Founded 2006 (2006) | ||
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Type Private company limited by guarantee Mission Working with global partners to understand what the Web is, engineer its future, and ensure its social benefit. Website | ||
The Web Science Trust is UK Charitable Trust which helps to support activities related to the field of Web Science. It was originally started in 2006 as a joint effort between MIT and University of Southampton to bridge and formalise the social and technical aspects of the World Wide Web. The Trust now coordinates a set of international "WSTNet Laboratories" that include many of the top academic research groups in the emerging area of Web science.
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It was first announced at MIT on November 2, 2006 as the Web Science Research Initiative (WSRI), changing its name in 2009 to the Web Science Trust. Tim Berners-Lee originally led this program, now run by a Board of Trustees, which also aims to attract government and private funds, and is involved in creating new undergraduate and graduate curricula. Given the similarities between Web Science and Information Science, Web Science overlaps with the interests of the ISchool movement, particularly in the United States, but focuses more specifically on the Web itself. The annual Web Science conference brings together participants from many fields including those studying both the social and the computational aspects of the World Wide Web.
Areas of interest include:
Key Personnel
Directors/Trustees
Other members of the board
Fellows
Patron
Conferences
The first Web Science conference (WebSci09: Society on Line) was sponsored in part by WSRI and was held in Greece in March 2009. The conference had over 300 registrants from a number of fields including computing, social science, law, economics, philosophy, psychology. The conference has since continued as a yearly event.