New web science institute to be formed
Proposals to launch an Institute of Web Science have been unveiled by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
The organisation, which will receive government funding of £30 million, is being established at the universities of Oxford and Southampton to boost research into internet technologies and to identify new ways to engage the public with the web.
Sir Tim Berners Lee, the inventor of the world wide web, will head up the new institute, which will also analyse the future of the internet and the role of web 3.0 in business operations in the coming years.
Launching the institute, prime minister Gordon Brown said: "This institute will help place the UK at the cutting edge of research on the Semantic Web and other emerging web and internet technologies and ensure the government is taking the right funding decisions to position the UK as a world leader.
"We will invite universities and private sector web developers and companies to join this collaborative project."
With Thanks to Women in Technology