The global World Wide Web Conference (WWW2006), which
comes to Edinburgh next week, is set to be one of the most
influential IT events in the UK this year.
This annual conference, which takes place in a different country
each year, comes to the UK at a crucial time in the development of
the web and aims to showcase the new wave of web-based
technology.
The conference has been organised for the World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C) in the UK by the School of Electronics &
Computer Science at Southampton University in conjunction with the
British Computer Society.
Computer Weekly is the media sponsor for the event, which will
be attended by about 2,000 delegates from around the world. It will
provide a forum where IT directors, business decision makers, web
specialists and techies can meet the people making the decisions
about the future of the web.
Keynote speakers at the event include director of the World Wide
Web Consortium Tim Berners-Lee, Nato’s director of policy planning,
Jamie Shea, chairman of the UK National Institute for Health and
Clinical Excellence Michael Rawlins, executive vice-chairman and
founder of online bank Egg Mike Harris, and senior figures from
Reuters, Nortel, Motorola, Microsoft, RM and Reed Elsevier.
The conference is broken down into four one-day themed sessions.
The first day will focus on the web’s impact on business, looking
especially at the impact of web-based innovation on advertising,
publishing and the media, as well as e-commerce and on traditional
business.
The second day will focus on the next wave of web technologies
such as the Semantic Web, the mobile/pervasive web, and their
impact on applications. Delegates will also hear about the impact
of the web on networks, devices and interfaces, including browsing
technologies.
The final two days will focus on security and on what steps are
being taken to ensure that the web is secure. There will also be a
focus on the impact of the web on education and science, as well as
the impact on health, both for healthcare professionals and
patients.
Attendees can expect to hear about what is going on behind the
scenes to provide a richer user experience to the web. One such
area, for example, is where the W3C is developing standards that
support web interaction through the eyes, ears, voice and
touch.
They will also be brought up to date with W3C’s work to enable
the “ubiquitous web” to become reality – this is a series of
standards and recommendations designed to make the web more easily
accessible to mobile devices. In this area W3C is building a
database of device descriptions and developing best practices for
the creation of mobile-friendly websites.
On security, the W3C is exploring ways to give users and service
providers more confidence in online transactions and provide easier
identity management.
The conference is likely to hear about advances in managing the
huge amount of data thrown up by the web through the Semantic Web.
The Semantic Web provides a common framework that allows data to be
shared and reused across application, enterprise and community
boundaries.
The wider context of the web will also feature at the
conference, for example the Web Accessibility Initiative, which
sets out guidelines to help people with disabilities access the
web.
More information about the conference:http://www2006.org