By: Sonny Zulhuda

The first time I encountered the word web science was when I came to know about the then-upcoming OII Summer Doctoral Programme (SDP) 2008 early this year. My first impression was it was something curiously-yet-intellectually stimulating.

Why ‘web’ science? That was among my first questions. All this while my research intersects with issues of the Internet in the society. We have talked quite extensively on how the Internet affects society and how a social reaction in turn shapes the trend and the future of the Internet itself. Then comes the term ‘web’ science. At least from the SDP I knew I was not alone to think that ‘web-science’ may connote a science about the physical infrastructure of the web, per se. This is because the term web for me is too technical to stimulate any discussions on social or humanity issues. But the word ‘Internet’ –being more popular– is not; we’ve heard about the ‘Internet society’, ‘Internet law’, or ‘Internet generation’. This is still very narrow compared to a more generic term of ‘information society’, for example. The word ‘web science’ itself is therefore, to many quiring minds, still an area of debate by itself.

The web science itself, to me, is more felt than understood. It’s some thing you can’t exactly describe (perhaps for now, at least) but you know that you want it. Though shrouded in such uncertaintly, I am nevertheless strongly sharing the idea here, that the development of the web (or the Internet) technology is very much inter-dependent with other ‘things’ happening outside the walls of the lab. Issues like public policy, law, social, economic, political and even philosophical notions do influence the technology, And this is the idea that forms the basis of my Phd research, too. My research is on the legal framework of information security for the purpose of protecting information assets. To achieve this, I had to investigate questions surrounding the information assets, information technologies (mainly the Internet) and the concept of information security including concepts of threats, incidents and risks. The ultimate goal is on what role the law can play to help information assets secured and protected.

In that sense, the exposure I got on the web science and its related topics reinforce the ground on which I stand in undertaking my PhD thesis. It reinforces my research by finding that the development of web technologies is a journey rather than destiny. In order to facilitate this journey, law has to relax itself, and the lawyers in turn have to understand where it may go or end. The law has to come along with such journey. And therefore, nothing is fixed. We laywers and legal scientists have to prepare ourselves for a continuing reform. Simply, because the same society that the law intends to serve does reform itself with the technology.

The web sience discussions also reinforces my theses by showing how law can easily disorient itself in understanding this technology. We have enough lessons from the past that the biggest failure of law when dealing with a technological invention was that it was only designed or drafted to address specific architecture or tools. The lesson is clear: the law needs to be more agile and flexible.

This point takes me to the next one. I’ve learned as a legal (turns-web?) scientist here that lawyers and policy-makers need to be involved in the making of the web and the web science. With the rapid advancement of the technology, it is just timely to reform the functions of law: from a reactive instrument to a rather reformist one. Because the legal issues are so imminent, from access to copyright, from freedom of expression to privacy and from civil product liability to criminal offences. We just do not want a future of the web defined with more legal disputes even as to what constitutes legal and illegal.

In the foundation of the web science, therefore, law should not be put too marginal as an issue. This is the impression I got from the discussions on web science. Other than having lawyers to defend against future legal disputes, they too can play more important role in preparing more comprehensive legal and regulatory frameworks to facilitate the making of the web, and not only to focus on individual issues such as copyright and privacy. This obviously requires further efforts from all of us. And this is where lawyers or legal scientist can help in making the web science more sensible. And on top of that, the efforts of making a web science should always keep in mind public-private partnership as well as international cooperation, both on government and private levels.

At last, I must say that I admire the opportunity to be part of the OII SDP 2008. Not only I have gained first-hand experience and knowledge from the people so influential in the development of the web, but also I learned a lot from mixing around -both intellectually and socially- with friends from various disciplines, thus with different perspectives, reading materials and terminologies. That in many occasions left me struggle to cope with during talks, but I know that is just what web-science, and life in general, is: a struggle for an existence. I wish all the web-scientists all the best in the future undertakings.

