Talk:Executive Summary White Paper

A question about the terms "web science" and "school of web." (Mark DuBois)

During our last conference call (Sept. 17, 2009), Doug mentioned a concern about the term “Web Science.” If I recall correctly, it had a vastly different meaning to some members of the W3 management. I haven’t seen much activity since our discussion on whether this term will continue to be used or whether some other term will be inserted.

I am curious as to the direction of a name for other degree level programs and how to best position our collective effort and the work that's already been done in this area . For example, Illinois Central College working with a number of other colleges, local business and industry representatives and the World Organization of Webmasters put a significant amount of work into establishing our "Web Systems" degree program (which has been accredited by the Illinois Board of Higher Education for quite some time now).

It would be a major effort for us to change that name at this point (assuming a change is needed and that we have a new term that is agreed upon by all). Changing this title would involve not only working with our internal curriculum committee, local business and industry representatives and the accrediting bodies, but also with WOW. In short, I don’t see us changing the name any time soon. If other programs become established, it is likely they will have difficulty changing their names once they are established.

So, back to the issue posed by Doug – what is the term we will be using? We will also likely need to recognize that existing programs will likely not change their existing names in the foreseeable future.