The Web Society, an international non-profit organisation, has been
founded according to Austrian law and initially has offices in Graz,
Austria and Charlottesville, USA.
For more information see info.websoc.at The current Society executive council consists of four persons representing
major non-profit organisations involved in activieties relating to the "Web"
(which we define in the broad sense of information systems on the Internet):
CERN and INRIA for WWW, Univ.of Minnesota for Gopher, and Graz University
of Technology for Hyper-G:
President: H. Maurer, Austria (Graz U. of Technology)
Vice President (Standards): J.-F.Abramatic, France (INRIA)
Vice President (Public Matters): R. Cailliau, Switzerland (CERN)
Vice President (Finances): M. McCahill, USA (U. of Minnesota)
Secretary: F. Kappe , Graz Univ. of Technology, Austria
Arbitration: I. Tomek, Acadia Univ., Canada
A. de Kemp, Springer Pub.Co., Germany
Controllers: W. Schinagl, University of Graz, Austria
G. Pail, Graz University of Technology, Austria
Administration: G. Marks, AACE, USA
G. Leitner, Graz University of Technology, Austria
The Web Society has been founded out of a concern that the world wide
computer network Internet (often just called "the Net") is growing at
a rate that requires accompanying measures to be addressed by the Web
Society. Some of the important issues include:
---Despite the emergence of powerful Web Tools such as Gopher, WWW and
Hyper-G , and despite the plethora of directory services, information
is hard to find;
---The level of quality, consistency and suitability of information is
often hard to determine and difficult to control;
---Information should be generally available yet a disciplined use
providing e.g., youth protection where desired, or protection against
personal attacks has to be supported;
---The need for standardised and open systems has to be impressed on all
organisations providing information, applications and tools for the Web.
Part of the credo of Web Society members can be quoted as follows:
" Unless ordinary Net users have a strong representation they will not be
heard, and tariff and legal decisions will be taken without heeding their
interests. Therefore: "Don't think what the Web Scoiety can do for you,
think what you can do for the Web Society". This is what the Web Society
intends to be: a strong representation of Web users and non-profit Web
developers, much like an AAA* of the Net. When you get stuck on the road
you call the AAA, when you get stuck on the Net you call the Web Society."
*(for non-US citizens: the AAA is the society representing many of the
motorists of the US, like the ADAC in Germany: roads and laws would not
be the same if those organisations did not exist).
A more details list of aims, actions and membership information is included.
See also info.websoc.at .
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(a) Aims of the Web Society:
(1) The Web Society will support general, widely accessible and disciplined
use of the Net and other wide area or metropolitan networks.
(2) The Web Society will support all activities to make the use of the Net
easier and more efficient by advocating the development of standards and
open systems.
(3) The Web Society will support the activities of W3C with respect to the
standardisation of WWW protocols, and activities aimed at integrating
various Net Services such as Gopher, WWW, Hyper-G, FTP, Newsgroups, and
full-text Servers.
(4) The Web Society will support the provision of index services, Net
guides and other tools for the navigation and use of the Internet.
(5) The Web Society will represent all Net users who are interested
in keeping the Net open to the extent permissible by local laws.
(6) The Web Society will debate necessary sets of mechanisms and rules
for the use of the Net (see Note below.)
(7) The Web Society is not concerned with the hardware and protocol
infrastructure for the Net, but with information, services, tools and
applications of the Net.
(8) The Web Society will support all moves to protect persons against
invasion of privacy, yet is opposed to material that is openly
accessible where authors cannot be identified, even if they violate local
laws.
(9) The Web Society will have an ongoing discussion of its aims and will
decide on changes or expansions of its aims at the annual general assembly.
Note: (As exemplification of Point 6 above): The fact that the Net at this
point allows unlimited access to all kinds of information has both
negative and societal implications. It is this aspect that is specifically
addressed here. To be specific, here are two examples:
- some organisations may want to permit access only to certain designated
sites to avoid prohibitive network costs
- in places were laws do not permit access to certain types of information
(e.g. Youth protection laws) control of access to such information should
be possible. This is not done because the Web society believes in censorship
( and indeed will does not intend to take a strong position in such a debate)
but is done for purely pragmatic reasons: unless local laws are observed
by the Net, the Net has no chance to become as ubiquitous as seems desirable.
(b) Concrete Actions of the Web Society
(1) The Web Society will operate a substantial Web Server with a growing
archive of news , relevant literature, structured discussion corners
and many other items on: info.websoc.at and on other sites to be set up us the Web Society grows.
Much of this will only be available for Web Society members.
(2) The Web Society will organise an annual WebNet conference; the first
such event is planned for San Francisco in October or November 1996.
(3) The Web Society will prepare, with the help of members, reports and
statements for local, regional or national governments to provide the basis
for legislative actions where this is necessary.
(4) The Web Society will cooperate with other societies, and become a member
of other umbrella organisations to foster its aims.
(5) The Web Society will contribute to appropriate publications, newsgroups
and mailing lists.
(6) The Web Society will operate structured Web based discussions on
various topics of interest.
(7) The Web Society will offer all members space on the Web Society's
servers for self presentation at the disgression of the Society.
(8) The Web Society will provide listings of open/desired positions and
other professional information for members free of charge.
(c) Membership in the Web Society
(1) The Web Society has individual and corporate members with an annual
membership fee of $20 (three years $50) and $200, respectively. Issues
raised by corporate members have to be dealt with in the next meeting
of the executive council and within 6 weeks the latest. Issues brought
forward by individual members are dealt with at the discretion of the
executive council but have to be dealt with before the next general assembly.
(2) Members of the Web Society have access to all information on the
Society's servers; they have reduced registration fee at a variety of
conferences, including the annual WebNet, ED-MEDIA and others.
(3) Members of the Web Society have free access to the AACE member
periodical, Educational Technology Review. They have a discount
on all journals of the Association of Advancement of Computers in
Education (AACE) and on all conferences of that society. Similar agreements
are being negotiated with other societies.
(4) Members of the Web Society receive technical help to an extent as
large as possible.
(5) Members of the Web Society can subscribe to a "News Profile." They
automatically are informed of news items on the Society's server that
are of particular interest to them.
(6) Members of the Web Society can make information available about
themselves.
(7) Members of the Web Society will have their own private "home
collections" (only accessible to them) on the Web Society's server of
their chapter. All chapter servers will be linked.
For further information, see: info.websoc.at .
In case of further questions please contact one of the officies of the
Society:
Web Society, USA office: E-mail: aace@virginia.edu
Web Society, European office: E-Mail: websoc@websoc.at
Professor Dr.Dr.h.c. Hermann MAURER
IICM (Institute f.Information Processing and Computer Supported Media)
Graz University of Technology, A-8010 Graz/Austria, Europe
fax: (0043)(316) 82 43 94, email:hmaurer@iicm.tu-graz.ac.at, ph:83 25 51 - 12