Course: 707.000 Web Science and Web Technology

Graz University of Technology, Fall 2007/08

Classes: Tuesdays 14:15 - 15:45, October 2007 - January 2008, Room HS Modul (Inffeldgasse 21a, Ground Floor),

https://online.tu-graz.ac.at/tug_online/lv.detail?clvnr=124556,
Markus Strohmaier, Klaus Tochtermann

Instructor: Markus Strohmaier
Adress: Inffeldgasse 21a, 2nd floor, Room IMO2152, 8010 Graz, Austria
e-mail: markus.strohmaier at@ tugraz.at (remove spaces, replace at@ with @, start subject line with [707.000])

Teaching Assistant (TA): Gabriele Zorn-Pauli, e-mail: gabriele.zorn-pauli at@ tugraz.at (remove spaces, replace at@ with @)

Newsgroup: tu-graz.lv.web-science on news.tugraz.at

Students with special needs: If you need accomodation for any type of physical or learning disability, please contact me via e-mail to set up a meeting where we can discuss potential modifications for your participation.

Announcements:

An updated version of home assignment 4 is now online
Due to time conflicts, the class of week 6 will be held on Monday Nov 5th, 18:00-19:30, same location (HS Modul). The date for submitting your home assignments will remain unchanged (latest possible submission: Tuesday, Nov 6th, 14:15)
Classes will start on Oct 2nd

About the course:

This course aims to provide students with a basic knowledge and understanding about the structure and analysis of selected web phenomena and technologies. Topics include the small world problem, network theory, social network analysis, graph search and technologies such as RDF or RSS.

Course work:

Course work will consist of

6 home assignments: over the duration of the course, will be graded
1 final exam: at the end of the course, will be graded

Instead of doing home assignments and the final exam (which is the default way of obtaining a grade), interested students can apply to do a projects. I will introduce the topics of these projects in the first class of the semester. However, students are not "entitled" to do a project automatically - projects are limited per semester, and will be assigned based on availability and suitability of the candidates.

Marking scheme:

The following weights will be assigned to home assignments and the final exam (totalling 100%):

Home assignment 1: 5%
Home assignment 2: 5%
Home assignment 3: 5%
Home assignment 4: 5%
Home assignment 5: 5%
Home assignment 6: 25%
Final Exam: 50%

In order to obtain a positive grade, you need to have a total score of 51% or more.

Preliminary course schedule and weekly readings:

Note to students: Changes to this schedule will likely be made. Additional readings may be assigned. Access credentials for protected resources will be handed out in class.

Note to instructors: All teaching materials on this website are available for use under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Austria License, except where noted otherwise. Access to protected papers is only available to enrolled students.

