Information Technology and Web Science at RPI

Dear Colleagues in ITWS, With the approval of the President and Provost, I am very pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Peter Fox as Director of the ITWS Program, effective immediately. This appointment comes after consultation with those of you who attended our discussions, excellent feedback on Peter as a candidate, and my own discussions with Peter — in short, it came after much consultation and consideration.  I want to thank Peter for taking on this role — I look forward to working with him to continue to advance ITWS at Rensselaer.   I'd also like to take this opportunity to express my sincere appreciation for the distinguished service of former Director Jim Hendler, and to David Spooner who has served as Acting Director these past few months.  They have carried forward the goals of ITWS admirably! I hope you all are having a productive semester, and I look forward to our continuing progress in positioning ITWS for an exciting future! All the be

All - Thank you again to all of those who attended last week's  TWed Talk . We had a great turn out.  As we mentioned, there are several ways to get involved with TWC's Web Science Research Center (WSRC). Specifically, we'd like to extend an invite to the following two events today,  Wednesday, September 19th: Weekly RPI TWC WSRC meeting  Join us at our weekly internal meeting where we will discuss upcoming events, projects, etc.  When: 10:00 - 11:00 am EST Where: Winslow (meet 2nd floor common area) We need your help as we gear up for our own WSTNet Webinar presentation on October 10th. WSTNet Lab Webinar Featuring the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) Join us as we gather to watch OII's webinar presentation and discuss how we can better collaborate with this lab in the future. When: 11:00 am - 12:00 pm EST  Where: Winslow (2nd floor common area)  RSVP to Kristine For those unable to attend, we will be taking live notes here  < http://websci.t

Making the leap from entrepreneurial student to business startup is no easy task. Are you looking for a place to start? Looking for a place where you can get feedback and support from like-minded peers and experienced business professionals? The Foundry-RPI program is designed to provide just that place. Launched at Rensselaer with the support of the Severino Center for Technological Entrepreneurship as an experiment in the spring semester of 2012, the program found success through the summer, and will continue in the fall of 2012. Over the spring and summer terms 17 startup companies and 24 students have participated in the program. This fall, the Foundry-RPI is coming out of beta and launching as a fully-supported program of the Severino Center. An information session for the fall 2012 program will be held September 19 at 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. in the Fischbach Room,Folsom Library. Please help get the word out and RSVP for the meeting.  http://www.facebook.com/ events/144612039015

Subject: [tetherless] TWed Talk this Week: Dominic DiFranzo presents "Web Science 101" (Weds, 7p, Winslow Building) "There's always something happening on Wednesday Nights in the Tetherless World!" < http://tw.rpi.edu/web/twed/ > "Web Science 101" Web Science is a new, emerging field that studies the World Wide Web and its impact on both society and technology[1].  Web Science seeks to understand the multi-faceted nature of the Web and its development as key communicational and representational system that enables information systems to be decentralized. In this talk TWC graduate student Dominic DiFranzo will lead us through a discussion of the many areas and disciplines that make up Web Science, the goals, questions and themes of Web Science, and  what research has currently been taken in this area. We will also discuss the Web Science Trust, the collection of labs and Universities in the Web Science Trust (which includes RPI's