BBC Learnings · Section 7

How can we make the web a better place

What's the matter, Neil? You sound upset. Well, I am, Sam.

Level: C1 · 110 sentences

Transcript

  1. What's the matter, Neil? You sound upset.
  2. Well, I am, Sam.
  3. I just spent an hour working
  4. on my computer when it suddenly froze.
  5. I lost everything and had to start all over again.
  6. Oh, that's so frustrating.
  7. Like pop-up internet ads and buffering videos that never play.
  8. Modern computers and the internet have revolutionised the way we live today,
  9. bringing us the world with a click of a button.
  10. But not everyone feels happy about these technological developments.
  11. While potentially acting as a force for good and progress,
  12. the internet also provides a way of spreading hate and misinformation.
  13. And for some people, the World Wide Web
  14. remains a mysterious and confusing place.
  15. In this programme,
  16. we'll hear about a new academic subject called web science.
  17. Web science studies the technology behind the internet.
  18. But from the human side, it's also interested
  19. in how people interact with each other online.
  20. So, we'll be asking whether studying web science
  21. could make the internet better for humanity in the future.
  22. But first, it's time for our quiz question.
  23. I wonder what the pioneers of the internet would think
  24. about how it is used today.
  25. So, the question is... who invented the World Wide Web?
  26. Was it... a Bill Gates, b Tim Berners-Lee, or c Steve Jobs?
  27. Well, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs
  28. were the brains behind Microsoft and Apple Mac,
  29. so I'm going to say c Tim Berners-Lee.
  30. OK, Sam, we'll find out later.
  31. Now, because of coronavirus,
  32. the annual Web Science Conference was held online this year.
  33. Its theme was Making the Web Human-Centric.
  34. One of the conference's key speakers
  35. and co-founder of the new discipline
  36. of web science was Dame Wendy Hall.
  37. Here she is speaking to the BBC World Service's Digital Planet.
  38. People think about the web as a technology,
  39. but actually it's co-created by society.
  40. We put the content on, we interact with the technology,
  41. with the platforms, with the social media networks to create it.
  42. What we study is how that works as an ecosystem,
  43. this coming together of people and technology,
  44. and it's very interdisciplinary, very socio-technical,
  45. and of course these days a lot
  46. of it is powered by AI.
  47. Web science is not only interested
  48. in the technology side of the internet.
  49. As a subject, it's very interdisciplinary,
  50. involving two or more academic subjects or areas of knowledge.
  51. Web science combines digital technology with subjects ranging
  52. from psychology and robotics to economics and sociology.
  53. Exchanges between humans and the internet
  54. can be seen in social media networks, websites,
  55. apps and computer programmes like Facebook and Instagram,
  56. which allow people to use electronic devices to communicate and share information.
  57. This view of technology sees the internet as an ecosystem,
  58. a complex pattern of relationships and mutual influences
  59. that exists between all living things and their environment.
  60. One ongoing and topical example of websites helpfully interacting
  61. with humans is the COVID contact tracing app.
  62. You might think the mobile phone app,
  63. which tracks movements and contact between people to combat coronavirus,
  64. would be a useful, practical application of internet technology.
  65. But as Carly Kind, director of the Ada Lovelace Institute in Cambridge,
  66. explained to the BBC World Service's Digital Planet,
  67. things are never that straightforward.
  68. Actually, there's a lot of more fundamental questions
  69. that haven't been answered yet, such as:
  70. is Bluetooth even an adequate mechanism
  71. for doing what it says on the tin,
  72. which is detecting contact between two people?
  73. The trials so far show that it's not actually that great,
  74. and so do we know for sure that these apps work
  75. and they work in the way we want them to?
  76. Do we get the public health information that we need?
  77. Apps like this are designed to support public health –
  78. services to improve the standard of health of a country's general population.
  79. But Carly thinks the mechanisms used
  80. must be suitable and adequate – they must actually work,
  81. or do what it says on the tin.
  82. An informal idiom meaning work exactly
  83. as it is intended to. To find this out,
  84. trials – tests to discover how effective or suitable something
  85. is – are carried out over a period of time.
  86. The kind of trials which were carried out during the invention
  87. of the internet in the first place, right, Neil?
  88. Ah yes, the invention of the internet,
  89. or to be more accurate, the World Wide Web.
  90. In our quiz question, I asked you
  91. who invented the World Wide Web?
  92. What did you say, Sam?
  93. I said B, Tim Berners-Lee.
  94. Well, you're a first-class web scientist, Sam,
  95. because that is the correct answer.
  96. Great!
  97. In this programme, we've been hearing about web science,
  98. a new interdisciplinary subject combining several areas of study
  99. which investigates the ecosystem of the internet,
  100. the complex pattern of interconnections between humans and their environment.
  101. Social media networks – websites and apps like Facebook,
  102. which let people use electronic devices to communicate on the internet –
  103. show how humans and technology can successfully interact.
  104. A new Covid contact tracing app is currently undergoing trials –
  105. tests to see if it works effectively.
  106. This will discover if it does what it says
  107. on the tin – works as it's supposed to.
  108. If successful, by alerting people to coronavirus risks,
  109. the app will support public health –
  110. services aimed at improving the health of the general population.