After delivering a keynote address, Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the Web, will join a panel of experts from academia and industry for a public discussion about the Web's future. The content of the debate will be collaboratively created by Web users, who can submit questions and promote them through a user-based ranking system, similar to the community-based news site Digg. The most popular questions will drive the discussion at the June 11 debate.
The public debate, which will be streamed live via an interactive Webcast, is part of a daylong event to celebrate the launch of the Tetherless World Constellation at Rensselaer - a new academic center devoted to the emerging field of Web Science.
A wide range of issues are up for discussion, from sustaining the usefulness of the current Web to creating a next-generation Semantic Web, as well as the role of politics, education, and sociological factors in the Web's continued evolution. Following introductory remarks by Rensselaer President Shirley Ann Jackson, participants in the panel will be:
- Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the Web and director of the World Wide Web Consortium
- Wendy Hall, vice president of the Association for Computing Machinery and senior vice president of the Royal Academy of Engineering
- Nigel Shadbolt, former president of the British Computer Society and chief technology officer of Garlik
- Nova Spivack, high-tech entrepreneur and founder of Radar Networks
- Deborah McGuinness, Web language expert and Rensselaer Constellation Professor of the Tetherless World Constellation
- James Hendler, one of the inventors of the Semantic Web and Rensselaer Constellation Professor of the Tetherless World Constellation (moderator)
