Web Science : My veiled vision

University of Southampton, Building 32, November 2008: That’s when I received my first insight about what Web Science: A new branch of science that researchers (including Sir Tim Bernes Lee aka TBL) from MIT and the University of Southampton have successfully convinced enough influential people about its necessity.

For a  more conventional explanation about what this new science is, check Professor Nigel Shadbolt’s podcast recorded in November 2008 here.

And for my veiled-view of Web Science, read on

Basically, with so many stuff in computer science nowadays, researchers have been overwelmed! And computer scientists have this modular approach of breaking things into smaller units. Combined with the trend of everything being web-based, why not distinguish the Web as a unit in itself…

Around two decades ago, most people’s vision was: computers at the centre of all aspects of our life. To a large extent, this is something that has happened (our parents got it right!). But then, here comes the TBL’s Web and all the stuff that was being done on a desktop has now been moved online, web-based services!

Web Science’s vision: The Web at the centre of all aspects of our life! IT services, Law, Sociology, Economy…you name it, it has something to do with the web. And the frightening thing is that if ever someone was to gain complete control over the Web, theoritically, he will be controlling of the planet! ( Is TBL trying to double-cross me???)

While Web Science will be a discipline of study and research for probably the next 10 years, I feel that it’s thunder will be stolen in a shorter timespan compared to it stealing that of computer science…(and what about pervasive computing…still hiding in the shadows?)

A small advertising for the university now (no, they won’t be paying me for this):

• New module introduced this year: Foundations of web science
• New MSc in Web Science, introduced for September 2009’s intake

I’ll be writing more about Web Science in the future…since i have to prepare a report on that :p (so for those of you having to write that report as well, make sure not to plagiarised the presidential writings…)

Cyclone Gael in Mauritius?

last update: no cyclone warning…it’s over guyz…

Update 6 (Thursday, 12:30pm): At 10:10am Gael’s centre was at its closest location to mauritius and is now normally getting further away…next bulletin at 16:10…when most workers complete their day…

Update 5 (Thursday, 5am): 4:10am bulletin maintained a class 2, so the good news is: No school, college, university…the bad news: workers do what they do best: go to work! Next bulletin scheduled for 10:10am. Until then, have a nice cyclonic day

Update 4 (wednesday, 10pm): Still class 2, and probably there won’t be classes tomorrow, TO BE CONFIRMED AT 4:30am in the morning.

Some info-bits i’ve been getting from different regions of the island:

L’Escalier (South)-Selven saying that there was a short power cut but things are back to normal….in that village, we usually have more frequent electricity outage during normal weather than during cyclone. Lightnings have been flashing…but the sound was muted…no loraz (thunder).Bit windy, bit rainy…

Vacoas’ Sam complaining about her longanes….”tou longanes p tomber “. Probably she didn’t want to share longagne with others….And according to her there are strong winds but little rain…

From PortLouis, Anii says “grooo zeclairrrrrr…nek zeclair ek loraz” mentioning that there is more or less no rain or wind…

Feel free to voice out your situation through comments guyz

Update 3: A cyclone warning class 2 is in force in Mauritius, and as usual, they waited for schools and most workplaces to end before doing that . Looking at the images provided by foreign meteorological stations, there is very slim chance that the centre of gael reaches close enough to be a threat to the country. So guyz, the chances of a holiday tomorrow is getting slimmer…pray!

Update 2: Latest bulletin issued at 10:10am still confirm a class 1 warning. Next bulletin will be at 16:10.

gael dream trajectory

Before u get too excited about it…the red line is just imaginary…and the original picture is from meteo france.

Update 1: At 4am, the latest cyclone bulletin maintained a class 1, next bulletin will be at 10:10 am…so students…, go to school!!!

So a warning cyclone class 1 is in force in mauritus, ene warning  siklone  klass 1 en viguere lor moris, darger ek ki toofan…(please complete)

Official cyclone bulletin from Vacoa’s Sok Apadu station can be reached here

But according to a forecast from http://www.tropicalstormrisk.com/ shown below, Gael is not a major risk for the country.

This forecast is confirmed by meteo france (considered more reliable than sok’s). Meteo France’s page about gael can be reached at: http://www.meteo.fr/temps/domtom/La_Reunion/TGPR/actif/activite_en_cours.html

So have fun guyz…specially those expecting a holiday, start praying to God…everything is possible!

By the way, I had a primary school classmate whose name is Gael Souris, i seize this opportunity to say a hello to him if ever he stumbles on this page one day.

Snow for the president!

It was bound to happen…and it happened; Snow in Southampton. Located in the southern part of UK, it rarely snows that much in Southampton. But since the world’s future president is currently on tour there,  special arrangements had to be done, right?

Anyways, some updates in brief:

Submitted the following coursework for semester 1:

• Report about hypertext: ” The Semantic Web: Are we there yet?”
• Review paper: “Web Access in Pervasive Environments: A Review”
• Literature Search : “Access Control in Ubiquitous Environments:A Literature Search”
• Technical report: “Access Control in Ubiquitous Computing Environments : An analysis of the Trust-Based approach”
• Review paper: “A Review of the Web Service Dynamic Discovery (WS-Discovery) Specification”
• Report analysing accessibility and usability: “Software & Websites Evaluation for Accessibility and Usability Report”
• Developed an accessible website + presentation : accessible at:  http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/re1e08/
• Converted a static e-commerce catalog site into a dynamic one using DOT NET
• Sat for exams in Hypertext and Web Services

After presenting the e-commerce website on Wednesday, I took a coach to London, from there railed to Wickford, spending 4 days at my cousins place.

Was back in Southampton on Sunday afternoon and I was welcomed with snow and that same night, around 3:30am, while checking my mailbox (the real letterbox), i found that it was all white outside…SNOW! So took my camera, recorded a bit, snapped few pics as well.

So portion of the clip below was filmed at 3:30am outside the residence :p And the rest is Monday morning, around 9am.