An introduction to the "Foundations of Web Science" module that overviews the module itself, plus the context of web science at Southampton in terms of WSRI and the new Doctoral Training Centre.
Professor Nigel Shadbolt describes the emergence of Web Science Research Initiative and discusses the themes and topics that contribute to an understanding of Web Science.
Web Science - Group 15 created an interactive infographic which informs prospective applicants about the new Web Science undergraduate degrees offered at the University of Southampton, starting in October 2013. Web Science as a new and exciting field of research is also briefly outlined, supported by two video interviews with Dr Les Car, a web scientist.
A psychologist's description of the Web as an effective channel for inducing and promoting changes of behaviour in individuals. Demonstrates an experimental system called "LifeGuide".
The first International Conference on Web Science is taking place in Athens, concurrently with this course. The material here will allow you to get familiar with the conference presentations and posters so that you can write a summary of the conference from a particular topical perspective.
(Both the attached HTML summaries are currently in draft form and need to have the preview images and metadata checked.)
A bibliography of research on Social Network web sites.
The research contained below is focused specifically on social network sites (or "social networking" sites). Some of this is connected to social media, social software, Web2.0, social bookmarking, educational technologies, communities research, etc. but this is not the organizing focus and not everything related to these other topics is included here. This list is not methodologically or disciplinarily organized. There is work here from communications, information science, anthropology, sociology, economics, political science, cultural studies, computer science, etc.
Social Networking tools like Facebook yield recognisable small world phenomena, that is particular kinds of social graphs that facilitate particular kinds of interaction and information exchange.
Society is catching up with the implications of the Web; its use is not straightforward and well-understood. Web Scientists will need to be able to handle arguments about equivocal perspectives on the Web's impact.
This class introduces basics of web mining and information retrieval including, for example, an introduction to the Vector Space Model and Text Mining.
Guest Lecturer: Dr. Michael Granitzer
Optional: Modeling the Internet and the Web: Probabilistic Methods and Algorithms, Pierre Baldi, Paolo Frasconi, Padhraic Smyth, Wiley, 2003 (Chapter 4, Text Analysis)
We will discuss several examples and research efforts related to the small world problem and set the ground for our discussion of network theory and social network analysis.
Readings: An Experimental Study of the Small World Problem, J. Travers and S. Milgram Sociometry 32 425-443 (1969) [Protected Access]
Optional: The Strength of Weak Ties, M.S. Granovetter The American Journal of Sociology 78 1360--1380 (1973) [Protected Access]
Optional: Worldwide Buzz: Planetary-Scale Views on an Instant-Messaging Network, J. Leskovec and E. Horvitz MSR-TR-2006-186. Microsoft Research, June 2007. [Web Link, the most recent and comprehensive study on the subject!]
Originally from: http://kmi.tugraz.at/staff/markus/courses/SS2008/707.000_web-science/
In this class, we will discuss network theory fundamentals, including concepts such as diameter, distance, clustering coefficient and others. We will also discuss different types of networks, such as scale-free networks, random networks etc.
Readings: Graph structure in the Web, A. Broder and R. Kumar and F. Maghoul and P. Raghavan and S. Rajagopalan and R. Stata and A. Tomkins and J. Wiener Computer Networks 33 309--320 (2000) [Web link, Alternative Link]
Optional: The Structure and Function of Complex Networks, M.E.J. Newman, SIAM Review 45 167--256 (2003) [Web link]
Original course at: http://kmi.tugraz.at/staff/markus/courses/SS2008/707.000_web-science/
Abstract
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) generate enormous amounts of data. The University of Southampton has run and is running dozens of MOOC instances. The vast amount of data resulting from our MOOCs can provide highly valuable information to all parties involved in the creation and delivery of these courses. However, analysing and visualising such data is a task that not all educators have the time or skills to undertake. The recently developed MOOC Dashboard is a tool aimed at bridging such a gap: it provides reports and visualisations based on the data generated by learners in MOOCs.
Speakers Manuel Leon is currently a Lecturer in Online Teaching and Learning in the Institute for Learning Innovation and Development (ILIaD). Adriana Wilde is a Teaching Fellow in Electronics and Computer Science, with research interests in MOOCs and Learning Analytics. Darron Tang (4th Year BEng Computer Science) and Jasmine Cheng (BSc Mathematics & Actuarial Science and starting MSc Data Science shortly) have been working as interns over this Summer (2016) as have been developing the MOOC Dashboard.
The Transparency Agenda of the 2010/1 UK Coalition government promises to revolutionise government, public services and public engagement, by ‘holding politicians and public bodies to account, reducing the deficit and delivering better value for money in public spending, and realising significant economic benefits by enabling businesses and non-profit organisations to build innovative applications and websites using public data’, to quote the then Prime Minister.
This is an ambitious programme with laudable aims, yet it naturally has limits.
The Networks and Complexity in Social Systems course commences with an overview of the nascent field of complex networks, dividing it into three related but distinct strands: Statistical description of large scale networks, viewed as static objects; the dynamic evolution of networks, where now the structure of the network is understood in terms of a growth process; and dynamical processes that take place on fixed networks; that is, "networked dynamical systems". (A fourth area of potential research ties all the previous three strands together under the rubric of co-evolution of networks and dynamics, but very little research has been done in this vein and so it is omitted.)
The remainder of the course treats each of the three strands in greater detail, introducing technical knowledge as required, summarizing the research papers that have introduced the principal ideas, and pointing out directions for future development. With regard to networked dynamical systems, the course treats in detail the more specific topic of information propagation in networks, in part because this topic is of great relevance to social science, and in part because it has received the most attention in the literature to date.
The Introductory Lecture is a discussion about "What is the Web". It involves lots of calling out TLAs and writing them on the blackboard, dividing things into servers, clients, protocols, formats, and the punchline is that the one unique and novel thing about the web is the hypertext link. This follows naturally into the Web architecture - the answer to the question "what is the web".
The University of Southampton has a long history of pursuing research, development and social change with the Web
This document guides you through the opportunities for Web-related study and research that we offer: an MSc in Web Technology; a 3-year PhD in Web Technology; an MSc in Web Science or a 4-year PhD in Web Science