The Web Science Trust Network
Introducing WSTNet
The Web Science Trust Network
The Network of Web Science Labs (WSTNet) represents one of the most important results of the Trust’s vision/mission of creating a new science of the Web.
Dozens of labs operate internationally in both university and commercial spaces to generate world-class research and insights into the impact the Web has on modern society.
Global Perspective
The Network of Web Science Labs (WSTNet) represents one of the most important results of the Trust’s vision/mission of creating a new science of the Web. Dozens of labs operate internationally in both the University and Commercial space to generate world-class research and insights into the impact the Web has on modern society.
Matthew Weber
WSTNet Chair
Oshani Seneviratne
WSTNet Deputy Chair
Diverse
Our labs bring together social, political and technical perspectives from their own regions to enrich our understanding of networks which operate at global scale.
Interdisciplinary
Our Labs call on researchers across a broad spectrum of disciplines including computing/AI, law, ethics, sociology, mathematics, health, government and beyond. This is a minimum requirement for Web Science and part of the reason that research in this area is so challenging and so rewarding.
WSTNet Lab Directors
Each of our Lab Directors heads up a Web Science research facility approaching an understanding of the Web and the interactions between its human and non-human elements in a unique and important way. This might use mathematical, philosophical, engineering, computational, psychological or legal perspectives or all of the above and more! It is only by fostering a broad, interdisciplinary approach that we will truly advance our knowledge of such a vast and complex artefact as the World Wide Web.
Hal Abelson
CSAIL-DIG, MIT
R. Balaraman
RBCDSAI, IIT Madras
Daniela Braun
Saarland University
Les Carr
WSI, Southampton
Ciro Cattuto
ISI Foundation
Tat-Seng Chua
NeXT, NUS Singapore
Debabrata Das
WSL, IIIT Bangalore
Fabien Gandon
INRIA, Paris
Manfred Hauswirth
FOKUS, Berlin
Deborah McGuinness
Tetherless World Constellation, RPI NY
Victoria Nash
OII, Oxford University
Wolfgang Nejdl
L3S, Hannover
Oshani Seneviratne
RPI NY
Steffen Staab
IRIS, Stuttgart
Marlon Twyman
ANN, USC
Ingmar Weber
Saarland University
Matthew Weber
NetSci, Rutgers
Stefan Wrobel
B-IT, Bonn Aachen
Jianping Wu
WSL, Tsinghua
Brian Uzzi
Sonic, Northwestern
Claes de Vreese
Digital Democracy Centre (DDC), University of Southern Denmark
Aimei Yang
ANN, USC
Lindsay Erin Young
ANN, USC
World-Class Research
Web Science has been carefully developed and structured over the last decade into a unique discipline and has been recognised as worthy of its own conference and research journal spaces.
Web Science Manifesto
Web Futures: Inclusive, Intelligent, Sustainable The 2020 Manifesto for Web Science
Four Internets: Data, Geopolitics, and the Governance of Cyberspace
The four Internets of the title are: the Silicon Valley Open Internet, developed by pioneers of the Internet in the 1960s, based on principles of openness and efficient dataflow; the Brussels Bourgeois Internet, exemplified by the European Union, with a focus on human rights and legal administration; the DC Commercial Internet, exemplified by the Washington establishment and its focus on property rights and market solutions; and the Beijing Paternal Internet, exemplified by the Chinese government’s control of Internet content.
Member WSTNet Labs
Featured Interviews
Here are some selected quotes on the Web Science perspective by some of our Lab Directors and researchers.
Prof. B. Ravindran | Lab Director, RBC-DSAI
“There are many India-specific challenges that need to be addressed by Web Science…the mission of RBC-DSAI includes enabling and studying the societal impact of AI and Data Science. The Web is the vehicle through which much of AI reaches society at large. It is imperative for us to be involved in Web Science research and enablement.”
Prof. Manfred Hauswirth | Lab Director, Fraunhofer
“The extension of the traditionally computer science focused Web research to the much broader notion of Web Science has established the Web as a topic of broad research across all disciplines. In Fraunhofer FOKUS we do a lot of research and projects that fall under this umbrella, for example the Weizenbaum Institute and the European Data Portal. We have understood that only a broad and multi-faceted understanding of the Web brings its benefits to fruition for society.”
Prof. Tat-Seng Chua | Lab Director
“These [Web] observatories enable us to mine weak signals and to perform causal reasoning to infer users insights from the data streams, with applications in FinTech, food security, and infectious disease detection.”
Interested in joining WSTNet?
Contact us at info@webscience.org to find out how to apply.