Projects Profile
Project Title
Web Science: Breaking Down the Barriers to Collaboration on the Internet between China and the UK
Partnership
Professor Wendy Hall and Nigel Shadbolt from University of Southampton
Professor Yong Jiang from Tsinghua University
Project Aim
The aim of this project is to support the establishment of a joint Southampton/Tsinghua Web Science research laboratory at the Tsinghua University Graduate School in Shenzhen and in particular to explore how the technologies developed as a result can be used to support knowledge transfer between China and the UK and enable UK and Chinese businesses to successfully interoperate.
Inspiration for the projects
Web Science is the study of the social behaviours in the Web at the inter-person, inter-organizational and societal level, the technologies that enable and support this behaviour, and the interactions between these technologies and behaviours. The World Wide Web has changed the ways we communicate, collaborate, and educate but it is a striking fact that there is no systematic discipline to study the Web. At the moment we have no means of predicting the impact that future developments in the Web will have on society or business. Web Science aims to anticipate these impacts and thus learn to stay one step ahead. The researchers working within this partnership have set out to enable a China/UK Web Science initiative addressing issues related to how Web phenomena in the UK differ in uptake and exploitation potential in China.
Commercial Potential and Further Development
One objective of the early joint work is to investigate potential areas in the field of Web Science which could form the basis of future proof of concept collaborations funded by ICUK.
The Web Science Research Initiative (WSRI) is a joint venture between Southampton and MIT launched in November 2006 to enable, develop and coordinate research, thought leadership and education in Web Science across the world. The four directors of WSRI are Professors Wendy Hall and Nigel Shadbolt (Southampton), Professor Sir Tim Berners-Lee (Southampton/MIT, inventor of the Web) and Daniel J Weitzner (MIT). The Shenzen Web Science Lab will be linked via WSRI to other significant Web Science research labs outside the UK and China, which will enable the commercial and social benefits of the work undertaken in Shenzhen to be of even greater significance
The lab will be one of an international network of Web Science Research Institute (WRSI) Affliated Labs. The WSRI is a joint venture between Southampton and MIT launched in November 2006 to enable, develop and coordinate research, thought leadership and education in Web Science across the world. The four directors of WSRI are Professors Wendy Hall and Nigel Shadbolt (Southampton), Professor Sir Tim Berners-Lee (Southampton/MIT, inventor of the Web) and Daniel J Weitzner (MIT). The Shenzen Web Science Lab will be linked via WSRI to other significant Web Science research labs outside the UK and China, which will enable the commercial and social benefits of the work undertaken in Shenzhen to be of even greater significance.
UK Principal Investigator, elected President of the ACM
