Research Scientist -- Semantic Web Activity Leader

LEAD THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SEMANTIC WEB: The World Wide Web Consortium seeks a Web technology visionary, evangalist, and consensus-builder to guide the development of technology standards that will enable the Web to express and process semantic content.

This is an opportunity for a unique individual to be part of the team responsible the design of next generation World Wide Web and to lead a variety of industry and user groups toward the development of services that enhance the semantic richness of the Web. 

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Architectural & technical leadership: provide guidance to technical working groups in the design and evolution of Semantic Web infrastructure, including Resource Desciption Framework (RDF).
• Consensus building: work with W3C Working Group members so that both working groups in the Semantic Web activity, as well as other W3C activities, produce Web standards that support Semantic Web requirements.
• Evangalism: Build support among user and vendor communities for the Semantic Web by illustrating the benefits to those communities and means of participating in the creation of a metadata-ready Web.
• Industry outreach and liaison: Establish liaisons with other technical standards bodies involved in Web-related technology to ensure compliance with existing Semantic Web standards and collect requirements for future W3C work.

The goal of the Semantic Web activity is to do for data what HTML did for textual information systems: to provide sufficient flexibility to be able to represent all databases, and logic rules to link them together to great added value. This position is part of the Technology and Society Team at W3C, where, in addition, to metadata standards & development work, staff are engaged in the development of technical standards to address a variety of public policy requirements including privacy, authentication, and intellectual property rights management.

REQUIREMENTS: Strong background in computer science, software engineering and/or knowledge engineering. Advanced technical degree required. Outstanding technical and non-technical communications skills, including presentation and writing ability. Experience with trade press a plus. Both a technical and non-technical writing sample must be provided.

Knowledge of Web protocols essential. Development experienced in distributed systems design on UNIX systems in C++ and Java or other OOP languages a plus. 

Eagerness to contribute to a better and more interoperable Web, and enthusiasm for the mission and spirit of W3C required.   Must work well as part of a team with many distractions and be free to travel both nationally and internationally. The position is based at MIT, but hybrid telecommuting options may be possible.

THE WORLD WIDE WEB CONSORTIUM: W3C was established in 1994 in response to a growing demand for a coordination body for the rapid development of Web standards. It was founded by the inventor of the Web, Tim Berners-Lee, and is hosted by MIT LCS in the USA, INRIA in France, and Keio University in Japan, with offices in over ten other countries. The W3C has over the last 6 years overseen processes of issue raising, design, consensus building and testing resulting in about 20 technical standards including HTML, XML, XHTML, XML Transformations (XSL), Cascading Style Sheets, and Portable Network Graphics.

To apply, please send a copy of your CV or resume, with a detailed cover letter mentioning post 00-1432, to:

Sue Shannon <shannon@mit.edu>
E19-235A
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139

with a copy to <job-apps@w3.org>

MIT is an equal opportunity employer. Applications for a post at MIT must be made through the proper channel as above.