Good news for those Indians who are into web science research for some time. India’s first ever Web Observatory was launched recently at International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore (IIIT-B). Similar type of web observatories are already present in various American, European and Southeast Asian universities; but first time in a country like India. In fact, to promote evidence based policy making and data analytics platform, Web Science Trust has taken an initiative top open such 20 observatories around the world. Bangalore was the 6th one in that series where apart from Web Science Trust, University of Southampton and some other leading global web science laboratories came forward to make things happen.

It has been launched by Prof. S. Sadagopan (Director, IIT-B) & Prof. Dame Wendy Hall (Executive Director of Web Science Institute, University of Southampton), jointly organized by IIIT-B and British High Commission in India.

What a Web Observatory Does?

A web observatory is a system that collects necessary data and link from the web to provide a distributed analytical platform. Apart from analyzing the web, globally it provides access to datasets of different size and complexity. They usually acts like a worldwide grid hosting datacenter. IIIT-B will be such a first node in India to collect and distribute related data for economic advancement and social prosperity.

Impact of such Observatory in India

Internet has become the biggest ever network in the World Wide Web arena and it has made some significant changes in the socio-economic life of people. In future also, the trend will be upward and to study such web impacts on life, observatories are very much important. It can not only analyze the latest trends but also will provide necessary input regarding the restructuration of Digital India. A bank of evidence will be created to understand the future trends and this will open a new dimension in web science research In India.

It can help with substantial growth in the field of business, governance or personal life and truly can act as a game changer for an under developing country like India. Over the years, Internet has a positive influence in shaping up a new life among a section of people and using the output received from such web observatories, it will be an icing on the cake to increase the growth rate.

In terms of employability also, this India’s First Web Observatory will open up a new sphere to the upcoming younger generation who are very much interested to be a part of this big effort. Indian youths can set a high standard in terms of their goal and who knows, some iconic research scholars might come out from the entire initiative.

By setting up India’s First Web Observatory at Bangalore, a new feather has been added that can provide some positive and fruitful result, if nurtured properly.

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