The  Fundamentals  of  the  Web,  the  Importance  of  Web  Science  

LA  Carr  University  of  Southampton,  UK  

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.  

 

The  Web  is  a  Performance…  

Society  Web  

Architecture  

HTTP  URIs  

HTML  

Browsers  

Servers  

RDF  

Caches  

Individuals  

Companies  

Ins7tu7ons  

Communi7es  

Special  Interest  Groups  

Government  

The  middle  space  represents  the  ac7vity  of  individuals  (poten7ally  ac7ng  in  concert)  who  create  interlinked  resources  that  both  reflect  and  reinforce  the  interlinkedness  of  society  and  social  (economic,  legal,  personal)  interac7on.  

Blog  

Update  Facebook    

Make  a  YouTube  video  response  

Create  a  homepage  

Edit  a  wikipedia  entry  

Publish  a  paper  

Contribute  to  a  genome  

Tweet  

Place  a  bid  at  an  aucBon  

…and  a  record  of  that  performance  

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  and  managed  on  the  web  through  processes  that  are  discussed  and  managed  through  the  Web.  Wikipedia  only  exists  because  of  the  wikipedia  community;  the  wikipedia  community  only  exists  because  of  the  Web.  Both  are  a  linked  resource  with  an  emerging  set  of  values  and  standards.  

Academia  –  new  knowledge  is  created  privately  and  some9mes  presented  on  the  Web.  Centuries-­‐old  processes  and  values  pre-­‐exist  in  academic  organisa9ons  and  are  re-­‐interpreted  for  the  prevailing  technology.  

Different  parts  of  society  have  different  needs  to  communicate  for  different  ends.  

Academics  and  the  Web  

•  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  

technology  affordances  

accountability  &  auditability  

scien9fic  data  mining  

high  moral  ground  

distrust  

sustainability  

business    interests  

status  quo  

SCIENTIFIC  &  SCHOLARLY  COMMS  

more  web,  increasing  openness  

Society  is  Diverse  

Society  

Academy  Commerce  

Press  

Media  Military  

Government  

InsBtuBon   ObjecBve  

Academy   Create  and  transmit  knowledge  

Commerce   Trade  goods  

Press   Report  news  

Media   Broadcast  content  

Military   Defend  society  

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.  

ICT  designs  from  the  last  century  Sponsor   System   Scope   Real   Date   Important  ProperBes  

Press   Reuters   Professional,  centralised  

✔   1850   News  &  stock  informa9on  (originally  carrier  pigeon  and  subsequently  telegraph)  

Private  Ins9tu9on  

Mundaneum   Public,  centralised     ✔   1920   Based  on  indexing  technology  (the  library  card)  

Military   Memex   Scholarly,  individual,  centralised  

✗   1945   Aimed  at  Scien9sts  and  Technologists  in  WWII  

Media   Xanadu   Public,  decentralised   ✗   1960   Focused  on  DRM,  reuse  and  wri9ng  for  “crea9ves”  

Media   CEEFAX   Public,  na9onal,  centralised  

✔   1970   Broadcast,  linked,  not  par9cipatory    

Government   Minitel   Public,  na9onal,  centralised  

✔   1980   Commercial  services  and  informa9on  

Academy  (CS  &  HEP)  

FTP  /  Archie  /  Anarchie  

Public,  decentralised   ✔   1985   Downloaded  resources  (papers,  reports)  to  hard  drives  and  printed  them  on  LaserWriters.  

Commerce   Hypercard,  HyperTIES  

Private,  centralised   ✔   1988   Personal  applica9ons,  some9mes  9ed  to  mul9media  resources  on  CDROMs  /  video  disks  

Academy  (HEP)   WWW   Public,  global,  decentralised  

✔   1990   Universal  naming,  linking,  interoperability,  par9cipa9ve.  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,  CompuServ  

Public,  centralised   ✔   1990   Dialup  access  to  email,  forums,  chat  rooms  and  informa9on  resources  

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

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/  

Dissemina9on  of  Knowledge  

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

Ins9tu9onal  Repositories  

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?  

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?  

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.