Five years ago the Web Science Trust (WST) was established as a British charitable trust, and during the time since we have launched the WSTnet laboratories network – a prestigious academic group comprising the leading Web Science groups globally. We have coordinated several major events, promoted Web Science developments including the Web Science conference, the new Web Science Journal, and supported Web Science-related projects such as the Web Observatory with workshops being held around the world. The pace of activities has increased thanks both to the activities of the WSTnet and the increased efforts of the central WST secretariat. We can be proud, both of this list of achievements and of the standing represented by our members.
Whilst this is not an organisation open to any applicant we are now considering the next phase of expansion to the WSTnet network of Labs and your institution may wish to apply for the next round of membership.
In order to maintain the high academic standard of the WSTnet we ask that you seek nomination for membership though an exiting member such that once we receive such a nomination we can move forward to review your application.
We currently support two types of membership: academic lab and industry lab and in both cases we are looking for your institutions commitment to Web Science research principles and engagement with the Web Science community through appropriate journals and conferences.
WST are a not-for-profit group who nonetheless need some cash support from membership to support operations. New Members pay a one-off joining fee and a lower annual renewal and it has been decided that fees shall be pro-rated according to the World Bank register of High/Middle/Low income countries to ensure that the financial burden shall be equitable across regions.
Countries in the High/Medium/Low income regions shall be asked to pay 100% , 75% and 50% of the standard fees respectively.
We wish to emphasize that unlike some fee-based organizations, we are not intending to make membership open to anyone willing to pay a fee. We believe having the WSTnet laboratory network only include the very top university labs in the field is crucial to the success of both WST and the WSTnet, and we are committed to maintaining that quality.