WebSci 2014 - Workshop of Massive Data Flow: Understanding the Complex Dynamics of the Web (WebSci 2014)

The Web is perhaps the most complex system that we know. Its massive scale, complex dynamism, open richness, and social character mean that it may be more profitable to study it using tools and concepts appropriate for understanding nervous systems, organisms, ecosystems and society, rather than approaches more traditionally employed to engineer technology. Simultaneously, the scientists trying to understand this wide array of complex natural systems may have much to gain by considering the emergingstudy of the Web.
Objectives
This workshop brings together researchers from a wide array of disciplines (physics, computing, philosophy, biology, social science) to explore the way in which concepts and tools from the emerging study of massive data flow (MDF) can be used to shed light on both the quantitative and qualitative dynamics of the Web. It will particularly focus on exploring how MDF ideas that are developing in physics and biology can be combined productively with those from humanities (e.g., s mobile sociology) and technology (e.g., the rise of web observatories).
MDF is a generic term used to identify a new kind of system dynamics: self-organization in complex open environments. Composed of many interacting heterogeneous elements, MDF systems exhibit self-referential, self-modifying, and self-sustaining dynamics that can enable door-opening innovation. While the web may be the best example of an MDF system, the concept is generic to natural/artificial systems such as brains, cells, markets and ecosystems.
Unlike systems studied in isolation or at equilibrium, MDF systems are open and driven systems existing within a rich context, constantly changing, growing, evolving, and thereby autonomously changing the way in which they interact with the environment around them. The patterns that they exhibit are neither imposed from outside, nor arise internally, but are a consequence of the interface between endogenous data flows within the system and exogenous data flows that perturb it. If "Big data" systems exhibit volume, velocity and variety, MDF systems exhibit vitality.
Topics
Example areas of interest include:
Information flow in online systems.
Bursting and cascade behaviour in social media.
The dynamics of information in relation to real world events.
Global socio-technological feedbacks on Web dynamics.
Self-organisation in large-scale information systems.
New language and tools for characterising MDF systems.
Probing analogies between natural and socio-technological MDF systems.
The workshop asks:
How do we build better ways of understanding MDF systems?
How can MDF approaches be used to make sense of the data collected by web observatories?
What new web technologies might be inspired by the concept of MDF?
Important Dates
Workshop paper deadlines: 20th April 2014 (23:59 UTC-11)
Workshop paper notifications: 20th May 2014
Submission
Full research papers (5 to 10 pages, ACM double column.)
Full paper should be formatted according to the official ACM SIG proceedings template (http://www.acm.org/sigs/publications/proceedings-t...).
Please make use of the ACM 1998 classification scheme (http://www.acm.org/about/class/1998/),
and submit papers using EasyChair at https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=mdf201....