WWW 2011 to focus on 'inclusive Internet'

Internet inclusiveness would be the focus at the 20th World Wide Web conference (WWW 2011), which is being organised for the first-time in India at Hyderabad from March 28.

The web of emerging regions’ track focuses on solving problems such as intermittent network connectivity, cost factors, reliability challenges, language and user interface problems, lack of locally-relevant content in order to extend the reach of the web to the emerging regions of the world.

The event would discuss issues like challenges in developing content in local languages, poor PC penetration and lack of infrastructure to connect the next billion users. It would focus more on the regional and global impact of expanding open web platform for application development, Krithi Ramamritham, chair professor in the department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Bombay, told mediapersons.

WWW 2011 is a research-based five-day event, being hosted in association with the International Institute of Information Technology (III-T) Hyderabad, IIIT-B, and the Institute of Information Technology (IIT) Bombay, with the theme of 'Web for all'.

WWW 2011, a platform for discussion on web evolution and standardisation of its associated technologies, and would promote an all-inclusive aspect of the web highlighting the need for expanding its horizons and reaching out to the fast-growing community of people who have to deal with the WWW either as developers or users.

The event would highlight the need for expanding the horizons of the web to become all inclusive and pervasive, reaching out to every human life.

The affordability of Internet and 3G, mobile phone and mobile Internet penetration, has made a lot of people to access Internet and Internet penetration is growing at a faster rate compared to five-years before, S Sadagopan, director of the International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Bangalore.

The event would focus on the regional and global impact of expanding open web platform for application development mainly in e-medicine, e-governance, agriculture, traffic management and route finding, citizenship services and education.

There are various issues and challenges coming up in the cyber space including affordability, cyber threat and ownership, and it would focus on the technical challenges in overcoming the digital divide and ways to bring the web to under served populations, Sadagopan said. Web usage would go five times higher from the current usage in the next 20 years. The event would be a forum for researchers to come out with solutions and new technologies, he added.

The event would see Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the Web and World Wide Web conference director, delivering the keynote address on' Designing the Web for open society' on March 31.

Around 90 research papers would be presented, which were short-listed from 700 papers from across the globe. The event would see 800 delegates from 50 countries. The event is a capacity-building for research. The idea is to broader roles and to create the community for scholars, he said.