Using Data from to the Web to observe communities and the Evolution of Science

22^nd May 2012, 16:00 G12
Prof. Stefan Decker
Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI)
National University of Ireland, Galway

Abstract

The Web has connected people much more than it connects machines.
People form communities, and these communities evolve. The Web, and specifically the Semantic Web made these communities observable:
Contributors to a community can be identified and classified based on their kind of contribution using available data.
This helps to identify growing and healthy communities and attitudes, but as well decline and decay. Scientific communities are specific communities whose evolution is of interest and can be observed, e.g., how topics evolve and new communities are formed.
In my talk I present work done at the Digital Enterprise Research Institute observing communities and mapping the evolution of science by observing their behavior and traces on the Web.


Bio:

Prof. Stefan Decker is a professor at the National University of Ireland, Galway, and director of the Digital Enterprise Research Institute. Previously he worked at ISI, University of Southern California, Stanford University (3 Years), and the University of Karlsruhe.
He is a widely cited Web scientist, and his current research interests include semantics in collaborative systems, Web 2.0, and distributed systems.