Age of the network

The World Wide Web (WWW) has changed how humans interact; for some scholars, we now live in the 'Age of the Network. As online populations grow and the quantity and quality of interactions improve with new technology, social scientists are developing new approaches for understanding the impact of online networks on social interaction and economic and political participation.

The vastness and dynamic nature of the WWW poses research challenges relating to data storage, management and computation. E-Research technologies address these challenges, facilitating collaborative access by distributed researchers to methods and large-scale datasets. Via the ARC-funded Virtual Observatory for the Study of Online Networks Project (VOSON), the Australian Demographic  & Social Research Institute (ADSRI) is conducting pioneering empirical social science research into online networks and developing e-Research tools to facilitate this research.

For more information:
http://adsri.anu.edu.au/groups/digital