Institute for Web Science Funded
March 28, 2010
The UK may have a lorry stuffed full of bad debts, but it is going to support the Semantic Web. I learned from XML Journal that “Berners-Lee Gets a New Institute.” Now an “institute” in the UK is a bit different from the US non-profit. “Institutes” can certify. To become a materials scientist with alphabetical letters behind one’s name and a permit to do stuff like find new methods to deposit scratch resistant films on aircraft cockpits, you have to pass a test. “Institutes” can be big business and their impact is global. I heard that Japan monitors some UK institutes closely to make certain that the requirements set down in the UK for engineers are considered for Japanese engineers. Maybe? Maybe not, but the rumor underscores a type of influence that extends beyond something like the Institute for Creation Research.
According to XML Journal:
[The Institute for Web Science is] supposed to develop, maybe even commercialize, Berners-Lee’s quixotic next-generation notions of a Semantic Web and put the UK on the cutting edge of emerging Internet technologies, according to Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who also wants every home in the UK to have super-fast broadband by 2020. The institute will be jointly based at the Universities of Oxford and Southampton, the latter a hot bed of Semantic Web research where Berners-Lee has had a part-time post since 2004.
My view is that this will be an important outfit in less than a year. The Institute may be one way to help ensure that the Semantic Web remains an open environment, not the province of a single company. How big a role will outfits like Google, IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle play? We will know when the first organization details begin to emerge.
Stephen E Arnold, March 28, 2010
Free as a bird. No one paid me to write this. I will report non payment to the Administration for Native Americans. I should work at a casino in Wisconsin. Bet I get paid there.
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