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"AS THE WEB CONTINUES TO EVOLVE, IT IS BECOMING INCREASINGLY CLEAR THAT A NEW TYPE OF GRADUATE WILL BE REQUIRED TO MEET THE NEEDS OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY." —Professor Wendy Hall, Southampton University, founding director of WSRI product at no cost, may pay a dis- counted price, or may offer services in return, such as training programs. These three levels correspond to dif- ferent levels of recognition by the school, says Vallet. But no matter what, the school works to ensure that these agree- ments "are always win-win situations sustainable over time," he adds. For business schools whose IT budgets are smaller than their aspirations, mutually beneficial partnerships with companies can make it possible still to build a campus at the forefront of technology. The Evolution of the Web The Massachusetts Institute of Tech- nology in the United States and the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom recently launched a long-term research collaboration that aims to guide future develop- ment of the World Wide Web. The Web Science Research Initiative (WSRI) will generate a research agenda that will focus on under- standing the Web's scientific, techni- cal, and social challenges. Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web and founding director of WSRI, notes that there is much to be learned about the Web's continuing evolution. "As the Web celebrates its first decade of widespread use, we still know surprisingly little about how it evolved, and we have only scratched the surface of what could be real- ized with deeper scien- tific investigation into its design, operation, and impact on society," says Berners-Lee. "The Web Science Research Initia- TOOLS OF THE TRADE ProfCast Turns Lectures into Instant Podcasts ProfCast 2.0, a $30 software program for Macintosh computers, contends that it offers an easy-to-use platform to help professors turn their live lectures into enhanced podcasts. The software allows professors to create a podcast simply by clicking on a "Start Recording" button on their computer to begin and hitting "Stop Recording" to end. To turn the recording into a true podcast, professors click on the "Publish" button. The software then walks them through a short series of instructions to publish their podcasts online. "There is a certain excitement that comes from pre- senting in front of a live audience," says David Chmura, president and co-founder of the company. "ProfCast captures your voice while you give your presentation, so your recording has a higher level of engagement." ProfCast is currently available to Macintosh users only. A Windows version is planned for next year. For more information, visit www.profcast.com. tive will allow researchers to take the Web seriously as an object of scien- tific inquiry, with the goal of helping to foster the Web's growth and ful- fill its great potential as a powerful tool for humanity." Professor Wendy Hall is the head of school and a professor of comput- er science at Southampton Univer- sity School of Electronics and Com- puter Science, as well as a founding director of WSRI. "As the Web continues to evolve, it is becoming increasingly clear that a new type of graduate will be required to meet the needs of science and industry," says Hall. "Already we are seeing evidence of this, with major Internet companies and research institutions lamenting the fact that there are simply not enough people with the right mix of skills to meet current and future employment demands. In launching WSRI, one of our ulti- mate aims is to address this issue." WSRI will be headquartered at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT and at the School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) at the Uni- versity of Southampton. Initial plans call for joint research projects, work- shops, and student-faculty exchanges between the two institutions. ■ z BizEd MARCH/APRIL 2007 61