Hello I'm organising a Web Science workshop at the International Web Conference (WWW2008) in April in Beijing - the workshop focuses on the evolution of the Web and the study of that evolution. The Call for Papers is below. We are particularly interested in position papers which predict (and explain) how people think the Web will evolve into the future (including Semantic Web, Web 2.0, relationship to grid, ...). We hope this will lead to a fun and informative event! I'd be very grateful if you could forward this call to your colleagues and students who might be interested in submitting papers to this event, and to appropriate mailing lists. This is an interdisciplinary workshop, so please also pass this on to your colleagues in other disciplines. Many thanks -- Dave Understanding Web Evolution: A Prerequisite for Web Science 22 April 2008, Beijing, China Web Science Workshop at WWW2008 17th International World Wide Web Conference http://webscience.org/events/www2008-ws.html Why is the Web the way it is? How will it evolve? What will it be like in 5 years time - or 20, or 100? This workshop invites you to present and explain your prediction of the future of the Web, discuss how this evolution can be observed and influenced, and to reflect on why the Web has evolved to its current state. Since its inception less than two decades ago, the World Wide Web has changed the ways we communicate, collaborate, and educate. In a very short-space of time we have come to live in a web-dependent society within a web-dependent world. There is a growing realization among many researchers that a clear research agenda aimed at understanding the current, evolving, and potential Web is needed. If we want to model the Web, if we want to understand the architectural principles that have provided for its growth, and if we want to be sure that it supports the basic social values of trustworthiness, privacy, and respect for social boundaries, then we must chart out a research agenda that targets the Web as a primary focus of attention. The Web is an engineered space created through formally specified languages and protocols. However, because humans are the creators of the content of Web pages and the links between them, their interactions form emergent patterns in the Web at a macroscopic scale. These human interactions are, in turn, governed by social conventions and laws. Web Science embraces the study of these phenomena. The outcomes of the workshop will contribute to the understanding of how we study the Web as both a technical and social phenomenon. We invite submission of full papers and position papers within this evolutionary perspective. Topics include: * Your predictions and explanations about the future of the Web! * Models for Web growth and evolution * Social Science aspects of web evolution * Techniques for observation and measurement * Architectural principles of the Web * The Web ecosystem * Comparison of Web and Semantic Web evolution * Comparison of the Web with other large scale distributed systems * Web as an instrument for measuring social behaviour * Influencing Web evolution * Historical evolution of the Web * Methodologies for Web Science * Impact of emerging technologies (e.g. Pervasive Computing, Grid) on Web evolution * Role of standards in Web evolution * Web economics Papers will be published in the workshop proceedings and on the WSRI web site. Important Dates --------------- * Submission Deadline: Feb 18th, 2008 * Notification of Acceptance: March 3rd, 2008 * Camera Ready Due: March 14th, 2008 * Workshop Date: April 22nd, 2008 Submission ---------- Papers should be submitted in the WWW2008 proceedings format - see http://www2008.org/submissions/ Position papers should be up to 4 pages in length and full papers up to 8 pages. Submissions will be handled by EasyChair using a link which will be provided on the workshop Web page http://webscience.org/events/www2008-ws.html Workshop Organisers ------------------- * David De Roure, University of Southampton * Wendy Hall, University of Southampton Program Committee ----------------- * Daniel Weitzner, W3C/MIT * Jim Hendler, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute * Rob Procter, University of Manchester and National Centre for e-Social Science * Les Carr, University of Southampton * Daniel Dajun Zeng, University of Arizona * Fei-Yue Wang, University of Arizona * Mark Weal, University of Southampton * Hai Zhuge, Institute of Computing Technology in Chinese Academy of Sciences Enquiries --------- If you have any queries about the workshop, please contact Susan Davies, Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton, UK. Email info@webscience.org