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The paper. University of Sheffield, City College Thessaloniki, 11th Students' Spring Symposium. 18/05/2012
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Webvistas.org: Changing (with) the World Wide Web
OIKONOMOU MICHAEL*
ZIOUPOS ANDREAS**
VENTOURIS ANASTASIOS**
PANAGIOTOPOULOU KONSTANTINA**
PAPATSOUMA IOANNA**
VROGKISTINOS SPYROS***
ALEXIOU GIORGOS*
* Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Department of Mathematics, Web Science
** Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Department of Mathematics
***University of Macedonia, Technology Management Department
Abstract: - World Wide Web has emerged into an ecosystem that incorporates many opportunities but threats also.Webvistas–
www.webvistas.org - is an open community that aims to an open and free Web achieving the participation and mostly the action
ofWebvistas members in order to create a safer and more inter-creative consciousness. Tools to achieve this are by knowledge,
discussion and acting.Community is functioning under thematic areas that are interdisciplinary and inspired by the new field of
Web Science. The Web shall be changed to get better and our living could improve using the Web. Current work gives a brief
presentation of the Webvistas community and its role in Greek Society.
Key-Words: - World Wide Web, Webvistas community, Web Science
1 Introduction World Wide Web has been developed maybe to the most social technology ever. Today more than 2 billion people use the Web;
many of them interact with each other over the Web. It is no more just a huge system, but has emerged into an ecosystem. The
Web usage concerns any user personally but influences the whole ecosystem. Consequently, many issues arise that come over
the extent of the analysis of the Web strictly as a technology. Many research questions arise that one mere discipline like
Computer Science, Sociology or Psychology cannot answer. Web Science is a new scientific field that aims to understand the
Web, engineer its future and ensure its social benefit [1]. Tim Berners Lee - inventor of the Web - was the person to initiate Web
Science at 2005[2].In Greece, Web Science was introduced by MichalisVafopoulos [3], [4], [5] at 2007, who was also the
person to provide the subject categorization of this new discipline [6].Unlike other scientific revolutions (e.g. biology), Internet
and the Web are mainly happen on single user's level. That is why Web Science should be complemented by "smart mobs" [7]
wisdom and should be communicated to users in order to fulfill Web's potential. Under this context, Webvistas community [8]
was created with the vision of an open and free Web alongside with a safer and more inter-creative consciousness of Web users.
It uses physical meetings and mostly online tools (such as portal, forum etc) to enable Webvistas members interact with each
other and voluntary collaborate towards the community’s vision. Webvistas community is acting mainly under the pillars of
knowledge/discussion (forum discussion, research projects etc.) and action (events, festivals, workshops, hactivism etc.)
Everyone is welcome to participate to the community and contribute for the benefit of the Web, and our living with it.
2 The Webvistas Community Webvistas was founded in Greece, at 2011 to satisfy the needs that the Web Ecosystem has created in Greek Society. The
community’s main idea is that not only the Web can change to get better, but we can also improve our living by using the Web
appropriately; that is with consciousness of safety and inter-creativity.It is a community of volunteers, open and
interdisciplinary.
2.1Vision The Web usage concerns any user personally but influences the whole ecosystem. Webvistas members consider that the benefits
of the Web usage overcome the threats; therefore they aim to evolve this usage to a conscious and more creative Web
utilization. Community is working towards the vision of a complementary Web that will be open, free, safe and inter-creative.
2.2 Mission Community’s mission is that Web Services will be multiplied while its users will capture a viable space of the digital world. It
aims to 1) identify the true capabilities, opportunities but threats also, 2) introduce the study of the Web to all the levels of the
education system, and 3) introduce into the political agenda, the Web as a critical infrastructure for growth. In order to act efficiently the structural components of this new Web ecosystem shall be investigated. Community’s belief is that
the Web shall be approached in a unifying way, not only for its scientific approach but for its everyday utilization also. In order to achieve this, Webvistas community operates mainly under two pillars: 1) Knowledge and discussion, and
2) Action Members are learning, discussing and teaching for the Web while simultaneously action is being taken with innovative projects,
public events, festivals and hactivism.
