COVER FEATURE GUEST EDITORS’ INTRODUCTION

Web Science: Now More Than Ever

James Hendler, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute , University of Southampton Noshir Contractor, Northwestern University

12 COMPUTER PUBLISHED BY THE IEEE COMPUTER SOCIETY 0018-9162/18/$33.00 © 2018 IEEE The Web has transformed our lives, and a cursory review of recent headlines shows both our dreams and nightmares writ large as a result. Is it possible to retain the benefits through algorithms and apps for romance, books, music, and fitness, without suffering the devastation wrought by the hacking of health records, elections, and bank accounts? This special issue explores the many facets of , the study of the Web’s impact on our society and , and how we can use it to achieve our dreams without living our nightmares.

n a 2006 Science article, Web inven- proposed, many of the things we have Even just a few years ago, who could tor Tim Berners-Lee and several come to take for granted in Web use have imagined the leader of a major others (including two of the guest were in their infancy. The interven- country communicating his thoughts editors of this special issue), ing years, however, have brought the on national policies and preferences Iaddressed the need for an interdisci- societal impacts of the Web to the through daily Twitter blasts? In short, plinary field centered around studying forefront. The Web’s potential for the Web’s power to amplify messag- both the social and technical aspects mobilizing populations was cited as ing and communication is now under- of the , and particu- major factor in 2010’s “Arab Spring,”7 stood—but will it be used to benefit larly around the interaction between and online activism has continued to humanity? Or will it bring out our those areas.1 The authors argued that increase significantly since then. This worst features? has led to the “hashtag” phenomenon Beyond the political sphere, the …the scale, topology and power of of “counterpublic networks,” in which Web has disrupted the future of decentralized information systems those without access to major media work.10 The Web’s early successes such as the Web also pose a unique platforms use social media to widely relied on voluntary efforts, most nota- set of social and public policy propagate their messages.8 bly wikis, games with a purpose,11 challenges. … Transparency and Similarly, Web have and citizen science.12 However, it has control over the complex social also been used to influence thinking. also ushered in a new genre of crowd- and legal relationships behind this Indeed, as early as 2010, Web Science work platforms that serve as a general information is vital, but require researchers showed how the Web could purpose marketplace for paid work a much more well-developed potentially affect major elections.9 (such as Mechanical Turk, Upwork, set of models and tools that can Recent controversies have arisen over Freelancer, ManPower), specialized represent these relationships. the use of Facebook data by Cambridge marketplaces targeted at specific pro- Analytica and the onslaught of influen- fessions (such as TopCoder, uTest, That article, and several others that tial advertising by Russian companies, 99Designs), or specialized activities followed,2–6 led to an emerging field which had not been identified as such such as crowdfunding (for example, now known as Web Science, which has at the time. We can no longer ignore the Kickstarter and Kiva) and crowd- been growing in the years since that Web’s utility in influencing the public’s sourcing design (such as Thread- first publication. frame of mind as a growing factor in less). The Web, fueled by peer produc- At the time Web Science was first political discourse around the world. tion networks,13 flash teams,14 flash

