Southampton decided the web needed its own science
- Web Science founded, 2006
- Wendy Hall and Nigel Shadbolt
- Jointly hosted with MIT
- Berners-Lee took a chair here
How Southampton grew
The short version, in order. Pick a year.
Web Science is founded
Wendy Hall and Nigel Shadbolt founded the Web Science Research Initiative with Tim Berners-Lee and Daniel Weitzner, jointly hosted with MIT.
Web Science was founded here in 2006
In 2006 Wendy Hall and Nigel Shadbolt, both at Southampton’s School of Electronics and Computer Science, founded the Web Science Research Initiative with Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Daniel Weitzner, jointly hosted with MIT.
The argument behind it was that the web had stopped being a piece of engineering and become a human system — economic, social, political — and needed studying as one. Berners-Lee himself took a chair at Southampton.
It is an unusual claim for a port city to have: not that it built part of the web, but that it worked out the web needed a discipline of its own.
What that means if you trade in Southampton
Southampton is a working port and a university city at the same time, which produces two customer bases with almost nothing in common: shift patterns and trade accounts on one side, term dates and rented flats on the other.
The businesses that do best online here choose one and speak to it directly rather than writing something bland enough to cover both.
What Southampton businesses ask us for
Pick your customer
Marine and trade work, or students and households. The proof that convinces one bores the other.
Be clear on hours
A port city works unusual hours. Saying when you actually answer is a competitive advantage.
Name the areas
Portswood, Shirley, Woolston and the waterside are distinct. Vagueness costs enquiries.
How well do you know Southampton?
Five quick questions. Get all five right and you win a 10% off discount code for your website. Every answer is somewhere on this page, so have a read if you get stuck.
Southampton quiz · 1 of 5
What was founded at Southampton in 2006?
Common questions
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