Frequently asked questions about WWW2010 conference

Updated April 27, 2010

Frequently asked questions about WWW2010 conference

Blog Posts

On The Web

Site Search

What is WWW2010?
The World Wide Web Conference is a yearly international conference on the topic of the future direction of the web, according to the group’s website. This year, it’s being held at the Raleigh Convention Center from April 26-30 and will focus on openness in web technologies, standards and practices, and the best of the region’s technology and culture. The conference began in 1994 as a forum for discussion and debate about the evolution of the web, the standardization of its technologies and the impact of those technologies on society and culture.

How many will attend? Who is a typical attendee?
More than a thousand people representing 42 countries are expected to attend this week’s conference, which typically attracts researchers, developers, users and commercial ventures and others who are passionate about the web.

Why it is in Raleigh?
Representatives from the City of Raleigh and North Carolina State University traveled to Banff, Canada, in 2007 to deliver a bid to host the 19th International World Wide Web Conference in 2010. The conference alternates between North America, Europe and Asia.

“The bid was well received by the IW3C2, and the Raleigh team was given the green light to begin negotiations to host the event,” according to WWW2010.org. Members of the IW3C2 made a two-day trip to Raleigh in September 2008 to review the organizing committee’s plans, meet with city officials and tour the Raleigh Convention Center facilities.

In December 2008, N.C. State and the IW3C2 reached an agreement to host the conference in Raleigh. The general conference chairs are Michael Rappa, director of the Institute for Advanced Analytics at N.C. State, and Paul Jones, director of iBiblio.org at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Who is Vint Cerf?
Vint Cerf is vice president and chief Internet evangelist for Google, according to his biography on WWW2010.org. He is responsible for identifying new enabling technologies and applications on the Internet and other platforms for the company. Widely known as a “Father of the Internet,” he is the co-designer with Robert Kahn of TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol). The TCP/IP model, or Internet Protocol Suite, describes a set of general design guidelines and implementations of specific networking protocols to enable computers to communicate over a network, according to Wikipedia.

President Bill Clinton recognized their work in 1997 with the U.S. National Medal of Technology. In 2005, Cerf and Kahn received the highest civilian honor bestowed in the U.S. – the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It recognizes the fact that their work on the software code used to transmit data across the Internet has put them “at the forefront of a digital revolution that has transformed global commerce, communication, and entertainment.”

Cerf has received numerous awards and commendations in connection with his work on the Internet. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from UCLA and more than a dozen honorary degrees.

He is scheduled to speak from 9 to 10:30 a.m. and from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Wednesday in Ballroom A.

Who is Lee Rainie? What is the Pew Internet & American Life Project?
Lee Rainie is the director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project, a non-profit, non-partisan "fact tank" that studies the social impact of the Internet, according to the organization’s website.

The project has issued more than 200 reports based on its surveys that examine people's online activities and the Internet's role in their lives. Lee is a co-author of Up for Grabs, Hopes and Fears, and Ubiquity, Mobility, Security, a series of books about the future of the Internet published by Cambria Press and based on project surveys.

He is also co-authoring a book for MIT Press about the social impact of technology with sociologist Barry Wellman that will be published in late 2010. The working title is Networked: The New Social Network Operating System.

Prior to launching the Pew Internet Project, Rainie was managing editor of U.S. News & World Report. He is a graduate of Harvard University and has a master's degree in political science from Long Island University.

He is scheduled to speak from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in Ballroom A.

Who is Danah Boyd?
Danah Boyd is with Microsoft Research New England and a research fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, according to her biography on WWW2010.org.

Her research, “Taken Out of Context: American Teen Sociality in Networked Publics,” examines the role that social network sites like MySpace and Facebook play in everyday teen interactions and social relations. She is especially interested in how teens interact before invisible audiences and negotiate the convergence of public and private life.

The MacArthur Foundation funded her research as part of a broader grant on digital youth and informal learning. At the Berkman Center, Boyd co-directs the Internet Safety Technical Task Force to work with companies and non-profits to identify technical solutions for keeping children safe online.

She is scheduled to speak from 9 to 10 a.m. Thursday in Ballroom A and from 1:30 to 3 p.m. Thursday in Room 402.

What is social networking?
The Internet and the World Wide Web are used increasingly by people to communicate with friends and colleagues, thus the rise of “social networking.” Websites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube enable friends, family and others to exchange information be it videos or text messages or just about any form of electronic communication. Dictionary.com defines social networking as “the use of a website to connect with people who share personal or professional interests, place of origin, education at a particular school, etc.”

Who is Wayne Sutton?
Wayne Sutton is a social media and community strategist at Twine Interactive in Raleigh who describes himself as an “entrepreneur, strategist, producer and speaker.” He counsels business leaders on the ever-changing Internet environment. He has nearly 15 years experience, and his clients range from founders of small start-ups and representatives of non-profit organizations to CEOs of large and small corporations.

What is the Internet Society?
The Internet Society (ISOC) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1992 to provide leadership in Internet-related standards, education and policy, according to the group’s website. With offices in Washington, Geneva and Switzerland, it is dedicated to ensuring the evolution and use of the Internet for the benefit of people throughout the world. For more than 15 years, ISOC has run international network training programs for developing countries, which have played a vital role in setting up the Internet connections and networks in virtually every country connecting to the Internet during this time.

What is Open Source?
Open source is the free sharing of technological information, according to Wikipedia. Starting in the early 2000s, a number of companies began to publish a portion of their source code to claim they were open source, while keeping key parts closed. This led to the development of the now widely used terms “free open source software” and “commercial open source software” to distinguish between truly open and hybrid forms of open source.

Who is Doc Searls?
A widely published advocate of open source software, David “Doc” Searls is senior editor for Linux Journal, the original Linux open source publication. He also is a Fellow with the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University and is working on a book titled The Intention Economy: What Happens When Customers Get Real Power. His Weblog can be found at: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/doc/.

He is scheduled to speak in Ballroom A from 5 to 6 p.m. on Thursday.

What is Red Hat?
Founded in 1993, Red Hat is the leader in enterprise Linux and is the most recognized open source brand in the world. It serves global enterprises with technology and services made possible by the open source model. The Raleigh-based company trades its stock (RHT) on the New York Stock Exchange. Linux is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software collaboration.

What is public.resource.org? Who is Carl Malamud?
Public.Resource.Org is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit that is dedicated to publishing and sharing public domain materials in the U.S. Founded by Carl Malamud and based out of Sebastopol, Calif., its motto is “Making Government Information More Accessible.” Despite being in the public domain as works created by employees of the U.S. government in the course of their employment, decisions by U.S. federal courts have not been accessible on reasonable terms, according to Wikipedia. Public.Resource.Org has worked to obtain copies of the federal appeals federal district court decisions. The organization has obtained and integrated the appeals courts decisions and obtained copies of a substantial portion of the district court decisions.

Tags: WWW 2010, Red Hat

WRAL Tech Wire