World Wide Web Consortium selects Web Science Institute at the University of Southampton to host UK & Ireland Office

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is pleased to announce that the Web Science Institute (WSI) at the University of Southampton has become the W3C UK & Ireland Office.

As the host of the W3C UK & Ireland Office, the WSI will help the W3C achieve its mission to broaden participation in W3C activities of more diverse stakeholders from the UK and Ireland. The WSI will foster relationships with UK technology and policy leaders and help to promote the adoption and implementation of W3C standards in the UK. The W3C UK & Ireland Office will also recruit and engage with members in the region, and develop education and outreach programs to raise awareness of W3C’s role and standards activities by sponsoring and supporting local events where there is a focus on W3C topics.

“The WSI is excited to be taking on this important role within the W3C,” said Professor Dame Wendy Hall, Executive Director of the WSI. “The University of Southampton has played an active role in the Web community since 1994 and has been a member of the W3C since 1998, promoting new futures of the Web through W3C community groups including the Web Observatory, Annotations and Web of Things.”

J. Alan Bird, W3C Global Business Development Leader commented, “With its wide range of research activities into the technologies and societal impact of the Web, the WSI is in a unique position to help broaden the scope and reach of the W3C. We look forward to working together to help the W3C achieve its mission.”

The WSI carries out research into web science, data science, linked and open data, privacy, trust and provenance, social computation, cybersecurity, social media networks. These research activities align well with new W3C activities, including the W3C Data activities, Web Payments, Web Annotation, Web of Things, Security and Privacy and Web Accessibility.

The W3C UK & Ireland Office will be staffed by Susan Davies, Coordination Manager for the WSI, who will become the Office Manager, and Professor Leslie Carr, Director of the WSI Centre for Doctoral Training, who will act in a Senior Advisor role. The WSI takes over from Nominet, who has been running the Office since 2010.

About the W3C

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international consortium where Member organizations, a full-time staff, and the public work together to develop Web standards. W3C primarily pursues its mission through the creation of Web standards and guidelines designed to ensure long-term growth and stewardship for the Web. Over 400 organizations are Members of the Consortium.

W3C is jointly run by the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (MIT CSAIL) in the United States, the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics (ERCIM) headquartered in France, Keio University in Japan and Beihang University in China. W3C has Offices in Australia; the Benelux countries; Brazil; Finland; France; Germany and Austria; Greece; Hungary; India; Italy; Korea; Morocco; Russia; Southern Africa; Spain; Sweden; and the United Kingdom and Ireland. For more information see https://www.w3.org/

About the WSI

The WSI brings together world-leading research expertise to tackle the most pressing global challenges facing the World Wide Web and wider society today. Its mission is to undertake interdisciplinary research that creates new knowledge about the impact and direction of the Web; to educate students to be architects of change in a digital culture; and to provide a vital source of contemporary strategic and tactical intelligence to its partners. Professor Dame Wendy Hall is the Executive Director of the WSI. She is internationally recognized for her groundbreaking contributions in the field of Web and Internet Sciences and is a member of the Global Commission on Internet Governance. Read more about the Web Science Institute http://www.southampton.ac.uk/wsi