JUNE 2018 13 GUEST EDITORS’ INTRODUCTION

organizations,15 and enterprise social has gone behind the screens19 and is Web-based Instagram platform. The media such as Slack,16 has enabled the itself sitting on top of the infrastruc- authors studied how users’ attitudes creation of a sharing economy17 that ture of the , extending the and behaviors were affected by infor- coordinates peer-to-peer marketplaces ways in which all of the information mation about “privacy leakage” in for activities such as accommodation can be accessed. social media platforms. Based on this rentals (such as Airbnb), transporta- With changes in the ways people study, the authors discuss the implica- tion (such as Lyft and Uber), domestic access the underlying Web, we need tions for how Web platforms can better chores (TaskRabbit), delivery (Post- to better understand the interplays support users in managing their pri- mates), and many more. Together, between the Web, its users, informa- vate information. The article is a good these marketplaces have resulted in tion providers and gatekeepers, and example of the Web Science “axiom” the dramatic rise of the “(fre)e-lance the larger society that is increasingly that good social science can inform the economy,” which may bring unprece- affected by it. The pursuit of Web Sci- technological design of the Web. dented work opportunities to citizens ence increasingly requires exploring In “Bringing Citizens and Policy- around the globe, but also raises deep multiple avenues to better understand makers Together Online: Imagining concerns about workers’ welfare and the growing and changing construct the Possibilities and Taking Stock of rights.18 that is the World Wide Web. Privacy and Transparency Hazards,” John Gastil and Sascha D. Meinrath reflect on the challenges of increas- ing civic engagement online. They examine what would be involved in IT IS ALSO THE CASE THAT AS THE WEB integrating some of the best online HAS BEEN CHANGING THE WORLD, THE tools for public engagement, while WORLD OF TECHNOLOGY HAS BEEN also exploring the challenges in doing CHANGING THE WEB. so, given the high variance in quality and openness of the tools involved. This is a good example of studying the tradeoffs between the positive aspects of Web use (namely, how a system It is also the case that as the Web has IN THIS ISSUE could boost the capacity and increase been changing the world, the world of This issue features a collection of the public legitimacy of civic portals) technology has been changing the Web. papers exploring a variety of aspects and the associated challenges (includ- Whereas in 2006 the browser was the of Web Science. We include papers ing the related privacy and transpar- primary Web interface, since then the that provide exemplars of the kinds ency issues). Web has evolved from being a primary of research needed to understand In “How Do Organizations Publish vehicle of communication to being the how Web technologies are impact- Semantic Markup? Three Case Stud- development platform on which other ing and being impacted by our lives ies Using Public Schema.org Crawls,” systems rely. Access to social media both on- and offline. We also include Daye Nam and Mayank Kejriwal pres- sites such as Facebook, Weibo, or Twit- papers exploring core attributes of the ent case studies of how different orga- ter is increasingly afforded through the Web itself, including privacy, access, nizations bring semantic markup use of mobile phones or other devices. engagement, and globalization. into their practices. They look closely Voice-controlled “virtual assistants,” In “Understanding Users’ Privacy at how schools, hospitals, and muse- such as Siri, Alexa, and Google Home Attitudes through Subjective and ums are increasingly using this tool, are increasingly penetrating markets Objective Assessments: An Instagram which embeds the machine-readable and becoming an ever more common Case Study,” Kyungsik Han, Hyunggu markup of the Semantic Web20 onto way for people to access information. Jung, Jin Yea Jang, and Dongwon Lee Web pages via the schema.org initia- In this paradigm, the Web increasingly explore how users think about the tive sponsored by major search engine becomes the invisible infrastructure, it privacy of their information on the companies.21 The paper not only

14 COMPUTER WWW.COMPUTER.ORG/COMPUTER presents some early, though intrigu- novel insights on aspects of the “dig- n summary, these articles comprise ing, results, but is a good methodologi- ital divide,” which have not previ- a snapshot of work going on in mod- cal example of Web Science in practice. ously received sufficient attention. Iern Web Science research and in In particular, the authors use infor- The article also provides suggested the many disciplines involved. They mation obtained from the Web Data solutions, both policy-based and tech- explore policy implications and social Commons (http://webdatacommons nical, for those providing services to impacts of the Web from a number of .org), an open crawl that can be used these communities. The author thus perspectives, ranging from qualitative for research studies such as this, to integrates the three pillars of Web social studies to quantitative mathe- explore how the social and technical science—social, policy, and techno- matical analyses. These articles reflect aspects of this emerging technology logical aspects—for analysis, and pro- the wide range of approaches needed to might affect users in the future. poses strategies to improve Web use study and truly understand the nature In “Understanding Social Networks within these communities. of the Web and its impact on us all. Using Transfer Learning,” Jun Sun, In “Language Service Infrastruc- The major research challenges in Steffen Staab, and Jérôme Kunegis ture on the Web: The Language Grid,” achieving privacy, security, trust, and lay out a Web Science methodology Toru Ishida, Yohei Murakami, Dong- personal data protection in an open, used to more quickly understand hui Lin, Takao Nakaguchi, and Mas- interconnected platform are a major user behaviors on emerging Web plat- forms. Traditionally, studies of any given Web platform must wait until enough data on the use of that system has been gathered and can be used by THESE ARTICLES EXPLORE POLICY researchers. These authors show that IMPLICATIONS AND SOCIAL IMPACTS transfer learning techniques can be OF THE WEB FROM A NUMBER OF used to see how information gathered PERSPECTIVES. on one or more current platforms can potentially help predict behaviors on other emerging platforms. As the reach of the Web has grown, so too has its importance in connect- ayuki Otani provide less a study of focus for Web Science research. How- ing users into the global community, Web use per se than a description of ever, it is also clear that we are moving which creates a variety of problems how systems engineered for the Web into an era in which our lives will be for those communities in which con- are being used to enhance interactions increasingly organized with the help nectivity is rare or nonexistent. In among groups of users who do not of Web-based agents acting both as “Now You See It, Now You Don’t: Dig- speak a common language. For more physical and thought partners. These ital Connectivity in Marginalized than a decade, the Language Grid proj- agents will be powered by advances Communities,” Carleen F. Maitland ect has been developing collaborative in (AI) tech- explores what happens when users tools to support multilingual commu- nologies, coupled with data gathered are unable to get reliable access to the nities. This article reviews their work through decentralized networks of Web, in this case Native American and describes how they have created billions of sensors from the Internet communities in the US, as well as ref- an institutional structure for shar- of Things. Indeed these developments ugee communities in Rwanda and Jor- ing language services between a large will not only impact the future of work dan. The author studies these three and growing community of provid- but also the future of the workforce.22 groups and provides sociotechnical ers and consumers. The architecture Web Science is just beginning to analyses of their Web usage. Mait- described in the article now supports develop the research methodology to land also explores the causes, sys- 183 groups from 24 countries that help us understand and enable these tematic and otherwise, of problems share multilanguage-based services new networks of networks.23 Under- in these communities, thus providing across distributed service grids. standing these changes requires an

