The sixth annual conference on World Wide Web Applications is to come back to its original host venue this year, at the Rand Afrikaans University (RAU) - soon to become the University of Johannesburg - and will take place in September.
The conference, held at RAU for the first three years, then at Stellenbosch and the University of Durban-Westville, covers topics such as e-learning, portals, cyber law and e-business.
"After the advent of the Web in the early 1990s, it soon became clear that academics and those in the industry were experimenting with and researching Web technology for various applications," says Professor Pieter van Brakel, conference chairman.
In 1999, the Department of Information Studies at RAU identified the need to provide a forum for all those interested in applying Web technology, to discuss and share expertise and exchange innovative ideas. "So the first annual conference in World Wide Web Applications was held in September 1999," says Van Brakel.
Scientists and practitioners from more or less every discipline attended that conference, according to Van Brakel, with the only common denominator being the World Wide Web. "A prominent speaker at the first conference was the one and only Robert Cailliau, who together with Tim Berners-Lee, started the first Web at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland."
Starting out with 100 delegates and 20 speakers in 1999, the conference grew to host over 220 delegates and 105 submitted papers at the University of Durban-Westville last year. Since the programme could only accommodate the best 70 papers, the remainder were presented as conference posters. This year, 300 delegates are expected.
"This is the only conference of its kind, multidisciplinary and with the Web as common denominator, held in SA," says Van Brakel. The International World Wide Web Conference Committee has also endorsed the conference.
This year, the IT industry is specifically targeted and academics from all disciplines, including IT and engineering, will be represented.
"Every year the programme committee discusses the priorities for the next conference. During the last two years, e-business and e-learning emerged strongly as increasingly popular topics and are now included in the programme," says Van Brakel.
Social issues will be discussed in a specific track for the first time this year as "transforming society" was selected to stimulate exchange of ideas on the impact of the Web on society, under sub-topics such as the digital divide, cultural identities, consumer behaviour, teleworking and information equity.
Van Brakel says another addition is e-governance, a topic that evokes interest worldwide. "Web technologies remains a popular track, as well as the technologies to search the Web," he adds.
The conference will be staged on 1 and 2 September. For more information or to submit papers, contact Van Brakel at (011) 489-2899, or pavb@rau.ac.za, or visit the conference Web site.
Share
