Wendy Hall is Professor of Computer Science at the University of
Southampton, UK, and Dean of the Faculty of Physical and Applied Sciences.
She was Head of the School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) from
2002 to 2007. In 2008, she was appointed as a guest professor at Tsinghua
University. Her current research includes applications of the Semantic Web
and exploring the interface between the life sciences and the physical
sciences. The influence of her work has been significant in many areas
including digital libraries, the development of the Semantic Web, and the
emerging research discipline of Web Science. She is Managing Director of
the Web Science Trust.She became a Dame Commander of the British Empire in
the 2009 UK New Year's Honors list, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal
Society in June 2009. She was elected President of the Association for
Computing Machinery (ACM) in July 2008, and was the first person from
outside North America to hold this position. Until July 2008, she was
Senior Vice President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, was a member of
the UK Prime Minister's Council for Science and Technology, and was
a founder member of the Scientific Council of the European Research
Council. She was the President of the British Computer
Society(2003-2004) and an EPSR Senior Reseacher Fellow from 1996 to 2002.

Abstract:
In this talk, we will reflect on the evolution of the Web. We will do this
by analysing the reasons why it became the first truly ubiquitous hypertext
system against all competitors, and then by looking both at the way it has
evolved from a network of linked documents to a system that facilitates
social networking on a scale previously unimaginable, and at how it will
evolve in the future as a network of linked data and beyond. The study of
the Web—its evolution and its impact on society, on business, and on
government—is referred to as Web science.  Another way of characterising
this new discipline, which is inherently social-technical in nature, is as
the theory and practice of social machines. To study social machines we
need to develop new research methodologies and draw on many different
disciplines. The talk will conclude by considering the progress that has
been made so far in this important new area of research, and ways to tackle
the major challenges going forward.