Tetherless World

The World Wide Web changed the ways people work, play, communicate, collaborate, and educate. But without new research aimed at understanding the current, evolving and potential Web, we may miss or delay opportunities for new and revolutionary capabilities.

To model the Web, to understand the architectural principles that have provided for its growth, and to ensure it supports the basic social values of trustworthiness, personal control over information, and respect for social boundaries, then we must pursue a research agenda that targets the Web and its use as a primary focus of attention.

Rensselaer’s Tetherless World Constellation addresses this emerging area of “Web Science,” focusing on the World Wide Web and its future use.

Faculty in the constellation explore the research and engineering principles that underlie the Web, enhance the Web’s reach beyond the desktop and laptop computer, and develop new technologies and languages to expand the capabilities of the Web.

We use powerful scientific and mathematical techniques to explore the modeling of the Web from network- and information- centric views. We aim to make the next generation Web natural to use while responsive to a growing variety of policy and social needs. The Tetherless World Constellation designs new techniques to explore social, scientific, and legal impacts of the evolving technologies deployed on the Web.

Specific topics addressed in the constellation include:

• Semantic Web technology
• Knowledge provenance and explanation
• Privacy, policy, and workflow transparency
• Tetherless and mobile Web access
• Trust, social networking and collaboration technologies for the Web
• Network-centric concepts for the defense, industrial and Intelligence sectors
• Cyber-infrastructure in general with initial focus on eScience cyberinfrastructure
• Ontology evolution, management and use in diverse disciplines
• Ethical, policy and social aspects of Web use and usability