Hello. This is 6 Minute English from
BBC Learning English. I'm Neil.
And I'm Sam. What's the matter, Neil?
You sound upset.
Well, I am, Sam - I just spent an hour
working on my computer when
it suddenly froze. I lost
everything and had to start all over again!
Agghh, that's so frustrating - like pop-up
internet ads and buffering
videos that never play!
Modern computers and the internet
have revolutionised the way
we live today, bringing us the world
with a click of a button. But not everyone
feels happy about these
technological developments.
While potentially acting as a force
for good and progress,
the internet also provides a
way of spreading hate and
misinformation. And for some
people, the World Wide Web remains
a mysterious and confusing place.
In this programme, we'll hear about a new
academic subject called
Web Science.
Web Science studies the
technology behind the internet.
But from the human side, it's also
interested in how people interact
with each other online.
So we'll be asking whether studying
Web Science could make
the internet better for humanity
in the future.
But first it's time for our quiz question.
I wonder what the pioneers of the internet
would think about how it is used today.
So the question is, who invented
the World Wide
Web? Was it: a) Bill Gates,
b) Tim Berners-Lee, or c) Steve Jobs?
Well, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were
the brains behind Microsoft
and Apple Mac, so I'm going
to say c) Tim Berners-Lee.
OK, Sam, we'll find out later. Now, because
of coronavirus the annual
Web Science conference
was held online this year. Its theme was
'making the web human-centric'.
One of the conference's key speakers,
and co-founder of the new
discipline of Web Science,
was Dame Wendy Hall. Here she is
speaking to BBC World Service's
Digital Planet:
People think about the web as a
technology but actually it's co-created
by society. We
put the content on, we interact with
the technology, with the platforms,
with the social media
networks to create it. What we study is
how that works as an ecosystem,
this coming together
of people and technology, and it's very
interdisciplinary, very socio-technical,
and of course these
days a lot of it is powered by AI.
Web Science is not only interested in the
technology side of the internet.
As a subject
it's very interdisciplinary - involving two
or more academic subjects or
areas of knowledge.
Web Science combines digital technology
with subjects ranging from
psychology and robotics
to economics and sociology.
Exchanges between humans and
the internet can be seen in
social media networks - websites,
apps and computer programmes, like
Facebook and Instagram,
which allow people to use electronic
devices to communicate and
share information.
This view of technology sees the internet
as an ecosystem - a complex
pattern of relationships
and mutual influences that exists
between all living things
and their environment.
One ongoing and topical example
of websites helpfully interacting
with humans is the Covid
contact tracing app.
You might think the mobile phone app,
which tracks movements
and contact between people
to combat coronavirus, would be a useful
practical application
of internet technology.
But as Carly Kind, Director of
the Ada Lovelace Institute in Cambridge,
explained to BBC World
Service's Digital Planet, things are never
that straightforward:
Actually, there's a lot of more
fundamental questions that
haven't been answered yet such
as: is Bluetooth even an adequate
mechanism for doing what it
says on the tin, which is
detecting contact between two people?
The trails so far show that it's not actually
that great and so, do we know for sure
that these apps work and
they work in the way we
want them to? Do we get the public health
information that we need?
Apps like this are designed to support
public health - services to
improve the standard
of health of a country's
general population.
But Carly thinks the mechanisms used
must be suitable and adequate - they
must actually
work or do what it says on the tin - an
informal idiom meaning work exactly
as it is intended to
To find this out, trials - tests to discover
how effective or suitable
something is - are
carried out over a period of time.
The kind of trials which were carried out
during the invention of the internet in the
first place, right, Neil?
Ah yes, the invention of the internet - or
to be more accurate, the
World Wide Web. In
our quiz question I asked you who
invented the World Wide Web?
What did you say, Sam?
I said b) Tim Berners-Lee.
Well, you're a first class web scientist,
Sam, because that's the correct answer!
Great! In this programme, we've been
hearing about Web Science,
a new interdisciplinary
subject, combining several areas of study,
which investigates the ecosystem
of the internet
- the complex pattern of interconnections
between humans and their environment.
Social media networks - websites and
apps, like Facebook, which let
people use electronic
devices to communicate on the internet -
show how humans and technology
can successfully
interact.
A new Covid contact tracing app is
currently undergoing trials - tests
to see if it works
effectively. This will discover if it does
what it says on the tin - works
as it's supposed to.
If successful, by alerting people to
coronavirus risks the app
will support public health - services
aimed at improving the health
of the general population.
And that's all from us for now.
And we hope you'll join us again soon for
more topical English vocabulary here at 6
Minute English. Bye for now!
Bye bye!