WWW 2011 Conference (IIIT-B, IIT-B and IIIT-H)

For the first time, India will play host to the 20th edition of World Wide Web Conference, a prestigious tech/science annual forum attended by cyber celebs like Sir Tim Berners Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web and Vincent Cerf, the father of the Internet. Interestingly, it was after a five years\\' hard battle that the country has been given a chance to host the event. From 2005, corporates like IBM, TCS and Infosys Technologies along with IIT-Bombay and IIITBangalore have been lobbying with Geneva-based International World Wide Web Conferences Steering Committee, the organisation that manages the WWW Conference series, to bring the event to India.

The Indian bid was finally accepted and the next annual WWW Conference will be held at Hyderabad International Conventional Centre (HICC), Hyderabad between March 28 and April 1 2011. Over 1,000 people from top universities, companies and industry labs across the world attend the conference every year. Participants include academicians, industry practitioners, entrepreneurs, students, researchers, governments, and standardisation bodies. "Getting this conference home means a lot for our academicians, industry captains, entrepreneurs and students. This is an excellent opportunity for academicians, industry researchers who may otherwise have to travel abroad to present their scientific results or to listen to the leaders in the field for advances in research.\\'\\' "Web For All,\\'\\' will be the theme of the 20th edition. The conference will focus on all aspects of inclusivity breaking all kinds of barriers be it linguistic, social, economical, physical inability, poor reach and bandwidth. Only 20% of the global population currently access the internet.

According to Arun Kumar, conference associate co-chair and also research staff member IBM Research-India, "Currently, only a small percentage of the world\\'s population has access to Internet and services on it. Others are unable to join the bandwagon either due to illiteracy, un-affordability, language issues or accessibility problems such as being visually impaired. For 2011, we have adopted the theme as Web for All to promote the all inclusive aspect of Web so that the scientific community can work together to bring the benefits of the Web to all despite various kinds of challenges.

" Dr Ravindra, conference associate co-chair and advisor education & research at Infosys Technologies said, "Considering that demographics are shifting the advantage to India it is important that we connect with the world in a low cost manner which is provided by the web. The social networking, voice over IP and several other innovations have made it possible for us to offer services to the rest of world in a value for money model. This conference and the awareness it brings with it is of immense value."

The World Wide Web (WWW) was first conceived in 1989 by Tim Berners- Lee at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. The conference series aim to provide the world a premier forum for discussion and debate about the evolution of the Web, the standardization of its associated technologies, and the impact of those technologies on society and culture. For engineering, technology students, entrepreneurs, research scholars and industry experts from India and its neighbouring countries, the forum is expected to offer a great learning experience rarely available to them. Professor S Sadagopan, Director IIIT-B will be the co-chair of the conference.

For the details, please visit:


http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VE9JQkcvMjAxMC8wNS8xOSNBcjAyMzAx&Mode=HTML&Locale=english-skin-custom