The Web Science Trust (WST) is a UK Charitable Trust with the aim of supporting the global development of Web science. It was originally started in 2006 as a joint effort between MIT and University of Southampton to formalise the social and technical aspects of the World Wide Web. The trust coordinates a set of international "WSTNet Laboratories" that include academic research groups in the emerging area of Web science.

It was first announced at MIT on 2 November 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 aims to attract government and private funds to support their many activities. The Web Science Trust supports curriculum development in universities and research institutions to train future generations of Web Scientists. 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

Fellows

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. The first fully virtual Web Science conference was held in July 2020 as a result of travel restrictions arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Web Science conferences
ConferenceDatePlaceKeynote speakersregistrants
21-24 May 2024Germany Stuttgart-Vaihingen, GermanyEszter Hargittai, Jie Tang, Dirk Hovy, Hannes Werthner
April 30-May 1, 2023United States Austin, Texas, USABob Metcalfe, Dhiraj Murthy, David Rand
26-29 June 2022Barcelona, Spain (Hybrid conference)Leila Zia, M.C. Schraefel
21-25 June 2021United Kingdom Southampton, UK (Virtual conference)Deen Freelon, Martha Lane Fox
7-10 July 2020United Kingdom Southampton, UK (Virtual conference)Jim Hendler, Gina Neff
June 30 - July 3, 2019United States Boston, USAFabien Gandon, Sandra González-Bailón
27-30 May 2018Netherlands, AmsterdamTim Berners-Lee, John Domingue
26–28 June 2017United States Troy, NY, USASteffen Staab, Jen Golbeck
22–25 May 2016Germany Hannover, GermanyDaniel Miller, Andrew Tomkins, Daniel Olmedilla, Ricardo Baeza-Yates, Jure Leskovec, Helen Margetts
28 June–1 July 2015United Kingdom Oxford, UKMarkus Strohmaier, Mia Consalvo, Rachel Gibson
23–25 June 2014United States Bloomington, Indiana, USAWendy Hall, J.P. Rangaswami, Laura DeNardis, Daniel Tunkelang
2–4 May 2013France Paris, FranceVint Cerf, Cory Doctorow
22–24 June 2012United States Evanston, Illinois, USALuis von Ahn, Sinan Aral, danah boyd, Jon Kleinberg, Sonia Livingstone, Siva Vaidyanathan200
14–17 June 2011Germany Koblenz, GermanyBarry Wellman, Jaime Teevan190
26–27 April 2010United States Raleigh, North Carolina, USASir Tim Berners-Lee, Jennifer Chayes, Melissa R. Gilbert
18–20 March 2009Greece Athens, GreeceNoshir Contractor, Nigel Shadbolt, Jacques Bus, Sir Tim Berners-Lee300+

Impact

The Web Science Trust has been influential in advancing interdisciplinary research that connects computing with the social sciences, law, and policy. Through its WSTNet laboratories and annual conferences, the Trust has encouraged studies of online trust, data ethics, and the societal impact of al

See also

Bibliography

External links