Final Project - Web Science

In this course we have discussed many aspects of the Web - the architecture on which it runs, the basic structures of the web graph and related areas, the algorithms of crawling and search, and the Semantic Web. We have also had lectures on Web services and social networks, and have discussed the basic idea of "social machines."

Your assignment, is to do some Web Science of your own:

• This can be something in the analytic area, such as modeling some aspect of the Web and its use.
• This can be a piece of engineering where you take something on the current or future Web that interests you and develop a demo or design, or
• This can be to explore some interesting aspect of the Web and write about it, especially some aspect of social impact of the Web (cf. the various Pew Internet papers).

Dates and details

As we were not scheduled a final exam time (I didn't know how it works here, sorry), the assignment will be due on the last day of exams (May 9) at noon. If you will want to do a demo, I will schedule some times in finals week (details later in the term).

You may work alone or with a partner, I will consider larger groups on a case by case basis.

This is pretty wide open - but here's some rules of thumb:

• If a program, I would be looking for something of the sort of complexity of the typical programming project. Blogs, wikis, search engines, semantic web tools, etc. are all fair game for projects.
• If a paper, there is no set length, but 5-6 pages would be the minimum, more than 10 is probably excessive (modulo figures, tables, and the like)
• If a mathematical piece, or some other sort of empirical analysis, it'll depend on the details, discuss w/me

Project Proposal

A 1-2 paragraph write up of your proposal (including the names of the participants if a group project) should be submitted via email to hendler+teaching@cs.rpi.edu by Thursday, 4/17 at noon, but sooner is fine. I will let you know if it is approved, or needs modification.