JUNE 2018 15 GUEST EDITORS’ INTRODUCTION

Web Science, vol. 4, nos. 2–3, 2013, pp. 103–267. 4. J. Hendler and W. Hall, “Science of ABOUT THE AUTHORS the World Wide Web,” Science, vol. 354, no. 6313, 2016, pp. 703–704. is the Tetherless World Professor of Computer, Web, and 5. T. Tiropanis et al., “Network Sci- Cognitive Sciences, and the director of the Institute for Data Exploration and ence, Web Science, and Internet Applications at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. His research interests include Science,” Commun. ACM, vol. 58, Web Science; applications of the ; and artificial intelligence appli- no. 8, 2015, pp. 76–82; http://doi cations in science, engineering, and healthcare. He received his PhD in com- .org/10.1145/2699416. puter science from . He is a Fellow of IEEE, the AAAI, AAAS, 6. T. Tiropanis et al., “Web Science ACM, and BCS. Contact him at [email protected]. Observatory,” IEEE Intelligent Sys- tems, vol. 28, no. 2, 2013, pp. 100–104. WENDY HALL is a professor of and executive director of the 7. G. Lotan et al., “The Arab Spring, the Web Science Institute at the University of Southampton in the UK. Her research Revolutions Were Tweeted: Informa- interests include multimedia, hypermedia, Web technologies, and Web Sci- tion Flows during the 2011 Tunisian ence. She received her PhD in pure mathematics at the University of South- and Egyptian revolutions,” Int’l J. ampton. She is a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, a Fellow Commun., vol. 5, 2011, p. 31. of the Royal Society, the Royal Academy of Engineering, and the ACM, and a 8. S.J. Jackson and B. Foucault Welles, distinguished Fellow of the BCS. Contact her at [email protected] “#Ferguson Is Everywhere: Initiators in Emerging Counterpublic Net- NOSHIR CONTRACTOR is the Jane S. & William J. White Professor of Behav- works,” Information Commun. Society, ioral Sciences at Northwestern University. His research interests include under- vol. 19, no. 3, 2016, pp. 397–418. standing and enabling novel forms of organizing by leveraging and advancing 9. P. Metaxas and E. Mustafaraj, “From network science, computational social science, and Web Science. He received Obscurity to Prominence in Min- his PhD in communication from the Annenberg School of Communication at the utes: Political Speech and Real-Time University of Southern California. He is a Fellow of the International Commu- Search,” Proc. Web Science Conf. (Web- nication Association, a Distinguished Scholar of the National Communication Sci 10), 2010; www.researchgate Association, and a Distinguished Alumnus from the Indian Institute of Technol- .net/publication/228647699_From ogy, Madras, where he received his undergraduate degree in Electrical Engi- _Obscurity_to_Prominence_in neering. Contact him at [email protected]. _Minutes_Political_Speech_and _Real-Time_Search. 10. A. Kittur et al., “The Future of Crowd Work,” Proc. ACM Conf. Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 2013, pp. 1301–1318. interdisciplinary approach. This field REFERENCES 11. L. Von Ahn and L. Dabbish, “Labeling must simultaneously come to grips 1. T. Berners-Lee, et al., “Creating a Sci- Images with a Computer Game,” Proc. with the cyber-physical and AI worlds ence of the Web,” Science, vol. 313, no. SIGCHI Conf. Human Factors in Com- that our society is creating and antic- 5788, 2006, pp. 769–771. puting Systems, 2004, pp. 319–326. ipate their effects on our future— 2. N. Shadbolt and T. Berners-Lee, 12. J. Raddick et al., “Galaxy Zoo: Moti- that is, how society co-creates, and is “Web Science Emerges,” Scientific vations of Citizen Scientists,” Astron- co-created by, the interaction between American, vol. 299, no. 4, pp. 76–81. omy Education Review, vol. 12, no. 1, networks of people using highly inter- 3. K. O’Hara, et al, “Web Science: 2013, pp. p010106-1–010106-27. connected machines and emerging Understanding the Emergence of 13. Y. Benkler, A. Shaw, and B.M. Hill, technologies.24 We are only just begin- Macro-Level Features on the World Peer Production: A Form of Collective ning that journey. Wide Web. Foundations and Trends in Intelligence, MIT Press, Cambridge,

