A Framework for Web Science
Foundations and Trends® in Web Science
Volume 1 Issue 1
DOI: 10.1561/1800000001
A Framework for Web Science
Tim Berners-Lee
Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Wendy Hall
School of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton
James A. Hendler
Department of Computer Science, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Kieron O'Hara
School of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton
Nigel Shadbolt
School of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton
Daniel J. Weitzner
Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
This text sets out a series of approaches to the analysis and synthesis of the World Wide Web, and other web-like information
structures. A comprehensive set of research questions is outlined, together with a sub-disciplinary breakdown, emphasising
the multi-faceted nature of the Web, and the multi-disciplinary nature of its study and development. These questions and approaches
together set out an agenda for Web Science, the science of decentralised information systems. Web Science is required both as a way to understand the Web, and as a
way to focus its development on key communicational and representational requirements. The text surveys central engineering
issues, such as the development of the Semantic Web, Web services and P2P. Analytic approaches to discover the Web’s topology,
or its graph-like structures, are examined. Finally, the Web as a technology is essentially socially embedded; therefore various
issues and requirements for Web use and governance are also reviewed.