Web Science Trust facts for kids
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| Founded | 2006 |
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| Type | Private company limited by guarantee |
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Key people
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JP Rangaswami, chair of the board Wendy Hall, managing director |
| Website | www.webscience.org |
The Web Science Trust (WST) is a charity in the UK. Its main goal is to help develop Web science around the world. It started in 2006 as a joint project between MIT (a famous university in the USA) and the University of Southampton in the UK. They wanted to officially study both the social (how people use it) and technical (how it works) parts of the World Wide Web.
The Trust helps to organize special international groups called "WSTNet Laboratories." These are academic research teams that study the growing field of Web science.
It was first announced in 2006 as the Web Science Research Initiative (WSRI). In 2009, its name changed to the Web Science Trust. Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the World Wide Web, first led this program. Now, a Board of Trustees runs it. The Trust tries to get money from governments and private groups to support its many activities. The Web Science Trust helps universities create courses to train the next generation of Web Scientists.
Web Science is similar to Information Science, especially in the USA. However, Web Science focuses more closely on the Web itself. The yearly Web Science conference brings together people from many different areas. These include those who study how people use the Web and how the Web's computer systems work.
Contents
What Web Science Studies
Web Science looks at many interesting topics related to the internet. Here are some of them:
- Social networks: How people connect online, like on social media sites.
- Social machines: How people and computers work together to create something new.
- Collaboration: How people work together using online tools.
- Understanding online communities: How groups of people interact on the internet.
- Analyzing human interactions in social media: How people behave and communicate on platforms like TikTok or Instagram.
- Web observatories: Tools that watch and study how the Web changes over time.
- Making the Web safer: Developing ways to improve privacy and trust online.
People Who Lead the Trust
The Web Science Trust has a team of important people who guide its work.
Directors and Trustees
These people help make big decisions for the Trust:
- Wendy Hall (managing director)
- Nigel Shadbolt
- James Hendler
- Noshir Contractor
- JP Rangaswami (chairman)
- George Metakides
- Steffen Staab
- Anni Rowland-Campbell
- Bill Thompson
Fellows
These are special members who have made important contributions:
- Tim Berners-Lee (also a founding director)
- Sir John Taylor
Patron
A patron is someone who supports the organization:
- Rennie Fritchie, Baroness Fritchie
Web Science Conferences
The Web Science Trust helps organize yearly conferences. These events bring together experts and students from all over the world. They share new ideas and research about Web science.
The very first Web Science conference was called WebSci09: Society on Line. It happened in Greece in March 2009. Over 300 people attended from many different fields. These included computer science, social science, law, economics, and psychology. The conference has been held every year since then. In July 2020, the conference was held completely online. This was because of travel rules during the COVID-19 pandemic.
| Conference | Date | Place | Keynote speakers | registrants |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Web Science 2024 | 21-24 May 2024 |  Stuttgart-Vaihingen, Germany |
Eszter Hargittai, Jie Tang, Dirk Hovy, Hannes Werthner | |
| Web Science 2023 | April 30-May 1, 2023 |  Austin, Texas, USA |
Bob Metcalfe, Dhiraj Murthy, David Rand | |
| Web Science 2022 | 26-29 June 2022 | Barcelona, Spain (Hybrid conference) | Leila Zia, M.C. Schraefel | |
| Web Science 2021 | 21-25 June 2021 |  Southampton, UK (Virtual conference) |
Deen Freelon, Martha Lane Fox | |
| Web Science 2020 | 7-10 July 2020 | Southampton, UK (Virtual conference) |
Jim Hendler, Gina Neff | |
| Web Science 2019 | June 30 - July 3, 2019 | Boston, USA |
Fabien Gandon, Sandra González-Bailón | |
| Web Science 2018 | 27-30 May 2018 |  Netherlands, Amsterdam |
Tim Berners-Lee, John Domingue | |
| Web Science 2017 | 26–28 June 2017 | Troy, NY, USA |
Steffen Staab, Jen Golbeck | |
| Web Science 2016 | 22–25 May 2016 | Hannover, Germany |
Daniel Miller, Andrew Tomkins, Daniel Olmedilla, Ricardo Baeza-Yates, Jure Leskovec, Helen Margetts | |
| Web Science 2015 | 28 June–1 July 2015 | Oxford, UK |
Markus Strohmaier, Mia Consalvo, Rachel Gibson | |
| Web Science 2014 | 23–25 June 2014 | Bloomington, Indiana, USA |
Wendy Hall, J.P. Rangaswami, Laura DeNardis, Daniel Tunkelang | |
| Web Science 2013 | 2–4 May 2013 |  Paris, France |
Vint Cerf, Cory Doctorow | |
| Web Science 2012 | 22–24 June 2012 | Evanston, Illinois, USA |
Luis von Ahn, Sinan Aral, danah boyd, Jon Kleinberg, Sonia Livingstone, Siva Vaidyanathan | 200 |
| Web Science 2011 | 14–17 June 2011 | Koblenz, Germany |
Barry Wellman, Jaime Teevan | 190 |
| Web Science 2010 | 26–27 April 2010 | Raleigh, North Carolina, USA |
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Jennifer Chayes, Melissa R. Gilbert | |
| Web Science 2009 | 18–20 March 2009 |  Athens, Greece |
Noshir Contractor, Nigel Shadbolt, Jacques Bus, Sir Tim Berners-Lee | 300+ |
See also
- List of I-Schools
- World Wide Web
- Webometrics
- Web Engineering