(This essay can also be found in the SDP ‘08 Wiki)

The Oxford (OII) summer school is a huge pool of idea and inspiration. I have recorded few of memorable quotes here:

“You don’t have to understand it.. it doesn’t matter.” (Gerry J Sussman, MIT, while quickly showing his slides)

“As a computer scientist I would trust technical solutions more (than legal ones).” (Harry, responding during a discussion).

“My supervisor said you must be able to explain your research goal in sixty seconds.” (Matthew, during his presentation).

“Just because you have a computer and an Internet connection, it does not make you a serious journalist any more than having access to a kitchen makes you a serious cook.” (Ulla, in her presentation).

“Do you know that a dingo in Australia kills a baby in every 20 minutes?” (Jonathan Zittrain, Harvard, advising students over the important element of their presentation).

“E-government sites don’t seem to be on the online High Street; people just don’t go there not even by accident.” (Helen, OII, in her lecture).

“The history of human civilization is a history of memory outsourcing.” (Yorrick, OII, in his lecture).

“When i was child, my father told me to save my copyright statement in an envelope and mail it back home from the post office.” (Kevin, in his presentation).

“The biggest failure of regulatory fremwork dealing with the technology is it is framed against specific technology.” (Danny, MIT, during a lunch chat at OII).

“There is already a sea of defintions out there, you don’t have to unncessarily come with the new ones.” (Ellen, OII, commenting on student’s presentation).

“An important question you need to further ask in your research is, so what?” (Vicki, OII, responding to students presentation).

“We’ve heard Scott McNeally said ‘get over it (the privacy)’, so let us now get over McNeally.” (Danny, MIT, in his lecture).

“I don’t want to be rude, but who are you?” (Tobias, posing the question to someone in the seminar room).

“Punting is like life and death, only it’s not too serious.” (Christian, while trying to direct the punt away from the bank).

“I am OK!” (Oshani, while cliff-hanging on the bow of her punt in the chilly Oxford river waters after she lost an argument with the pole and gravity forced her to abandon the ship).

“You don’t look too uninformed when you speak on the phone and in front of Google.” (Les Carr, in his lecture).

“Oohhhh…!!” (Monica, when accidentally spilled water on Les Carr’s computer).

“Was it you, Monica?” (Puneet, when the lecture was subsequently disrupted by a loud noisy drill-like sound, accidentally switched on by Marcos’ head).

Group photo at the Balliol College yard

“A time will come where you people will invent things that I don’t. It’s certainly not finished.” (Tim Berners Lee on the Internet technological inventions).

“I think you should be afraid.” (Tim Berners Lee on the ‘Future of the Internet’ as written by Zittrain).

“Where is the US in that picture?” (Danny, jokingly asked Barbara when the latter showed the map of Portugal during her presentation).

“My research project will make the social scientists, lawyers, and others very busy.” (Marcos, in his presentation).

“The life of the Oxford Internet Institute started from the master bedroom.” (Bill Dutton, while showing some places of the building in the Balliol College which was used by the OII in its commencement).

“Having been reporting almost daily, you guys actually have an influence on us.” (Jim Miller, on students’ discussions and opinions on Microsoft).

“From here, we would be really happy if your dissertation are improved and completed.” (Bill Dutton, on the final session before closing SDP 2008 ).

“I don’t understand, but I care.” (Lei Zhang, in his presentation on web science) 

“It’s large!” (Tim Berners Lee, when asked about what the ‘web’ is)

“Would you still be able to carry on with your PhD research even if you haven’t had known about web science?” (Sonny, during group seminar on web science)

“Thank you Your Honor” (Harry to Minister Paul Murphy)

“You have to believe it.” (Henri SL, discussing about the web science)

“I have just saved the future of the web.” (Tobias, after finding Tim Berners Lee who was almost lost at the canal side with some students)

“It’s very high competition, but I’d love to see you as part of the faculty in two thousand twenty.” (Wolf Richter, after being voted as the next OII Director at the final dinner)

“Thank You. So, I don’t need to have a PhD?” (Mingfen, jokingly after being voted the next Bill Gates)

“………………………………………………………..” (Puneet, right after receiving the award as the best IRC pundit at SDP 2008, while showing his fingers on typing mode).

