| September
30, 2005
Nobody
owns the World Wide Web, but who is in charge of deciding
how it is used now and in the future?
The answer: About 1,000 academic, business and government
computer experts who will gather in Banff in May 2007 for the
premier forum on the global computer network that was created
in the early 1990s.
“We’re really excited. The World Wide Web has
become a fundamental part of the world’s business and
culture and this is the major conference that discusses web
standards and technology,” said U of C computer science
professor Carey Williamson, co-chair of the planning committee
for the 2007 event. “It will also be a real opportunity
to showcase Alberta’s ICT sector on an international
scale,” Williamson said.
The
University of Calgary’s bid to host the 16th International
World Wide Web Conference at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel
was chosen by the International World Wide Web Conference Committee
(IW3C2) earlier this year. It’s the second time the conference
will be held in Canada since it started in 1994. The 1999 conference
was hosted by the University of Toronto. This year’s
conference took place in Japan in May, while next year’s
will take place in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Williamson
said he and co-chair Mary Ellen Zurko of IBM – USA
are still ironing out details of the five-day meeting with
the help of EventPlan, a Calgary event management company.
Initial seed funding for conference planning has been provided
by iCORE and the University of Calgary. A corporate sponsorship
program is also being developed.
Topics
of discussion will likely include improving access to the
web
in developing countries, internet privacy issues
and e-government. Keynote speakers at this year’s event
included World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, web security
expert Lorrie Cranor and international technology development
expert Eric Brewer.
Officials from IW3C2 are planning to visit the University
of Calgary and Banff on Oct. 20-21 and will be available for
pre-arranged media interviews at the U of C on Oct. 21.
For additional information about the conference, visit: www.iw3c2.org
For
more information or to arrange interviews, contact:
Carey Williamson
Department of Computer Science
Phone: 220-6780
Email: carey@cpsc.ucalgary.ca
__________
Grady
Semmens
Media Relations Advisor – Research
University of Calgary
Phone: (403) 220-7722
Cell: (403) 651-2515
Fax: (403) 220-1312
Email: gsemmens@ucalgary.ca
|