What is web science and why is it important to CSE

The World Wide Web has changed the world. It has changed the ways we communicate, collaborate, and educate. We increasingly live in a Web-dependent society in a Web-dependent world. The Web is also the largest human information construct and it is growing faster than any other system. However, it is a striking fact that there is no systematic discipline to study the Web. We need to understand the current, evolving, and potential Web but at the moment we have no means of predicting the impact that future developments in the Web will have on society or business. Web Science aims to anticipate these impacts. It is the study of the social behaviours in the Web at the inter-person, inter-organizational and societal level, the technologies that enable and support this behaviour, and the interactions between these technologies and behaviours. It is therefore inherently interdisciplinary and at even the simplest level represents a fundamental collaboration between computer science and the social sciences.

Computer Science as a discipline has not grasped the Web and the implications of its development. Most Computer Science departments do not teach "Web Science" fundamentals let alone specialist courses in this area, either with or without contributions from the social sciences or other relevant disciplines. This talk will explore the fundamentals of Web Science and make the case for Computer Science educators to meet this challenge head-on. Not only will it revitalise Computer Science degrees, it will also encourage the development of new degrees that we argue will attract a wider diversity and increasing number of students in the future.