Talk at Web Science Montpellier Meetup - 13th May 2011

1. The
Fundamentals
of
the
Web,
the
Importance
of
Web
Science
LA
Carr
University
of
Southampton,
UK

2. Introduc9on
Web
Science
is
the
study
of
the
technologies
and
policies
that
support
the
co-­‐construc7on
of
a
linked
online
environment
by
a
networked
society.
• The
Web
is
not
a
thing
– It
is
a
verb,
not
a
noun.
A
performance,
not
an
object.
• The
Web
wasn’t
just
invented
by
Tim
Berners-­‐Lee
– It
was
co-­‐constructed
with
society
• The
Web
didn’t
just
appear
out
of
nothing
– It
was
just
the
latest
proposal
for
scaling
communica9on
• Hence
we
can’t
take
it
for
granted.
We
need
to
study
it
and
understand
it
to
retain
its
desirable
features.

3. The
Web
is
a
Performance…
Create
a
Contribute
The
middle
homepage
to
a
Publish
a
space
genome
paper
Edit
a
represents
the
Communi7es
wikipedia
ac7vity
of
entry
individuals
Special
Individuals
(poten7ally
Interest
Companies
ac7ng
in
Groups
HTTP
URIs
concert)
who
create
Society
Servers
interlinked
Caches
resources
that
Ins7tu7ons
Web
both
reflect
and
reinforce
the
Government
Architecture
interlinkedness
of
society
and
HTML
RDF
social
Browsers
(economic,
Blog
Tweet
legal,
personal)
Place
a
interac7on.
Update
bid
at
an
Make
a
…and
a
record
of
Facebook
YouTube
video
aucBon
response
that
performance

4. Performing
on
the
Web
• It’s
something
we
do,
not
a
product
we
buy
✗ Informa9on
and
Communica9on
Technology
ü Informing
and
Communica9ng
Technology
Wikipedia
–
new
knowledge
is
edited
Academia
–
new
knowledge
is
created
and
managed
on
the
web
through
privately
and
some9mes
presented
on
processes
that
are
discussed
and
the
Web.
Centuries-­‐old
processes
and
managed
through
the
Web.
Wikipedia
values
pre-­‐exist
in
academic
only
exists
because
of
the
wikipedia
organisa9ons
and
are
re-­‐interpreted
community;
the
wikipedia
community
for
the
prevailing
technology.
only
exists
because
of
the
Web.
Both
are
a
linked
resource
with
an
Different
parts
of
society
have
different
emerging
set
of
values
and
standards.
needs
to
communicate
for
different
ends.

5. Academics
and
the
Web
sustainability
accountability
&
auditability
distrust
SCIENTIFIC
&
technology
affordances
SCHOLARLY
business
interests
scien9fic
data
mining
COMMS
status
quo
high
moral
ground
more
web,
increasing
openness
• Open
Access,
Open
Data,
Open
Educa9onal
Resources
– Web
Technology
joins
the
High
Moral
Ground
• vs
the
established
economic
model
for
ensuring
con9nuity
of
informa9on
produc9on
– trading
of
privately
held
informa9on
through
subscrip9on
products
such
as
journals
or
magazines

6. Society
is
Diverse
InsBtuBon
ObjecBve
Commerce
Academy
Create
and
transmit
Academy
knowledge
Commerce
Trade
goods
Press
Government
Society
Press
Report
news
Media
Broadcast
content
Media
Military
Defend
society
Military
Government
Control
society
&
share
resources
The
development
of
society
as
a
whole
(nuanced
and
structured
and
refined)
is
inextricably
related
to
the
technology
of
informa9on
provision,
consump9on
and
dissemina9on
(e.g.
wri9ng,
reading,
prin9ng,
educa9on).
Different
parts
of
society
have
different
objec7ves
and
hence
incompa7ble
Web
requirements,
e.g.
openness,
security,
transparency,
privacy.