***To my SDP colleagues, if you have a say on these, or have other quotes, please let me know. I would love to have especially the ‘abreast’, the ‘bushing’, and the ‘your honor’ things…

Lunch of Day 3, OII Summer School.

Spent about half an hour with Danny Weitzner (MIT) on my ongoing research. Danny commented couple of things especially on my methodological aspects, which I think I’d better store them here.

He initially agreed with me on the use of CIA (Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability) concept as a model for my framework. However, he notes that such information security concept may not necessarily make a good regulatory framework, i.e. it’s an option. More importantly, he stressed on e priority or the first question should be what risk(s) is being addressed here? For whose interests? Etc.

The common failure of the regulatory framework, Danny argued, is that the law does not reflect the development of the technology. It must pass certain neutrality standards, such as technical neutrality as well as architectural neutrality. Need to learn from the American Privacy act (on wiretap, etc) that had not passed the architectural neutrality.

On the source of data: Danny aggred it is very important to approach the regulators, lawyers and computer scientists/practitioners; however, asking consumers’ may not be easy. It can be appropriately taken out.

Also, while it is interesting to assess whether or not CIA template is useful (eg the problem might lay heavily on confidentiality as opposed to other elements), it is far more important to understand what or where the existing law has failed. For this, it is very useful to ask people in the law enforcement, i.e. police, etc: ‘what are their problems in implementing the law?’

On top of that, Danny further emphasised the importance of comparative study with other countries/jurisdictions. Given the experience and exposures Danny as an academic possesses, this lunch chat was great. Thanks Danny.

Al-Shami Lebanese Restaurant

• Day/Date: Monday, 14.07.08
• Time: 21:14
• Scene: Dinner at Al-Shami Restaurant, Oxford
• Menu:  …. (have to ask Gerry again, he knew the names of all the food served!)

The summer school students and faculties were having very delicious dinner serving Middle-Eastern food. I was sitting next to Professor Gerald J. Sussman from MIT and Prof Bill Dutton, the director of the OII. We had a warm and friendly chats, especially with Prof Gerald (or Gerry), ranging from American politics & election to Indonesian coffee (Gerry surprisingly mentioned a fact which i don’t know, that the best coffee from indonesia is ‘Mandailing coffee’). We also chat about one of the best movies each of us had watched: The Beautiful Minds.

I have to thank Gerry especially for his brief insight on what I need to include in my research. He particularly suggested the inclusion of the issue of product liability pertaining to consumer protection against defective software, etc., so as not to unjustifiably cause the loss it the users.

We dispersed at around 10pm. and spray of rain started, briefly lasted though. Thanks to the OII for the treat!

Lectures in the second Day feature Prof Jonathan Zittrain from Harvard University’s Berkman Cyberlaw Centre, and Prof. Daniel Weitzner from the Massachusetts Instititute of Technology (MIT)

Jonathan’s presentation’s ttile was ‘Civic Technologies and the Future of the Internet’. Meanwhile, Daniel talks about ‘Information Accountability’.

Oxford Summer Programme, Day One.

I am intrigued with his true story for a number of reasons. First, the fact that the family in which kevin lives (somewhere near washington DC in America?) had started to inculcate this awareness of intellectual property protection from the very eraly of his life. Secondly, that this practice is legally unnecessary for the copyright does subsist automatically without need of any form of regiatration. But having said, that, I think this is a practice one could rely somehow for the evidentiary purpose… i would say, it’s the least you can do to get assured of your right being defendable.

