=Fritjof | author-link=Fritjof Capra | year=1997 | title=The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems | publisher=Anchor }}Tetlow 2009, [https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Investigations-into-Web-science-and-the-concept-of-Tetlow/c305acf463dc55c96a15ef257844a251916b3231#references Investigations into Web science and the concept of Web life]

Research groups

There are numerous academic research groups engaged in Web Science research,{{cite web|url=http://tw.rpi.edu/web/wsrc|title=WSTNet at RPI: Web Science Research Center|date=30 October 2012|access-date=17 April 2013|archive-date=25 June 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130625103850/http://tw.rpi.edu/web/wsrc|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=http://eng.webst.kaist.ac.kr/|title=웹사이언스 공학|publisher=eng.webst.kaist.ac.kr|access-date=2013-03-23|archive-date=2013-10-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131017151811/http://eng.webst.kaist.ac.kr/|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=http://west.uni-koblenz.de/|title=Institute WeST|access-date=2012-10-14|archive-date=2013-01-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130116132242/http://west.uni-koblenz.de/|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=http://www.ebusiness-unibw.org/|title=E-Business and Web Science Research Group at Bundeswehr University Munich|access-date=2011-06-29|archive-date=2011-07-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110701105414/http://ebusiness-unibw.org/|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=http://dtc.webscience.ecs.soton.ac.uk/|title=Education – Web Science Institute – University of Southampton|access-date=2013-07-30|archive-date=2013-08-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130807173457/http://dtc.webscience.ecs.soton.ac.uk/|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=http://www.jku.at/content/e262/e242/e2380/e131292|title=JKU » Webwissenschaften – Master|access-date=2013-11-29|archive-date=2018-01-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180117045116/http://www.jku.at/content/e262/e242/e2380/e131292|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/news/4365|title=New Web Science Institute to explore how the Web will shape our future – Electronics and Computer Science – University of Southampton|access-date=2013-12-01|archive-date=2013-12-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203043145/http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/news/4365|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=http://webscience.blogs.usj.edu.lb|title=UIR Web Science @CEMAM – USJ – Beirut / Lebanon|access-date=2021-11-26|archive-date=2020-07-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200713180518/http://webscience.blogs.usj.edu.lb/|url-status=live}} many of which are members of WSTNet, the Web Science Trust Network of research labs. Health Web Science emerged as a sub-discipline of Web Science that studies the role of the Web's impact on human's health outcomes and how to further utilize the Web to improve health outcomes.http://www.websci11.org/workshops/health-web-science-workshop/ {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131125113536/http://www.websci11.org/workshops/health-web-science-workshop/ |date=2013-11-25 }}>{{Cite web |url=http://www.websci12.org/workshops/health-web-science-workshop |title=Health Web Science | ACM Web Science 2012 |access-date=2021-11-26 |archive-date=2014-09-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140903092934/http://www.websci12.org/workshops/health-web-science-workshop |url-status=dead }}{{cite journal|title=The Emergent Discipline of Health Web Science|first1=Joanne S|last1=Luciano|first2=Grant P|last2=Cumming|first3=Mark D|last3=Wilkinson|first4=Eva|last4=Kahana|journal=Journal of Medical Internet Research|date=1 January 2013|volume=15|issue=8|pages=e166|doi=10.2196/jmir.2499|pmid=23968998|pmc=3758025|doi-access=free }}{{cite journal | doi = 10.1561/1800000019 | volume=4 | title=Health Web Science | journal=Foundations and Trends in Web Science | year=2013 | pages=269–419| last1=Luciano | first1=Joanne S. | issue=4 }} These groups focus on the developmental possibilities, provided through Web Science, in areas such as health care and social welfare. Discussion of web science has been widely adopted as a method in which the internet can have a real world impact in the field of medicine, currently coined Medicine 2.0. The World Wide Web acts as a medium for the spread and circulation of knowledge, though these various research groups consider themselves responsible for maintaining verifiable and testable knowledge. Using their knowledge of the healthcare system as well as web science, researchers are focused on formatting and structuring their knowledge in a way that is easily accessible throughout the internet. The World Wide Web is quickly evolving meaning that the information we provide and its formatting must also. Recognizing the overlap between both aspects, the spread of knowledge and development of the internet, allows us to properly display our knowledge in a manner that evolves as quickly as the internet and everyday medical research. The accessibility of the internet and quick development of knowledge must be companied with efficient formatting to allocate successful dissemination of information, as described by these various researcher groups.

Related major conferences

Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), Hypertext Conference (HT) sponsored by SIGWEB
ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI)
International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media (ICWSM)
The Web Conference (WWW)
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Web Science Conference (WebSci)

References

External links

[http://www.nowpublishers.com/product.aspx?product=WEB&doi=1800000001 A Framework for Web Science]
[http://www.w3.org/2007/Talks/1018-websci-mit-tbl/ Talk on web science] by W3C
[http://west.uni-koblenz.de/mws MSc on Web Science at Institute WeST, University of Koblenz-Landau, Germany] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211209044555/https://west.uni-koblenz.de/mws |date=2021-12-09 }}
[http://www.jku.at/content/e262/e242/e2380/e131292 MSc on Web Sciences divided into different branches of study at Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180117045116/http://www.jku.at/content/e262/e242/e2380/e131292 |date=2018-01-17 }}
{{YouTube|9SqUngY0e5U|What is Web Science? (Video clip)}}
[http://webscience-education-workshop.blogs.usj.edu.lb The Web Science Education Workshop]
[http://webscience-education-workshop.blogs.usj.edu.lb/about-web-science-education/ The Web Science Education Map]
[http://webscience.fh-koeln.de/live/ Master's Programme WebScience at Cologne University of Applied Sciences]
[http://www.southampton.ac.uk/wsi/ The Web Science Institute at the University of Southampton]

Category:Cyberspace

Category:Digital media