Before the recent COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in the UK, plans were underway for the University of Southampton to host the prestigious international (#WebSci20) on the University鈥檚 Highfield Campus.
When that became impossible, the hosts – Southampton鈥檚 Web Science Institute – pulled out all of the stops to transform the physical event into a virtual conference this week (6-10 July) with an exciting, packed programme featuring the world鈥檚 leading technology researchers, companies, policy makers and 鈥榤overs and shakers鈥� of Web Science.
Following a two days of preliminary symposia and workshops, the main conference is formally opened tomorrow (Wednesday, 8 July), by ACM President, Gabriele Kotsis聽 followed by Dame Wendy 鈥業n Conversation鈥� with University of Southampton鈥檚 Chancellor, Ruby Wax, at 10.00am (BST).
This evening, (Tuesday, 7 July) at 20.30pm (BST) the BBC World Service programme will broadcast a special panel discussion chaired by聽 with Dame Wendy, , 听补苍诲听JP Rangaswami to address the question, 鈥淲hat is Web Science and why does it matter?鈥�
The WSI team believes that the organisation for #WebSci20 is the way forward for future conferences 鈥� a strong mixture of physical and virtual attendance.
Dame Wendy said: 鈥淎t the WSI, we are at the forefront of global Web Science. This is our field of expertise, so we thought, if anyone could transform a physical conference into a virtual one, it should be us.鈥�
Susan Davies, Coordination Manager of the WSI, who leads the organisation team, said: 鈥淲e faced a number of challenges including getting the technology infrastructure in place. We also had to plan the programme to accommodate different time zones so that we could maximise access to people from around the world.
Professor Pauline Leonard, WSI Director, added: 鈥淲e have been able to attract an even more exciting programme of speakers as people haven鈥檛 had to book so much time out of their diaries to travel. We’ve also reduced registration costs dramatically as our overheads have reduced.鈥�
The registration fee to access all of these sessions 鈥� and more 鈥� is just 拢50. Register now at .