Prof. jonathan Zittrain was present to give comments and facilitate/moderate questions from the floor. Many questions were asked. i also raised my hand, giving some comments (two actually, but I got Zittrain warned me to have the second very short one ). I was arguing, instead of discussing ‘implications of piracy to the global information policy’, it is now more urgent to elaborate ‘implications of copyright law to the global information policy.’

Ooopss.. i’d like to write more on this but I’ve got to go for the lectures at the OII.

KL International Airport. 13.07.08, 03:13.

KLIA

Thanks to Faisal abu Azama dan Halim Abu Abdil Aziz…. mereka nganter aku ke KL Sentral. Terus ambil ERL ke KLIA. Sekarang waktu menunjukkan jam 3.13 pagi. Aku udah duduk lebih sejam nunggu di luar boarding room. Insya Allah sebentar lagi boarding. Pesawat ke Doha dijadualkan jam 4.15, Kelihatannya cukup rame juga yang boarding. Tapi sampe Qatar nanti pasti nyebar. Hmm.. aku udah ga sabar pengen dapet senderan bisa tidur… badan capek dan agak kurang enak badan. untung tadi istriku tersayang udah nelpon, dan sebelumnya juga udah ngobrol banyak ama ayah ibu.. dan udah denger suara Utaz dan Ulya juga… jadi pikiran dan perasaanku tenaang… Bismillah. Mau boarding dulu…

Doha International Airport, 13.07.08, 06:45.

Doha International Airport

Pesawat mendarat di ibukota Qatar. Pemandangan di sekeliling Airport didominasi oleh padang pasir. Turun dari pesawat kami dijemput bus besar untuk menuju Hall. Agak jauh jaraknya, mungkin karena harus muterin padang pasir. dari kejauhan kelihatan kota Doha yang cukup modern dan cantik. Apalagi mereka baru saja mengadakan pesta olahraga Asian Games tahun kemarin. Pasti banyak fasilitas umum yang dilengkapi dan diperbaharui. Di bis aku kirim sms ke Nita, sekedar ngasih kabar dan kirim salam kangen. Di Jakarta pasti sudah siang. Tinggal ditambah 5 jam. badanku masih terasa capek, soalnya ngga bisa tidur lama-lama di pesawat. Walaupun dapet makan enak, tapi ni perut masih belum bisa berkompromi.. Mungkin masih kekenyangan makan pake tempoyak sehari sebelumnya di KL. Aku ngga lama di Airport Doha, udah ada panggilan utk boarding ke Pesawat QR 11 yang akan membawaku ke London. Tapi aku sempatkan berfoto2 dan shoot video sedikit untuk oleh2… Sekitar sejam berikutnya, aku udah duduk di pesawat menuju Heathrow, London.

Heathrow Airport, London, UK, 13.07.08, 13:15.

Heathrow, London

Perjalanan ke London lebih menyenangkan karena aku sempet tidur beberapa kali dipesawat. Maklum, pertama kali aku ambil perjalanan jauh kaya gini. jadi masih belum bisa nyesuain pola yang pas:) Di pesawat sempet nonton filem-filem Bart Simpson yang kocak n konyol. Terus juga sempet nikmatin suara merdu sheikh Al-Ghamidy melantunkan surat Al-fatihah dan Al-bawarah… Perjalanan sekitar 6 jam lebih.. dan ketika mendarat waku UK menunjukkan jam 1 siang. Alhamdulillah.. pesawat landing dengan mulus walaupun di atas tadi sempet ada ‘goyangan-goyangan’ kecil. Segalanya lancar.