2.3 Community members Webvistas is a live Community in the manner that its members are physically known with each other and meeting many
times.An online platform [8] is supporting the community with many functions and operations (like forum etc.) that enables
them to discuss, learn and collaborate. Anyone can become a member ofWebvistas, as this is an open community. Webvistas
Community already counts more than 850 members. The majority of them are students of greekuniverisitiesand a few members
belong to academic staff. All of them are interacting with each other through an online Platform with advanced forum
capabilities by discussing over the topics of the Web. Moreover, many of the members are taking a more leading role and
participate into projects, working groups, events, hactivism and many other activities. Interesting it is that these activities mostly
arise by the initiatives of the community members. All members are encouraged to propose new things, projects, activities and
the community would be happy to support them implement things. Webvistas community mainly operates by focusing in knowledge/ discussion and by taking action when possible.
2.4 Operations of Webvistas Community 2.4.1 Knowledge and Discussion
The main idea is that members of the community publish knowledge articles and discuss them by using a forum platform. The
thematic areas that are being discussed are interdisciplinary (Web Science approach). Knowledge and discussion are categorized
under eight specific thematic areas: Genesis of the Web; Technology of the Web; Web today; The new functioning of the Web;
The main issues of the Web; The new values of the Web; Scientific Study of the Web; Web tomorrow. Except from the eight
thematic topics there is an additional topic for open discussion and questions from the public. On this topic even anonymous
users can participate, discuss or even ask for help by the members of the community. Additionally, synergies have been made with faculty from the top Greek universities as an effort to introduce the study of the
Web to the Education System. Students are posting articles in the relevant topics of the forum in Webvistas platform. Faculty is
using the platform to involve and evaluate their students.The scientific outcome is quite significant, because of the mixing and
interaction in terms of knowledge by students of different disciplines. Today, synergies with greek universities count to five.
Moreover, the members of the Community are initiating knowledge projects all the time, while they collaborating physically or
virtually to deliver results and further knowledge to the public and the society. 2.4.2 Action
Webvistas community tries not only to focus on the theoretic aspect of the Web. Taking action is essential for the hot issues of
our society today. Projects take place inside Webvistas community, for example the publication of linked open data to the cloud.
Moreover, events allow to the community being extrovert and enlighten the Greek society about the new aspects of the Web.
The community under its own initiative or by co-operating with other organizations participates to events by conducting
workshops, presentations, games and many other activities aiming to the further connection with the Greek Society. Webvistas festivals are big events that allow to the community present the majority of the community’s topics. Workshops, open
discussions, games, hackathons and other activities take place at Webvistas festivals.
3 Conclusion Webvistas community – www.webvistas.org - was created with the vision of an open and free Web alongside with a safer and
more inter-creative consciousness of Web users. It uses physical meetings and mostly online tools (such as portal, forum etc) to
enable Webvistas members interact with each other and collaborate voluntary towards community’s vision. Webvistas
community is acting mainly under the pillars of knowledge/discussion (forum discussion, research projects etc.) and Action
(events, festivals, workshops, hactivism etc.) Everyone is welcome to participate to the community and contribute for the benefit
of the Web, and our living with it.
References: [1] “What is Web Science?”,http://webscience.org/webscience.html, accessed at April of 2012
[2] Berners Lee Tim, Hall Wendy, Hendler James, O’Hara Kieron, Shadbolt Nigel and Weitner Daniel, 2006 - “A
framework for Web Science”, Now Publishers Inc., isbn: 1933019336
[3] VafopoulosMichalis, 2007 – “ΤοπλαίσιοτηςεπιστήμηςτουWeb”, Hyperconsult, isbn: 978-960-930361-3
[4] White Su and VafopoulosMichalis, 2011 –“Web Science: Expanding the Notion of Computer Science” Available at
SSRN http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1919393
[5] Vafopoulos, Michalis and KenterisMichalis, 2008 – “Web Science”, 12th Pan-Hellenic Conference on Informatics
[6]Vafopoulos, Michalis, 2011 - “Web Science Subject Categorization (WSSC)”,
Proceedings of ACM WebSci, pp. 1-13
[7] RheingoldHoward, 2003 -“Smart mobs”, De BoeckUniversite, isbn: 2804142426 [8] “Webvistas community”, http://www.webvistas.org
