As these definitions grow and interlink, specialists and enthusiasts will define taxonomies and ontologies: data sets that describe classes of objects and relations among them. These sets will help computers everywhere to find, understand and present targeted information.

Numerous groups are already building Semantic Web frameworks, especially in biology and health care [see “The Semantic Web in Action,” by Lee Feigenbaum; Scientific American, December 2007]. More than 1,000 people attended the Semantic Technology conference in San Jose, Calif., this past May. Web science offers the prospect of creating more powerful ways to define, link and interpret data.

5 Comments

1. 1. bbk_cb 12:25 AM 9/17/08

   Honestly, the entire idea of web science seems to be something I might have read about in Wired Magazine circa 1999.
   
   While there are many divergent groups with an interest in studying the status quo of the Internet, I don't see how they form a cohesive science nor how their findings will remain relevant when the underlying technology moves on to the next great thing, leaving everyone's predictions about the future behind.

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2. 2. Tan Boon Tee 10:47 PM 9/17/08

   Excellent! Now there is a new discipline emerging to be known as Web Science, based on the multi-interdisciplinary approach.
   
   In the earlier days of Internet and www, all good things were said about IT, and it was hailed as one of the greatest invention ever. Gradually, abuses and hackers creep in, resulting in users losing their privacy and identity.
   
   To argue that Web Science could be harnessed to benefit society or used to solve the issues like securing privacy seems premature. For to every positive action, there will always be a negative reaction try hard to counter the positive effect. This is going to be a tough game. (btt1943@yahoo.com)
   

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3. 3. bbk_cb 12:14 AM 9/18/08

   By the way, PageRank is actually a non-recursive Maclaurin polynomial. I'm pretty sure that the inventors of it didn't spend more than 5 minutes thinking about the problem as a recursion; in fact, they probably started out with a large set of equations with many unknowns and decided to borrow a common approach used in physics or economics.
   
   And while it may seem like a big insight because it has had good success so far, it has major limitations. There are much more sophisticated data mining techniques out there, but they're just not within the grasp of a naive user. But what I'm afraid of is that PageRank exploits a correlation (many links = trustworthy source) without fully appreciating the causal relationship, if any. Oftentimes in these situations, exploiting such a correlation can actually make the correlation go away. I think that is what Google is slowly going to accomplish.

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4. 4. Pensabot 06:41 PM 10/10/08

   Ok. Web science is an interesting serious discipline emerging from computer engineering, popular technologies and knowledge to research with social netoworks. Our language turning dynamic process itself by semantics and internaut interactions like a brain. Neuroscience will be a main part of this web science frame-researches.
   
   Pensabot.

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5. 5. vesper 02:41 PM 10/21/09

   From my understanding Web Science is mostly about pathfinding, building frameworks, and combining knowledge. You mentioned the next big thing.
   Sometimes this can be an evolution of an existing thing, the Web could be changed a lot if the semantic web, cloud computing, and other ideas are realised. There is nothing that points to Web tailing off or slowing down anytime soon, and if going by other examples of communication such as radio, tv, or telephone, there will be several iterations spanning several decades
   
   Also think that in the past computer science was within maths, and then when it branched off it subdivided. Without branching off of other disciplines such as Web science, it could take a longer time to get where we are going as there wouldnt be focused discussion or concentrateresearch effort about the Web.

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