Multidisciplinarity and its implications

A Web Science Perspective

The Web
Micro scale
of documents of links of data Macro scale of social activity of business activity of citizen activity

Do we have what is needed to:

Understand its evolution? Analyse its impact on human behaviour? Anticipate future developments?
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Web Science
Studying the Web as Infrastructure Studying the Web as a phenomenon Interdisciplinary research methods
o o o

Analyse the evolution of the Web Detect current trends Predict future developments Computational perspective Mathematical perspective Social science perspective Economic perspective Legal perspective

A research roadmap
o o o o o

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The cost of interdisciplinarity

Resources to kick-start activities Resources to maintain momentum Peer review across disciplines PhD supervision and examination Benefits in the medium or longer term

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Web Science Trust (WST)

WSTnet Curriculum Design ACM Web Science Conference

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Web Science DTC

Recruiting up to 20 students per year PhD supervisors from different disciplines Disciplines currently represented:
o Computer

Science, Criminology, Law, Management, Humanities, Psychology, Social Statistics, Sociology

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WAIS - Web and Internet Science Group

Web Science Semantic Web Linked data Social Web and virtual communities Knowledge Technologies Pervasive Web Trust and Provenance Multimedia Web Sensor Web Technology enhanced learning Web accessibility

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Directions

Draw from existing relevant work in the interdisciplinary area Identify the low-hanging fruit Curriculum design activity Identify initial project themes that will carry the work forward o People o Data o Infrastructures o Industrial liaison Anticipate growth of research area (new participations, variations of research themes, multiple conferences)

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Open Data Institute

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thank you
Thanassis Tiropanis tt2@ecs.soton.ac.uk

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