***This post is a work in progress and shall be updated, added to and refined as necessary***
To start things off, here is a brief list and description of matters that are appearing in the news at the moment, to serve as some examples of the type of thing I may cover in the future. I am sure to have missed some, so please feel free to suggest others - and I shall update the post accordingly.
Egypt Revolution
This is the biggest news story of all at the moment – and the Web has played a key role in its development. Facebook and Twitter were central to spreading the word about protests: Facebook appeared to be used more internally, organising and mobilising the community, whereas Twitter seemed to be the protestors’ outlet to the World. The effect that the Web had was so great that Internet access was cut. I wonder how much consideration went into the decision to make this cut – the consequences of removing the Internet from a World which has grown so accustomed to it seem unfathomable. This is one of the many areas which, potentially, Web Science could help to understand.
Cyber-attacks
Last week, the BBC reported on a study from McAfee detailing attacks made on oil and gas firms. This follows on from the news that broke last year regarding one of the first cyber attacks on physical infrastructure – the ‘Stuxnet’ worm. While many computer users will be aware of the threats to their data, identity and privacy online, it is likely that there is far less knowledge of how Web-based attacks could impact the physical world. Furthermore, the political and economic implications (along with many others) of such actions need to be understood, before these attacks become widespread.
***This post is a work in progress and shall be updated, added to and refined as necessary***
No comments:
Post a Comment