How can we make the web a better place? 6 Minute English

Hello. This is 6 Minute English from

BBC Learning English. I'm Neil.

And I'm Sam. What's the matter, Neil?

You sound upset.

Well, I am, Sam - I just spent an hour

working on my computer when

it suddenly froze. I lost

everything and had to start all over again!

Agghh, that's so frustrating - like pop-up

internet ads and buffering

videos that never play!

Modern computers and the internet

have revolutionised the way

we live today, bringing us the world

with a click of a button. But not everyone

feels happy about these

technological developments.

While potentially acting as a force

for good and progress,

the internet also provides a

way of spreading hate and

misinformation. And for some

people, the World Wide Web remains

a mysterious and confusing place.

In this programme, we'll hear about a new

academic subject called

Web Science.

Web Science studies the

technology behind the internet.

But from the human side, it's also

interested in how people interact

with each other online.

So we'll be asking whether studying

Web Science could make

the internet better for humanity

in the future.

But first it's time for our quiz question.

I wonder what the pioneers of the internet

would think about how it is used today.

So the question is, who invented

the World Wide

Web? Was it: a) Bill Gates,

b) Tim Berners-Lee, or c) Steve Jobs?

Well, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were

the brains behind Microsoft

and Apple Mac, so I'm going

to say c) Tim Berners-Lee.

OK, Sam, we'll find out later. Now, because

of coronavirus the annual

Web Science conference

was held online this year. Its theme was

'making the web human-centric'.

One of the conference's key speakers,

and co-founder of the new

discipline of Web Science,

was Dame Wendy Hall. Here she is

speaking to BBC World Service's

Digital Planet:

People think about the web as a

technology but actually it's co-created

by society. We

put the content on, we interact with

the technology, with the platforms,

with the social media

networks to create it. What we study is

how that works as an ecosystem,

this coming together

of people and technology, and it's very

interdisciplinary, very socio-technical,

and of course these

days a lot of it is powered by AI.

Web Science is not only interested in the

technology side of the internet.

As a subject

it's very interdisciplinary - involving two

or more academic subjects or

areas of knowledge.

Web Science combines digital technology

with subjects ranging from

psychology and robotics

to economics and sociology.

Exchanges between humans and

the internet can be seen in

social media networks - websites,

apps and computer programmes, like

Facebook and Instagram,

which allow people to use electronic

devices to communicate and

share information.

This view of technology sees the internet

as an ecosystem - a complex

pattern of relationships

and mutual influences that exists

between all living things

and their environment.

One ongoing and topical example

of websites helpfully interacting

with humans is the Covid

contact tracing app.

You might think the mobile phone app,

which tracks movements

and contact between people

to combat coronavirus, would be a useful

practical application

of internet technology.

But as Carly Kind, Director of

the Ada Lovelace Institute in Cambridge,

explained to BBC World

Service's Digital Planet, things are never

that straightforward:

Actually, there's a lot of more

fundamental questions that

haven't been answered yet such

as: is Bluetooth even an adequate

mechanism for doing what it

says on the tin, which is

detecting contact between two people?

The trails so far show that it's not actually

that great and so, do we know for sure

that these apps work and

they work in the way we

want them to? Do we get the public health

information that we need?

Apps like this are designed to support

public health - services to

improve the standard

of health of a country's

general population.

But Carly thinks the mechanisms used

must be suitable and adequate - they

must actually

work or do what it says on the tin - an

informal idiom meaning work exactly

as it is intended to

To find this out, trials - tests to discover

how effective or suitable

something is - are

carried out over a period of time.

The kind of trials which were carried out

during the invention of the internet in the

first place, right, Neil?

Ah yes, the invention of the internet - or

to be more accurate, the

World Wide Web. In

our quiz question I asked you who

invented the World Wide Web?

What did you say, Sam?

I said b) Tim Berners-Lee.

Well, you're a first class web scientist,

Sam, because that's the correct answer!

Great! In this programme, we've been

hearing about Web Science,

a new interdisciplinary

subject, combining several areas of study,

which investigates the ecosystem

of the internet

- the complex pattern of interconnections

between humans and their environment.

Social media networks - websites and

apps, like Facebook, which let

people use electronic

devices to communicate on the internet -

show how humans and technology

can successfully

interact.

A new Covid contact tracing app is

currently undergoing trials - tests

to see if it works

effectively. This will discover if it does

what it says on the tin - works

as it's supposed to.

If successful, by alerting people to

coronavirus risks the app

will support public health - services

aimed at improving the health

of the general population.

And that's all from us for now.

And we hope you'll join us again soon for

more topical English vocabulary here at 6

Minute English. Bye for now!

Bye bye!