Towards a Science of the World Wide Web

James Hendler

Distinguished Lecture

4 pm on Wednesday, 6 December 2006
Swann Lecture Theatre
Michael Swann Building
The King's Buildings.

Computer Science research in the area of the World Wide Web has largely focused on improved search for individual web pages or on the modeling of Web connectivity (using the tools of networking). However, given the huge impact of the Web on our world, this seems to be an impoverished view. What are the principles of engineering that have made the Web flourish? How can we engineer new technologies, that will extend the capabilities of the Web? What are the social impacts of Web use, and how can Web technologies both allow greater freedoms while preserving the ones we have?

In this talk, I will use some examples from Semantic Web and "policy aware" information access to demonstrate new Web technologies and how we might explore some of the trade-offs between making it easier to integrate information on the Web with protecting that information from abuse. I will explore some of the emerging trends on the Web including social networking, blogging, and beyond page search, and discuss some of the research and technology challenges that they pose to continued Web growth and access, and some new technologies being explored to address these challenges.