World Wide Web Research Collaboration Initiative
MIT and the University of Southampton have launched a long-term research collaboration that aims to produce the fundamental scientific advances necessary to guide the future design and use of the World Wide Web. The Web Science Research Initiative (WSRI) will generate a research agenda for understanding the scientific, technical and social challenges underlying the growth of the web. Of particular interest is the volume of information on the web that documents more and more aspects of human activity and knowledge. WSRI research projects will weigh such questions as: How do we access information and assess its reliability? By what means may we assure its use complies with social and legal rules? How will we preserve the web over time?
WSRI will be headquartered at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT and at the School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) at the University of Southampton. Initial plans call for joint research projects, workshops and student/faculty exchanges between the two institutions. The initiative will have four founding directors: Tim Berners-Lee, director of the World Wide Web Consortium, senior research scientist at MIT and professor at the University of Southampton; Wendy Hall, professor of computer science and head of the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton; Nigel Shadbolt, professor of artificial intelligence at the University of Southampton and director of the Advanced Knowledge Technologies Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration; and Daniel J. Weitzner, Technology and Society Domain leader of the World Wide Web Consortium and principal research scientist at MIT.
Commenting on the new initiative, Berners-Lee said: “As the web celebrates its first decade of widespread use, we still know surprisingly little about how it evolved, and we have only scratched the surface of what could be realized with deeper scientific investigation into its design, operation and impact on society. The Web Science Research Initiative will allow researchers to take the web seriously as an object of scientific inquiry, with the goal of helping to foster the web’s growth and fulfill its great potential as a powerful tool for humanity.”
The joint MIT-Southampton initiative will provide a global forum for scientists and scholars to collaborate on the first multidisciplinary scientific research effort specifically designed to study the web at all scales of size and complexity, and to develop a new discipline of web science for future generations of researchers.
Professor Hall added, “As the web continues to evolve, it is becoming increasingly clear that a new type of graduate will be required to meet the needs of science and industry. Already we are seeing evidence of this, with major Internet companies and research institutions lamenting the fact that there are simply not enough people with the right mix of skills to meet current and future employment demands. In launching WSRI, one of our ultimate aims is to address this issue.”
HP-Compaq Merger Interesting: Study
In early September 2001, Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Compaq announced plans to merge. At the time, IDC predicted the two companies would be better off together in a logical response to the forces of hardware commoditization and industry consolidation that were already under way. In the five years since the announcement, the two companies have successfully completed a massive integration effort and moved the combined company forward to new revenue and profit levels. A new study from IDC — “Five Years After the HP-Compaq Merger: How Has HP Fared?” — looks at how HP and Compaq met the challenges of integration and the progress the company has made.
“What makes the merger interesting from a technology perspective is the extent to which HP has actually improved its position in a number of core markets that were rapidly commoditizing,” noted Crawford Del Prete, senior vice president of Communications, Hardware, Services and Software Research, IDC. “The merger came at a time when both companies were becoming irrelevant in a number of key product categories. By completing the deal when it did, HP managed to position itself for the next wave of enterprise computing by leaping ahead of the trends that were working against the two companies as independent entities.”
According to IDC, an important linchpin to the merger’s success was the commitment to infrastructure software, which helped move the company away from commodity hardware and into the management layer. OpenView gave HP a foundation from which to build in the software business, putting the company in a stronger position to compete with the largest system and services providers worldwide. Equally important was the company’s commitment to cultural change, where it was hoped that the infusion of Compaq’s fast-paced corporate culture would help increase HP’s “business velocity.” The initial integration efforts greatly benefited from Compaq’s “adopt-and-go” approach, although some product and management decisions came at a high cost. Organizational changes have remained a critical issue, however, as HP had reduced the size of its work force, experienced the departure of two CEOs, and reorganized its management structure.
IDC believes that over the past five years, HP has successfully transformed itself into a company capable of delivering both volume products and value products, which gives it entry to more markets than many of its competitors. However, the study points out that HP’s transformation is not yet complete and challenges lie ahead. Among these are the ongoing need to reduce the complexity of its solutions, to expand its software business, to clarify its strategy in the services business and to leverage underutilized assets in the consumer market.
Mobile Sector Commits to Environmental Plan
Led by Nokia, a group of mobile manufacturers, network operators, suppliers, recyclers, consumer and environmental organizations has committed to reduce the environmental impact of mobile phones. The group was created as part of a European Commission pilot project looking at how different industries could work with stakeholder groups to reduce the environmental impact of their products throughout their lifecycle.
The European Commission group has agreed upon a series of new initiatives which include:
• Reducing energy consumption: To lower the energy consumption of mobile phones, the manufacturers have agreed to take action by equipping phones with reminders to unplug chargers once the battery is recharged. Estimates are that if this measure led to only 10 percent of the world’s mobile phone users turning off the electricity supply to the chargers after use, this would save enough energy in one year to power 60,000 homes annually.
• Removing materials of concern: The group has agreed to take action to go beyond current regulatory standards and eliminate or reduce additional hazardous materials used in manufacturing including certain flame retardants and phthalates.
• Improving the take-back and recycling of mobile phones: The mobile operators will work with manufacturers and the other stakeholders to increase the amount of used or unwanted phones that are brought back by consumers for recycling. Over the next two years, the group will look at the range of existing recycling schemes operated around the world and identify which work most successfully and why. They will also pilot the use of incentive schemes in a number of different markets around the world to understand how these can be used to improve collection rates.
• Consumer Awareness: The group has agreed to provide more information and guidance to consumers about the environmental performance of mobile phones, helping them to make more informed purchasing choices. Once it is understood the specific information consumers require on this issue, those details will be made available on the products and at the point of purchase.
