Lisa Harris Marketing

Just back from a great Web Science event in Koblenz. Social network analysis was by far the most dominant theme, and the full selection of papers can be accessed here.

Where were the business peeps though? A commercial perspective on some of these great ideas would have been very useful. For example, Karolin Kapler’s excellent presentation titled ‘social media as a new social fetish’ has significant relevance to marketers tempted to evaluate the impact of Facebook communities on the basis of ‘likes’. Karolin discussed the trend of ‘interpassivity’ where users substitute an online action for a ‘real’ one – for example, setting up an impressive selection of RSS feeds does not mean that any of them are actually read, or ‘liking’ a particular cause may not necessarily lead to a charitable donation. Businesses who are currently paying out cash or other benefits for ‘likes’ on their page ought to bear this phenomenon in mind…

For a tweet-sized flavour of the conference, check out the Alchemist analysis

And the Rhine boat trip was fabulous J

If you are shortly to graduate you might like to apply for a place at the conference ‘Profiting From The Web’, 2pm on 23 May 2011 at the Royal Society in London.  This event is free and there are 25 places available for students interested in the Web and who are potential or current applicants for a £13k studentship to study for a PhD in Web Science at the University of Southampton.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the Web, will be leading the discussions, and as well as being part of a top international event there will be an opportunity to talk to current students and lecturers and find out more about what it might be like to study the web at Southampton.

The event is being attended by some of the top academics and industry bodies from around the world.  To find out more about the event go to: http://webscience.ecs.soton.ac.uk/dtc/events/profitingfromtheweb

To apply for a place, please fill in the online booking form http://tinyurl.com/ProfitingFromTheNewWeb

“The Web is one of the most disruptive and transformative innovations we have ever witnessed. We must understand the forces that have shaped it, anticipate its evolution, and determine its future social and economic impact. But we must also research a next generation of the Web.”  Professor Nigel Shadbolt, Research Director, Doctoral Training Centre, University of Southampton.

Offer: A fully funded 4-year MSc/PhD studentship – annual stipend £13,590.00 (tax free) and all fees paid (Equals a monthly pay of £1,130)

Topic: Anything relevant to the Web, Social Networking, Semantic Web, e-commerce, e-learning etc.

We have 10 studentship opportunities to start this October. We are contacting only the brightest students to invite them to apply. No need for computer science or programming experience.

The 4-year programme consists of a one year taught MSc course and then a 3-year PhD programme. Currently, we have students from the following disciplines:

  * Law * Sociology * Economics * Geography * Electronics * Global Politics

  * Psychology * Software Engineering * ITO * Archaeological Science

  * History of Art * Criminal Justice * Museum Studies * Management

  * International Relations * Philosophy * Multimedia applications

  * National Sciences * Archaeology * Physics * Internet Engineering

  * Computer Security * Computer Science

We offer you the chance to be part of this new, exciting and pioneering research area.

Check out the PhD opportunities at the Web Science Doctoral Training Centre:  http://webscience.ecs.soton.ac.uk/dtc/

Application deadline: 31^st May 2011

William Dampier explored and mapped the coast of Western Australia fully 80 years before James Cook encountered Botany Bay. Largely forgotten today, Dampier landed in Shark Bay, Western Australia in 1699. He was a true pioneer with lasting influence upon such diverse fields as evolution, exploration, meteorology, navigation, commerce and travel writing. He was also a pirate who could have faced the same grisly fate as his contemporary Captain Kidd. But what does Dampier’s story have to do with Web Science in the 21^st Century? Please bear with me while I outline his achievements…

Dampier was the first man to sail three times around the world, and his best-selling accounts of his adventures inspired Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels and Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. The description of his travels and the potential he identified for trade with unknown lands helped to stimulate the South Sea Bubble.

Dampier’s maps of trade winds and ocean currents were relied upon by James Cook and even later by Horatio Nelson. Indeed, Dampier’s ‘Discourse’ of navigational detail was still in use by the British Navy well into the 20^th Century. As the first naturalist to encounter all five continents, Dampier was able to compare and contrast animals and plants across the globe, introducing the world to theories of migration and likely relationships between species. The famous red notebook in which Darwin developed his theory of natural selection quotes extensively from Dampier’s observations of 150 years earlier.

Dampier is responsible for more than 1000 entries in the Oxford English Dictionary, giving the language such words as avocado, barbeque and chopsticks. His comparison of the flat ocean to a “millpond” is an expression that would have conjured up a rich image to contemporary readers who might themselves have never seen the sea, and it is still in popular use today.

These achievements in the early days of exploration and scientific discovery provide many parallels with the position of Web Science today. Under the umbrella of the newly created Royal Society, developments in such diverse subjects as chemistry, astronomy and mechanics were debated by the best minds of the day, and Dampier was invited to address the Fellows on several occasions. The full extent of his influence is apparent when a view is taken across disciplines – from the practical to the intellectual, and from the literary to the scientific. Dampier could see the big picture and think laterally to make comparisons and connections – a skill that was very opportune at a time when the boundaries of the physical world were being rolled back in so many directions. He was dismissive of traditional hierarchies of expertise and was not afraid to operate outside the “establishment” of his day.

William Dampier died (in debt) in 1715, and his final resting place is unknown. Today, he is largely forgotten in England. A small town has been named after him on the north west coast of Australia, but there is no mention of his exploits in Fremantle’s Maritime Museum. Thanks to the research of Diana and Michael Preston, detailed in their compelling book “A Pirate of Exquisite Mind”, Dampier’s legacy can continue to inspire a new generation of explorers and writers in the diverse fields of Web Science.

Funded studentships are available at Southampton’s Doctoral Training Centre (linked above) for people who wish to study for a 4-year PhD in Web Science. The programme consists of a taught year (equivalent to an MSc in Web Science) followed by 3 years of research training to facilitate an interdisciplinary investigation into web phenomena. You’ll need a first class degree or high 2:1, but computer programming experience is NOT required. For more information, check out this video “Why study the web? Social machines and the web revolution” with contributions from Sir Tim Berners Lee and Dame Wendy Hall.

As  Gordon Brown announced on Monday,  a new Institute for Web Science is to be developed by the Universities of Southampton and Oxford  – thanks to a £30 million grant provided through the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills. The Institute will build on the foundations of existing, complementary strengths at the two universities, and the significant investment made by both universities in Web Science and its societal and governmental implications. On the University of Southampton’s website it explains that:

The contribution from the University of Southampton will be:
* Research leadership and expertise in a wide range of computer science and software engineering developments as they relate to the Web, especially semantic technologies and their exploitation.
* The existing Doctoral Training Centre in Web Science that integrates the information economy and social sciences into a technological context, and will be graduating a next generation of Web developers, entrepreneurs and researchers.
* The University also houses the Web Science Trust that seeks to help coordinate Web Science research internationally and encourage the development of curricula in this new emerging interdisciplinary area.

The contribution from the University of Oxford will be:
* Research leadership and expertise in how people use the internet and Web and the social and economic costs of digital inclusion – in particular research by the Oxford Internet Institute.
* The Oxford Internet Institute’s research and expertise in analysing the behaviour of government, business and citizens on the web, thereby enabling the design of successful policy intervention.
* The James Martin 21st Century School, an interdisciplinary school which fosters innovative thinking and collaborative activity to harvest new opportunities of the 21st century, including research that provides new approaches to understanding technological and social change.

If you are a graduate with high grades, initiative and enthusiasm, studying the implications of Web developments within the emerging discipline of Web Science is a fantastic opportunity to kick start your career.