Workshop Web Science (WSW 2010) -Social Computing Applications- (Vorwort)

Web Science is often referred to as the “science of decentralized information systems” [BLHH06a], [Shn07]. [It] [...] aims to map how decentralized information structures can serve [...] scientific, representational and communicational requirements, and to produce designs and design principles governing such structures. [BLHH06b] While technologies such as Semantic Web, Web Services, and Cloud Computing are germane to the broad proliferation of Web technologies, we also need to understand the human side of the Web, in order to retain its usefulness and benefit to people. This is at the center of attention of Web Science and includes, in addition to the aforementioned technological approaches, research related to online communities, information diffusion, Web governance, global network structures beyond the individual communities on the Web, and incentive and monetization systems [HSH08].