Web Science ’09: Conference focuses on Society On-Line

Web Science ’09, the first European conference on Web Science, is dedicated to the presentation of research into ‘Society on the Web’.

The conference will be held in Athens from 18 to 20 March 2009 and is organized by the Web Science Research Initiative (WSRI) and the Foundation for the Hellenic World (FHW). It will bring together computer scientists and social scientists, and distinguished keynote speakers include Noshir Contractor, Joseph Sifakis and Tim Berners-Lee.

The World Wide Web does not exist without the participation of people and organizations; indeed significant proportions of people’s lives are now spent on-line in many countries. The Conference will address major issues of people’s behaviour and motivation on-line, their ability to trust websites or agents, their security and privacy. Crucially: how can the design of the Web of the future ensure that a system on which - as Tim Berners-Lee put it – democracy and commerce depends, remains 'stable and pro-human'?

In addition to the presented papers, on issues such as e-Commerce, Government and Political Life, Social Relationships, Cybercrime, Health, Culture Online, and e-Learning, the Conference will also include the Second Web Science Curriculum Workshop and a Workshop on Understanding the Impact of the Web on Scholarly Communication.

‘This Conference allows us to bring together two groups of researchers, from Computer Science and the Social Sciences, to explore the development of the Web across many different areas,’ said Professor Dame Wendy Hall, of WSRI. ‘This interdisciplinary endeavour, bringing together computer scientists and social scientists perhaps for the first time, is crucial to understanding both the human behaviour and technological design that shape the Web and its use.’

Web Science 09 will be held at The Theatron at the Hellenic Cosmos of the Foundation of the Hellenic World.