7. ICT
designs
from
the
last
century
Sponsor
System
Scope
Real
Date
Important
ProperBes
Press
Reuters
Professional,
✔
1850
News
&
stock
informa9on
(originally
carrier
pigeon
and
centralised
subsequently
telegraph)
Private
Mundaneum
Public,
centralised
✔
1920
Based
on
indexing
technology
(the
library
card)
Ins9tu9on
Military
Memex
Scholarly,
individual,
✗
1945
Aimed
at
Scien9sts
and
Technologists
in
WWII
centralised
Media
Xanadu
Public,
decentralised
✗
1960
Focused
on
DRM,
reuse
and
wri9ng
for
“crea9ves”
Media
CEEFAX
Public,
na9onal,
✔
1970
Broadcast,
linked,
not
par9cipatory
centralised
Government
Minitel
Public,
na9onal,
✔
1980
Commercial
services
and
informa9on
centralised
Academy
FTP
/
Archie
/
Public,
decentralised
✔
1985
Downloaded
resources
(papers,
reports)
to
hard
drives
(CS
&
HEP)
Anarchie
and
printed
them
on
LaserWriters.
Commerce
Hypercard,
Private,
centralised
✔
1988
Personal
applica9ons,
some9mes
9ed
to
mul9media
HyperTIES
resources
on
CDROMs
/
video
disks
Academy
(HEP)
WWW
Public,
global,
✔
1990
Universal
naming,
linking,
interoperability,
par9cipa9ve.
decentralised
However
no
wri9ng,
no
indexing.
Academy
(CS)
Microcosm
Private,
centralised
✔
1990
Sophis9cated
linking
and
openness
for
personal
informa9on
stores
Academy
(CS)
HyperG
Public,
centralised
✔
1990
Extension
of
Web
for
with
support
for
wri9ng,
indexing
and
consistency
management.
Commerce
AOL,
Public,
centralised
✔
1990
Dialup
access
to
email,
forums,
chat
rooms
and
CompuServ
informa9on
resources

8. NASA
WMAP
Science
Team
hip://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/news/3yr_release.html

9. The
Big
Bang:
Informa9on
&
Fundamental
Constants
• The
Web
spread
the
condi9ons
of
its
ini9al
crea9on
throughout
the
whole
of
society
as
it
underwent
an
ini9al
infla9onary
phase.
• Consequently,
the
assump9on
of
the
open
exchange
of
informa9on
(found
in
an
academic
physics
research
laboratory)
is
now
being
imposed
on
the
rest
of
society.
• The
ques9on
that
Web
Science
must
address
is
whether
the
Web,
open
access,
open
data
and
the
Scien9fic
and
Crea9ve
Commons
offer
us
a
beneficial
opportunity,
or
a
dangerous
cul-­‐de-­‐sac?
• For
further
details
see
Carr,
L.,
Pope,
C.
and
Halford,
S.
(2010)
Could
the
Web
be
a
Temporary
Glitch?
In:
WebSci10:
Extending
the
Fron7ers
of
Society
On-­‐Line,
April
26-­‐27th,
2010,
Raleigh,
NC:
US.
hip://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/21032/

10. Dissemina9on
of
Knowledge
• An
old
tradi9on
and
a
new
technology
have
converged
to
make
possible
an
unprecedented
public
good.
(Budapest
Open
Access
Ini7a7ve,
2001)

11. Ins9tu9onal
Repositories

12. Web
Science
Ques9ons
• How
would
the
world
change
if
one
of
the
previous
Web
systems
had
been
in
the
right
place
at
the
right
9me
for
success?
– What
if
the
commercial,
crea9ve
Web
had
succeeded
(Xanadu
+
AOL)
instead
of
the
open,
academic
Web?
• How
will
the
world
change
as
other
parts
of
society
impose
their
requirements
on
the
Web?
– What
if
the
requirements
of
security
and
policing
take
future
priority
over
free
exchange
of
informa9on
or
unrestricted
transfer
of
knowledge?

13. Urgent
Web
Science
Ques9ons
• Are
the
public
and
open
aspects
of
the
Web
fundamental
constants
of
its
opera9on?
• Are
they
a
permanent
change
in
our
society’s
informa9on
processes,
or
just
a
temporary
mistake?
– Are
open
source,
open
access,
open
science
&
crea9ve
commons
efficient,
effec9ve
and
sustainable
alterna9ves
to
fee-­‐based
transfer
of
knowledge-­‐
bearing
artefacts?

14. Summary
• We
take
for
granted
a
Web
that
provides
free
and
unrestricted
informa9on
exchange
• But
the
Web
is
under
pressure
to
change
– to
respond
to
issues
of
security,
commerce,
criminality,
privacy
• Web
Science
needs
to
– explain
how
the
Web
impacts
society
– predict
the
outcomes
of
proposed
changes
to
Web
infrastructure
on
business
and
society.