Week	Date	Title, Links	Comments and Links
Week 1	2.10.2007	Introduction and Motivation: Web & Science (slides, home assignment 1)	In this class, we will discuss the course organization and provide a basic motivation for and introduction to the course. Readings: Web science: a provocative invitation to computer science, B. Shneiderman, Communications of the ACM 50 25--27 (2007) [Web link] Readings: Chapter 1 & 2, A Framework for Web Science, T. Berners-Lee and W. Hall and J. A. Hendler and K. O'Hara and N. Shadbolt and D. J. Weitzner Foundations and Trends® in Web Science 1 (2006) [Web link]
Week 2	9.10.2007	The Small World Problem home assignment 1 due (slides)	We will discuss several examples and research efforts related to the small world problem and set the ground for our discussion of network theory and social network analysis. Readings: An Experimental Study of the Small World Problem, J. Travers and S. Milgram Sociometry 32 425-443 (1969) [Protected Access] Optional: The Strength of Weak Ties, M.S. Granovetter The American Journal of Sociology 78 1360--1380 (1973) [Protected Access]
Week 3	16.10.2007	Network Theory and Terminology (slides, home assignment 2)	In this class, we will discuss network theory fundamentals, including concepts such as diameter, distance, clustering coefficient and others. We will also discuss different types of networks, such as scale-free networks, random networks etc. Readings: Graph structure in the Web, A. Broder and R. Kumar and F. Maghoul and P. Raghavan and S. Rajagopalan and R. Stata and A. Tomkins and J. Wiener Computer Networks 33 309--320 (2000) [Web link] Optional: The Structure and Function of Complex Networks, M.E.J. Newman, SIAM Review 45 167--256 (2003) [Web link]
Week 4	23.10.2007	Social Network Analysis home assignment 2 due (slides, home assignment 3)	What are fundamental entities in social networks and what information is contained in social graphs? We will discuss some selected concepts in social network analysis, such as one- and two mode networks, prestige and centrality, and cliques, clans and clubs. Optional: Social Network Analysis, Methods and Applications, S. Wasserman and K. Faust (1994)
Week 5	30.10.2007	Network Evolution and Processes home assignment 3 due (slides, home assignment 4)	In this class, we will discuss the nature of network evolution and some selected network processes. We will discuss graph generation algorithms that generate networks with different interesting characteristics. Optional : The Structure and Function of Complex Networks (chapter 8), M.E.J. Newman, SIAM Review 45 167--256 (2003) [Web link] Optional: Emergence of Scaling in Random Networks, A.L. Barabasi and R. Albert Science 286, 509 (1999) [Protected Access]
Week 6	5.11.2007	Link Analysis and Search home assignment 4 due (slides, home assignment 5)	What are ways of searching in graphs? In this class, we will discuss basics of link analysis, including Google's PageRank algorithm as an example. Readings: The PageRank Citation Ranking: Bringing Order to the Web, L. Page and S. Brin and R. Motwani and T. Winograd (1998) [Protected Access]
Week 7	13.11.2007	Web Mining and Information Retrieval I home assignment 5 due (slides)	This class introduces basics of web mining and information retrieval including, for example, an introduction to the Vector Space Model and Latent Semantic Indexing. Guest lecture: Michael Granitzer, Know-Center Graz Optional: Modeling the Internet and the Web: Probabilistic Methods and Algorithms, Pierre Baldi, Paolo Frasconi, Padhraic Smyth, Wiley, 2003 (Chapter 4, Text Analysis) [Protected Access]
Week 8	20.11.2007	Webtechnologies I (slides, home assignment 6, files_for_ha6.zip)	This class focuses on a selected subset of web technologies that are of current interest. Readings: Chapter "Representational State Transfer (REST)" in "Pro PHP XML and Web Services", R. Richards 633--672, 2006 [Protected Access] Optional: Chapter 5 "Representational State Transfer (REST)", in "Architectural Styles and the Design of Network-based Software Architecture", Roy Fielding, Dissertation, University of California Irvine, 2000
Week 9	27.11.2007	Metadata, Tagging and Folksonomies (slides)	In this class, we will discuss metadata as well as current phenomena such as tagging and folksonomies. Readings: Ontologies Are Us: A Unified Model of Social Networks and Semantics, P. Mika, International Semantic Web Conference, 522-536, 2005. [Web link] Optional: Folksonomies: power to the people, E. Quintarelli, ISKO Italy-UniMIB Meeting, (2005)
Week 10	11.12.2007	Web Mining and Information Retrieval II (slides)	This class continues our discussion on the basics of web mining and information retrieval including an introduction to the Vector Space Model and Latent Semantic Indexing. Guest lecture: Michael Granitzer, Know-Center Graz Optional: Modeling the Internet and the Web: Probabilistic Methods and Algorithms, Pierre Baldi, Paolo Frasconi, Padhraic Smyth, Wiley, 2003 (Chapter 4, Text Analysis) [Protected Access]
Week 11	8.1.2008	User Intentions and Intentional Structures on the Web home assignment 6 due (slides)	Search engines - such as Google - have been characterized as "Databases of intentions". This class will focus on different aspects of intentionality on the web, including goal mining, goal modeling and goal-oriented search. Readings: M. Strohmaier, M. Lux, M. Granitzer, P. Scheir, S. Liaskos, E. Yu, How Do Users Express Goals on the Web? - An Exploration of Intentional Structures in Web Search, We Know'07 International Workshop on Collaborative Knowledge Management for Web Information Systems in conjunction with WISE'07, Nancy, France, 2007. [Web link] Readings: Automatic identification of user goals in web search, U. Lee and Z. Liu and J. Cho WWW '05: Proceedings of the 14th International World Wide Web Conference 391--400 (2005) [Web link]
Week 12	15.1.2008	Webtechnologies II (slides)	The semantic web represents a current research effort to increase the capability of machines to make sense of content on the web. In this class, Peter Scheir will give a guest lecture on the basic principles underlying the semantic web vision, including RDF, OWL and other standards. Guest lecture: Peter Scheir, Knowlegde Management Institute, Graz University of Technology
Week 13	22.1.2008	Final Exam	No aids are allowed at the final exam.

