Decentralized Information Group

http://www.w3.org/2007/Talks/0116-dig-status/

MIT Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL)

T Berners-Lee, D.J. Weitzner, Principal Investigators

People: Decentralized Information Group

**People in DIG**
Post-Graduate	Pre-Graduate
Hal Abelson Tim Berners-Lee Dan Connolly Chris Hanson Sandro Hawke Robert Hoffmann Lalana Kagal Ryan Lee Gerry Sussman Ralph Swick K. Krasnow Waterman Danny Weitzner	Harvey Jones Yosi Scharf Jim Hollenbach <1-2 PhD RAs>

DIG Mission and Scope

Mission: The Decentralized Information Group explores technical, institutional and public policy questions necessary to advance the development of global, decentralized information environments.

Decentralized Information

Decentralized - no central node, no hierarchy
Patchwork - join at edges - changes systems
Fractal structure of effective large scale systems
Technical and social

Technical Scope

Web as decentralized phenomenon
Fixing it where it isn't (DNS,...)
Post-web research - eg Google, etc for SW
User interfaces to Sem Web
Working large-scale ontology & data joining
Policy Aware systems
Trust: Now becoming the major impediment to computer use
Also scope to decentralized communication protocols
- HTTP3 = bit torrent/trackerless? DHT?

Social

Culture and community boundaries
Tools for joining cultures
Privacy, Accountability, Transparency: Policy
Economics for resource management

Web Science

Building and understanding beneficial weblike things:

"There is, however, a growing realization among many researchers that a clear research agenda aimed at understanding the current, evolving, and potential Web is needed. If we want to model the Web; if we want to understand the architectural principles that have provided for its growth; and if we want to be sure that it supports the basic social values of trustworthiness, privacy, and respect for social boundaries, then we must chart out a research agenda that targets the Web as a primary focus of attention. "
Creating a Science of the Web
Tim Berners-Lee, Wendy Hall, James Hendler, Nigel Shadbolt, Daniel J. Weitzner
SCIENCE VOL 313 11 AUGUST 2006

http://www.w3.org/2006/Talks/0314-ox-tbl/

Web Science Research Initiative (WSRI)

MIT Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL)

Southampton University School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS)

DIG Projects


Project	2005	2006	2007	2008
Current
Policy Aware Access Control	+	+	+
TAMI		+	+	+
End-2-End Semantic Accountability			+	+
Ongoing
cwm	+	+	+
Tabulator		+	+
DBView	+	+	.
Past
SwapMe		+
SWAN	+

Closely Related

WSRI
MIT Libraries/Haystack Simile

Planning Next Steps

Where to from here...

meeting agenda