16 COMPUTER WWW.COMPUTER.ORG/COMPUTER MA, 2015, pp. 175–204. Rise of Crowd-Based Capitalism, MIT Information Technology and the US 14. D. Retelny et al., “Expert Crowdsourc- Press, 2016. Workforce: Where Are We and Where ing with Flash Teams,” Proc. 27th 18. S. Hill, Raw Deal: How the ‘Uber Do We Go from Here?, National Acade- Annual ACM Symp. User Interface Soft- Economy’ and Runaway Capitalism Are mies Press, 2017. ware and Technology, 2014, pp. 75–85. Screwing American Workers, St. Mar- 23. R. Ackland, Web Social Science: Con- 15. M.A. Valentine et al., “Flash Orga- tin’s Press, 2015. cepts, Data and Tools for Social Scien- nizations: Crowdsourcing Complex 19. W. Hall, “The Ever-Evolving Web: tists in the Digital Age, Sage, 2013. Work by Structuring Crowds as The Power of Networks,” Int’l J. Com- 24. J. Hendler and A. Mulvehill, Social Organizations,” Proc. 2017 CHI Conf. mun., vol. 5, 2011, p. 14. Machines: the Coming Collision of Arti- Human Factors in Computing Systems 20. T. Berners-Lee, J. Hendler, and O. ficial Intelligence, Social Networks and (CHI 17), 2017, pp. 3523–3537. Lassila, “The Semantic Web,” Scien- Humanity, Apress, 2016. 16. P.M. Leonardi, M. Huysman, and C. tific American, vol. 284, no. 5, 2001, Steinfield, “Enterprise Social Media: pp. 34–43. Definition, History, and Prospects for 21. R.V. Guha, D. Brickley, and S. Macbeth, the Study of Social Technologies in “Schema.org: Evolution of Structured DISCLAIMER Organizations,” J. Computer-Mediated Data on the Web,” Commun. ACM, All three co-editors of this special Commun., vol. 19, no. 1, 2013, pp. 1–19. vol. 59, no. 2, 2016, pp. 44–51. issue are directors of the Web Sci- 17. A. Sundararajan, The Sharing Econ- 22. National Academies of Sciences, ence Trust (www.webscience.org). omy: The End of Employment and the Engineering, and Medicine,

From the analytical engine to the supercomputer, from Pascal to von Neumann, from punched cards to CD-ROMs—IEEE Annals of the History of Computing covers the breadth of computer history. e quarterly publication is an active center for the collection and dissemination of information on historical projects and organizations, oral history activities, and international conferences. www.computer.org/annals

JUNE 2018 17