Course policies

Class attendance and participation are mandatory (this course is a "VU" which has "prüfungsimmanenten Charakter").
Readings are to be done before class (except for optional readings).
All assignments are due at the beginning of the class on the due date.
Deadlines are sharp. Late submissions will result in a loss of all points for this assignment. Exceptions (such as illness, death of a family member, etc) will only be granted if you contact the TA or me before the deadline.
Assignment descriptions and lecture notes will be made available on the web. It is your responsibility to obtain them.
In your course work, a penalty for citing wikipedia articles as an authoritative reference will apply. This does not mean that you cannot cite wikipedia articles at all, but you need to exhibit traits of reflective and/or critical thinking when refering to them. All students should have a look at the CACM viewpoint article "Why you can't cite Wikipedia in my class" [protected access] and the New Scientist article "Wikipedia 2.0 - now with added trust" [protected access].
Dishonesty (cheating, plagiarism) is a major academic offense and will result in a negative grade / failing the course. What does this mean for home assignments? You are allowed to discuss home assignments with colleagues, but you are not allowed to jointly work on the assignments, copy solutions or share code. What does this mean for the final exams? No aids (no calculators, no cell phones, etc) are allowed except for writing materials (pen). At the final exam, paper will be provided to you.

Further selected course material available online:

Introduction to Internet Technologies and Web Programming,and Introduction to Network Mathematics, Bruce Hoppe, Boston University, USA, 2007
Networked Life, Michael Kearns, University of Pennsylvania, USA, 2007 (Syllabus and slides available on the course website)
The Structure of Information Networks, Jon Kleinberg, Cornell University, 2006 (Course outline available on the course website)
Networks, David Easley and Jon Kleinberg, Cornell University, 2007 (Course outline and handouts available on the course website)
Networks and Complexity in Social Systems, Duncan J. Watts, Columbia University, 2007? (Syllabus)
Analysis of Social Media, William Cohen, Carnegie Mellon University, 2007 (Course outline and handouts available on the course website)
Multimedia Information Systems, Matthias Lux, Klagenfurt University, 2007 (Syllabus and slides available on the course website)
Networks, M.A. Boudourides, University of Patras, 2003/2004 (Syllabus and recommended readings available on the course website)
A Guide to Web Research, Minicourse, Yury Lifshits. Stuttgart, Spring 2007 (Syllabus and slides available on the course website)
Social Web Technologies, Harry Chen, University of Maryland, (Syllabus available on the course website)

Selected Books and Articles:

There is no required text book for this course, however you might find it helpful to have a look at the following resources:

A Framework for Web Science, Tim Berners-Lee, Wendy Hall, James A. Hendler, Kieron O'Hara, Nigel Shadbolt, Daniel J. Weitzner, Foundations and Trends in Web Science, Vol 1 Nr 1, 2006
Group of University Researchers to Make Web Science a Field of Study, New York Times, Nov 2, 2006 (An easy-to-read motivation for Web Science - requires free registration with the NYT)
Six Degrees - The Science of a Connected Age, Duncan J. Watts, 2004
Web Dragons, Ian Witten et al, 2007
Evolution and Structure of the Internet: A Statistical Physics Approach, Romualdo Pastor-Satorras, Alessandro Vespignani, 2004
Social Network Analysis - Methods and Applications, Stanley Wasserman and Katherine Faust, 1995
Graph Theory, Reinhard Diestel, Electronic Edition, 2005 (free PDF download)
Introduction to Information Retrieval, Christopher D. Manning, Prabhakar Raghavan and Hinrich Schütze, Cambridge University Press. 2008. (free PDF download)