CENTER FOR ALGORITHMIC SYSTEMS
MSc Programme ``Algorithmic Systems"
2002-2003
Seminar: Web modeling (`Structuur van het Web', WM)
Lecturer(s):
Seminar overview
In a few years time, the Web has grown from a handful of pages to several
billions of pages connected by even more hyperlinks. Not only the amount of
information on the Web has increased dramatically, but so has the diversity of
the information and the number of users. The rapid growth has led to a wide
range of internetworking problems related to routing, resource reservation,
administration, and information retrieval. In order to exploit the Web in the
future and to enable businesses to use it strategically, there is a need to
understand and manage the dynamics of the Web.
The seminar will consist of two parts:
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Cluster I focuses on understanding and modeling the characteristics of
the World Wide Web. The research community puts considerable effort in
describing and explaining the observed characteristics, as this is the basis
for modeling. Most models are based on power law distributions,
small world phenomena, or hierarchical structures. It will appear
that the performance of e.g. search algorithms may vary depending on the
methods used to model the Web. Therefore, the ability to compare models
quantitatively and explain the differences is of great importance.
-
In cluster II we consider the management of resources on the Web.
The enormous amount of information and potential computational power should be
exploited effectively. Problems related to information retrieval, such as
indexing, searching and clustering, have a long history in scientific
literature. However, changes to the traditional solutions are necessary to
make them suitable for the Web environment. The Web also attracted the
interest in sociology, because of the emergence of cyber communities. The
management of computational power focuses mainly on distributed computing and
grid technologies. This is related to the peer-to-peer services known from
'normal' networks.
(Mobile computing and agent technology also belong to this category, but fall
outside of the scope of this seminar.)
A more extensive overview of the issues that will be addressed is given
in this detailed description.
Class schedule
- The seminar is (re-)scheduled for 2003/2004.
- First meeting: to be announced.
- Here is the draft weekschedule, including the
assignment of presentations and response tasks.
Prerequisites
The seminar is part of the MSc program `Algorithmic Systems', thus intended
for students in their 4th year. The number of participants is limited to
approximately 14 (maximum), with priority to the AS students. Students from
other programs are welcome as long as there is `room'.
Seminar material
The seminar will be based on recent papers from the literature, we will treat
research-oriented issues.
All papers that will be discussed during the seminar can be found in this list of references.
More information related to the seminar:
To search for other documentation, use the:
Seminar work
The seminar consists of:
- Presentations
Each participant has to give two presentations, one in each cluster. Each
presentation should be 40 minutes, followed by 5 to 10 minutes of questions
and discussion.
You are expected to read the paper(s) specified in your slots in the seminar
program and present the most interesting and relevant parts in your talk.
Point out why the subject of your paper is so important, why we should
know about it, and highlight what we should understand. Adjust the talk to
the level of the audience. If you have to introduce the real subject, do
so. For most papers it will be required for good understanding to read
more than only this paper. Do some further reading ands consult
related literature. This seminar site contains some pre-selected
additional material but explore the topic yourself too. Broad interest and
thorough research will be awarded.
- Responding
Every participant will be asked to serve as a `respondent' twice. The task
of a respondent is to read the key paper(s) that will be treated by the
speaker as well and to come up with a number of challenging questions for
the speaker. The questions could be on difficult aspects, context or
relevance of the paper. The questions should lead to better understanding,
research related discussion or new interesting questions in this area.
- Assignment/Poster
In the last part of the seminar an additional assigment will have to be
carried out, dealing with aspects of the overall topic of the seminar.
Most likely this will be a `poster', on a assigned subject. Here are some
further instructions.
- Active participation
Each participant is expected to participate actively in discussions. As
the seminar material is/will be on-line for every session, you are
expected to `orient' yourself on this material as well beforehand.
Grading
The presentations together will count for 60%, the `responder' task for 20%,
the assignment for 10% and active participation also 10%. (There will be no
final exam.)
Other links
Last modified: February 2003