Sampai di tempat pengambilan bagasi, banyak penupang lalu lalang kebingungan.. walhasil aku pun ikut lalu lalang dan kebingungan, soalnya screen computer yg menunjukkan lokasi pengambilan bagasi tidak menunjukkan nama pesawat QR11 yang aku naiki. jadi, dimana aku harus ngambil bagasi tanyaku kepada diriku sendiri. Diriku sendiri menjawab ga tau. tanya punya tanya, petugas nya kasih tau ternyata hari itu ada masalah dengan sistem komputer mereka. Wuahaha.. aku jadi inget ama KLIA dan juga Airport Suvarnabhumi Bangkok yang pernah mengalamai kegagalan komputer (total) di hari2 pertama operasi mereka dulu. In Heathrow bung, dan ini bukan hari pertama… hmm.. itulah risiko sistem komputer. 

Setelah mendapatkan bagasi di lokasi yang ditunjuk oleh petugas, aku sempet duduk2 di dalam arrival hall. beli air botol, rehat meluruskan kaki sambil merhatiin orang lalu lalang. Aku sempet ambil video ibu2 bule yang lgi ngedorong kereta cleaning service. hehe, jarang aja ngeliat bule jadi cleaning service. Padahal aku juga lihat di UK ini banyak pekerjaan spt ini diambil oleh imigran terutama yang dari Asia selatan.

Central Coach Station

Setelah duduk2 sekitar setengah jam, aku mulai hunting. Nanya-nanya lokasi dimana aku bisa ngambil bus ke Oxford. Alhamdulillah ngga susah, cuma harus jalan agak jauh melalui connencting tunnels bawah tanah yang menyambungkan airport utama dengan berbagai akses seperti central bus station, underground train, dll. Jalan sekitar 10 menit, sampailah aku di Central Bus station Heathrow. di line 14A, bus ke Oxford tersedia sekitar setiap 20 menit. Harga tiket Heathrow-Oxford one way 18 Pound. Aku ambil PP seharga 23 Pound (valid utk 3 bulan) jadi bisa hemat cermat. Bayarnya pas naek bis…

Bus ke Oxford

Hmm, yang aku perhatiin sejak di airport Heathrow ke Central station sampai tempat nunggu bus, para petugas nya mau gitu direpotin untuk ngelayanin dan ngejawab pertanyaan2 kita. Dan mereka lakukan itu dengan ramah dan profesional. OK.. bus berangkat sekitar jam 4 kurang… Disini penumpang bus juga wajib pake setabelt, makanya pak sopir sempet ngingetin semua penumpang pake microfon bus. ‘legal requirement’ katanya. Cuaca terang dan sejuk.. kelihatan kaya mau hujan, tapi huja ga turun2.. bagus deh.. jepret sana jepret sini… terus tidur di bus…

On 13-27 July 2008, I am attending the SDP 2008 at the Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford, UK.

University of Oxford

The Oxford Internet Institute’s annual Summer Doctoral Programme (SDP) brings together students from around the world for up to three weeks of study with leading academics in the field of Internet Studies, and provides an academic framework in which to share and discuss students’ current research.

The programme is structured around lectures and seminars. Students have the opportunity to present their research to their peers in these seminars, with break-out sessions allowing groups to focus more narrowly on research questions of mutual interest. Time is made available for individual research and informal contact with tutors and fellow students. The first two Programmes, held in Oxford in 2003 and 2004, covered an extensive range of theoretical, methodological and empirical material. The 2005 Programme (held in Beijing, China) extended this model, with a greater emphasis on empirical and cross-national work that highlights the changing global diffusion and dynamics of the Internet and related technologies.

The 2008 Summer Doctoral Programme will be held in Oxford at the Oxford Internet Institute (July 13th-26th, 2008), with an over-arching academic theme of ‘Web Science’.

Held in conjunction with the Web Science Research Initiative (WSRI) and involving partners at the University of Southampton and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), it will seek to explore the multi-disciplinary nature of the emerging field of Web Science, and in particular, will aim to facilitate collaboration between technologists and social scientists. As in previous years, the SDP will also be held in collaboration with partners at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society (Harvard Law School), the USC Annenberg School for Communication (University of Southern California) and the Center for Global Communication Studies in the Annenberg School for Communication (University of Pennsylvania).