International Workshop To Investigate Internet Science And Social Networking

16 May 2011

Institute IMDEA Networks’ Third Annual Workshop will bring together experts from around the world to investigate a holistic approach to studying and developing the potential of the Internet, with a focus on social networking

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The Internet has evolved from a purely technical artefact into a central element of our social fabric, with technologies such as Web 2.0 and social networking evolving in a way that could never have been predicted by technological designers. It is clearer than ever that the Internet cannot be studied and its potential cannot be fully exploited using only concepts from ICT. The human factor grows progressively in importance for Internet technologists. With this in mind Institute IMDEA Networks is holding a one-day, invitation-only workshop on May 18 devoted to the topic of Internet Science with a particular focus on social networking.

Internet Science aims to establish a scientific and methodological approach to understanding the various aspects of the Internet as a societal as well as a technological artefact. This holistic endeavour is bringing together experts from areas as diverse as network engineering, sociology and political science in a joint effort to enable stakeholders to influence the Internet’s evolution in a way that optimises the benefits to humankind across social and private life, economy, business and politics. Social networking, including technologies such as Twitter and Facebook that reach into our daily lives, is currently experiencing a climax in its evolution, making the topic more relevant than ever to the future of our global scientific, technological and social development. Internet Science attempts to embrace human life with all its complexities, beyond purely technological solutions. It integrates diverse disciplines in order to tackle the Internet’s labyrinthine system, which seems to evolve according to its own principles and not under the control of its engineers.

The conference is Institute IMDEA Networks’ Third Annual Workshop, the organization’s most important international event of the year. The Workshop accompanies a meeting of Institute IMDEA Networks’ Scientific Council, which is comprised of prominent researchers from around the world, and features talks by both members and invited external experts. For instance, Hari Balakrishan of MIT, a member of the Institute’s Scientific Council and Board of Trustees, will present research into technological approaches for tackling the “grand challenge” of road transportation networks, while Dirk Helbing of ETH Zürich, scientific coordinator of the FuturICT project will give an introduction on this 10-year, 1-billion-euro project designed to help understand and manage complex, global, socially interactive systems, with a focus on sustainability and resilience. Sergey Gorinsky, Senior Researcher at Institute IMDEA Networks is the Scientific Coordinator of this Workshop.

FuturICT Spain is the project’s Spanish node. It encompasses a number of groups and institutions, amongst which IMDEA Networks’ membership contributes expertise on data gathering from various sources, like social and peer-to-peer-networks (e.g., Twitter, Bit Torrent), mobile networks, sensor networks, or websites. It also focuses on data communication and networking, on parallel and distributed computing and on the economic aspects of ICT (pricing, Game Theory etc). Furthermore, the Institute, which also devotes considerable research efforts to energy efficient networking, will produce relevant results on Energy efficient networks and ICT systems for energy saving with social involvement.

Institute IMDEA Networks Third Annual Workshop: Internet Science will be held at the Leganes Campus of University Carlos III of Madrid, located in the town of Leganés, to the south of Madrid.

Hari Balakrishnan, Professor in the EECS Department and CSAIL at MIT.