In an era of cyber-crime, misinformation, disinformation, state-sponsored attacks on rival countries’ infrastructure, government-imposed internet shutdowns in places like Eritrea and Kashmir, the World Wide Web is an increasingly dark and troubled place. Making sense of how the internet has changed from the democratic, sharing, open platform it was designed to be, and predicting what’s next, are the web scientists.
Professor Dame Wendy Hall talks with BBC’s Gareth Mitchell about the issues with the web and how we interact with it in our daily lives, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, and why having web scientists is fundamental to how we learn to understand the Web.