The man recognised as the inventor of the World Wide
Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, is to begin work on the next version of
the web at University of Southampton, where he has been appointed a
professor.
Berners-Lee said the next version of the web, the Semantic Web,
is "an extension of the current web in which information is given
well-defined meaning, better enabling computers and people to work
in co-operation".
The Semantic Web provides a common framework which allows data
to be shared and reused across applications, enterprises, and
community boundaries, he said.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is collaborating with a
large number of researchers and industrial partners to create
it.
Berners-Lee will take up a chair in computer science at the
University of Southampton's School of Electronics and Computer
Science, holding this position as well as being senior research
scientist at MIT, and director of W3C.
Professor Wendy Hall, head of the School of Electronics and
Computer Science at Southampton, said, "Many of the staff in the
school have worked with [Berners-Lee] on the development of the
World Wide Web over many years, and we are now closely involved
with the evolution of the Semantic Web, which is Tim's vision for
the future of the web."
"Tim’s appointment is a fantastic boost to our work here in
Southampton. It also enables us to deepen our involvement with both
US and European initiatives in this area," said Professor Nigel
Shadbolt, director of the Advanced Knowledge Technologies
Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration, the UK’s largest Semantic
Web project.