web science in Athens

Web Science Conference 2009 – Society On-Line

Athens, Greece, 18th–20th March, 2009

Web Science Conference 2009 – Society On-Line is the first conference devoted to the scientific study of socio-technical aspects of the Web as a standalone artifact. The conference will be held at the Theatron, at the Hellenic Cosmos of the Foundation of the Hellenic World, in Athens, Greece, March 18^th – 20^th, 2009.

Web Science focuses on understanding, designing and developing the technologies and applications that make up the World Wide Web. However, the WWW does not exist without the participation of people and organizations. Now that a significant proportion of everyday life is spent on-line in many countries, it makes sense for the first Web Science conference organized by the Web Science Research Initiative (WSRI) and the Foundation of the Hellenic World (FHW) to be dedicated to the presentation of research into society on the Web.

Thematic areas

How do people and organizations behave on-line – what motivates them to shop, date, make friends, learn, participate in political life or manage their health or tax on-line? Which Web-based designs will they trust? To which on-line agents will they delegate? How can the dark side of the Web – such as cybercrime, pornography and terrorist networks – be both understood and held in check without compromising the experience of others? What are the effects of varying characteristics of Web-based technologies – such as security, privacy, and network structure, the linking of data – on on-line behavior, both criminal and non-criminal? And how can the design of the Web of the future ensure that a system on which – as Tim Berners-Lee put it – democracy and commerce depends remains ‘stable and pro-human’?

WWW Forum

The WWW Forum is the opening event of the Web Science Conference 2009 – Society On-Line. During the WWW Forum, Tim Berners-Lee, WWW Inventor and Top Agenda Setter will discuss with the public and famous scientists and politicians the following themes:

Web Science and Research

Web Technology and Practice

Web for Society

How can we learn from people in socially or economically deprived communities? How the Web can better serve them? In which ways can we leverage the Web to empower people, especially in under-served populations, by lowering barriers to life-critical services? Can we ensure the Web is accessible and useful to people, including people with disabilities, from different cultures, and language and literacy skills that span the range of the Earth’s population? Which methods do we need to implement in order to study and understand how the Web works in order to anticipate and ensure its future? Can we understand how to make the Web stable and secure, and to mitigate threats and weaknesses? Is it possible to promote the development of technology and standards that foster creativity, collaboration, communication, and commerce?

Keynote Speakers

Tim Berners-Lee (WWW Inventor)

A graduate of Oxford University, England, Tim Berners-Lee is the 3COM Founders Professor of Engineering in the School of Engineering, with a joint appointment in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Laboratory for Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence (CSAIL) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he also heads the Decentralized Information Group (DIG). He is co-Director of the new Web Science Research Initiative (WSRI) and is a Professor in the Computer Science Department at the University of Southampton, UK. He directs the World Wide Web Consortium, founded in 1994.

In 1989 he invented the World Wide Web, an internet-based hypermedia initiative for global information sharing while at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory. He wrote the first web client and server in 1990. His specifications of URIs, HTTP and HTML were refined as Web technology spread.

In 2001 he became a fellow of the Royal Society. He has been the recipient of several international awards including the Japan Prize, the Prince of Asturias Foundation Prize, the Millennium Technology Prize and Germany’s Die Quadriga award. In 2004 he was knighted by H.M. Queen Elizabeth and in 2007 he was awarded the Order of Merit. He is the author of “Weaving the Web”.

Joseph Sifakis (Turing Award 2007)

Joseph Sifakis is a CNRS researcher and the founder of Verimag Laboratory, in Grenoble, France. He holds the INRIA-Schneider endowed industrial chair since September 1st 2008. He studied Electrical Engineering at the Technical University of Athens and Computer Science at the University of Grenoble.

Verimag is a leading research laboratory in the area of critical embedded systems. It developed the underlying theory and technology for the SCADE tool, used by Airbus for the design and validation of its critical real-time systems, and is becoming a de facto standard for aeronautics. Verimag has a lasting and strategic collaboration with ST Microelectronics, France Telecom R&D, and Airbus, through which numerous results on validation and testing have been transferred.

Joseph Sifakis is recognized for his pioneering work on both theoretical and practical aspects of Concurrent Systems Specification and Verification. He contributed to emergence of the area of model-checking, currently the most widely-used method for the verification of industrial applications. His current research activities include component-based design, modeling, and analysis of real-time systems with focus on correct-by-construction techniques.

Joseph Sifakis has broad experience with industry, notably though joint projects with partners such as Astrium, the European Space Agency, France Telecom, ST Microelectronics and he has also been active for many years in consulting.

Joseph Sifakis is the Scientific Coordinator of the European Network of Excellence ARTIST2 on Embedded Systems Design. This network gathers 35 of the best European teams in the area, and aims to produce innovative results for cost-effective design of dependable embedded systems. It will also promote innovative methods safe and secure systems, notably through cooperation with key European industrial partners such as Thalθs, Airbus, Ericsson, Philips, and ST Microelectronics.

Joseph Sifakis is the director of the CARNOT Institute “Intelligent Software and Systems” in Grenoble.

Joseph Sifakis is a member of the editorial board of several journals, co-founder of the International Conference on Computer Aided Verification (CAV) and a member of the Steering Committee of the EMSOFT (Embedded Software) conference. He is a member of Academia Europea and a member of the French National Academy of Engineering.

Joseph Sifakis has received with Ed Clarke and Allen Emerson for their contribution to Model Checking, the Turing Award for 2007. He is also the recipient of the CNRS Silver Medal in 2001.