Briefly tell me what your session is going to be about.
Week 6 will take a brief look back over the MOOC and consider ‘what next’? It will be clear by now that the Web is evolving, and it will not remain as it is today. In this week we will consider where the Web might be in another 25 years, looking at emergent trends such as the internet of things, linked data and the semantic web.

What are the main aims you want to achieve?
This session will encourage you to think about where the web is going, and why this matters. The Web is not finished and nor is its current form guaranteed. We all have a stake in the Web and it is our responsiblity to be informed about its future. This week we aim to get students thinking about this.

How will the learners benefit?
Learners will benefit from the expertise and insight of some of the world’s leading Web Scientists. The emphasis of the week will be on current trends and future scenarios: where might the Web go and how can we engage with this?

What excites you most about delivering this session within the Web Science MOOC?
This session draws attention to the ‘politics’ of the Web and challenges everyone to become involved in the future of the Web. It is exciting to have 10000 people thinking about how the web is evolving, what the opportunities and costs of a future web might be, in terms of privacy, globalisation, equality, and so on.

The post Tutor Interview Series: Susan Halford and Les Carr – What Next? appeared first on Web Science MOOC.

Briefly tell me what your session is going to be about –
Week 1 introduces Web Science – the study of the World Wide Web. The session will trace the origins and evolution of the Web, exploring the social, economic, political, cultural and – last but not least – technical processes that together come to shape the largest human information system in history. The session will include thought provoking introductory and concluding discussions, framing longer lectures and independent student activities.

What are the main aims you want to achieve? –
This session will introduce you to some of the key contributors to the Web Science MOOC and explain our approach to studying the World Wide Web. By the end of this first week, you will have a good understanding of Web Science, which will provide a strong foundation for the weeks that follow

How will the learners benefit? –
Learners will benefit from the expertise and insight of some of the world’s leading Web Scientists whilst the activities will enable learners to begin to do Web Science, constructing a time line of the Web and reflecting on their own web practices.

What excites you most about delivering this session within the Web Science MOOC? –
What exites me about this is that we have the opportunity to show Southampton Web Science to the world! This is a new area of study that we have been developing over the past few years and we are convinced that it should be taken up and studied – whether in a MOOC, an undergraduate degree or as postgraduate study. The Web shapes the lives of billions of people and, in turn, people, governments and corporations across the world are changing the Web as they adapt and use it. Its critical that we find ways to understand this and that’s what Web Science offers.

The post Tutor Interview Series: Susan Halford and Les Carr – Introduction to Web Science appeared first on Web Science MOOC.