Workshop of Massive Data Flow: Understanding the Complex Dynamics of the Web
Indiana University, Bloomington, USA
23 June, 2014
In conjunction with WebSci 2014

Web: http://sacral.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/event/MDF_WebSci/
Paper Upload address: https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=mdf2014

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IMPORTANT DEADLINES
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Paper Submission 20th April 2014 (23:59 UTC-11)
Notification of acceptance: 20th May 2014

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CALL FOR PAPERS
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The Web is perhaps the most complex system that we know. Its massive scale, complex dynamism, open richness, and social character mean that it may be more profitable to study it using tools and concepts appropriate for understanding nervous systems, organisms, ecosystems and society, rather than approaches more traditionally employed to engineer technology. Simultaneously, the scientists trying to understand this wide array of complex natural systems may have much to gain by considering the emergingstudy of the Web.

OBJECTIVES:

This workshop brings together researchers from a wide array of disciplines (physics, computing, philosophy, biology, social science) to explore the way in which concepts and tools from the emerging study of massive data flow (MDF) can be used to shed light on both the quantitative and qualitative dynamics of the Web. It will particularly focus on exploring how MDF ideas that are developing in physics and biology can be combined productively with those from humanities (e.g., s mobile sociology) and technology (e.g., the rise of web observatories).

MDF is a generic term used to identify a new kind of system dynamics: self-organization in complex open environments. Composed of many interacting heterogeneous elements, MDF systems exhibit self-referential, self-modifying, and self-sustaining dynamics that can enable door-opening innovation. While the web may be the best example of an MDF system, the concept is generic to natural/artificial systems such as brains, cells, markets and ecosystems.

TOPICS INCLUDE (but not restricted to):

- - Information flow in online systems.
- - Bursting and cascade behaviour in social media.
- - The dynamics of information in relation to real world events.
- - Global socio-technological feedbacks on Web dynamics.
- - Self-organisation in large-scale information systems.
- - New language and tools for characterizing MDF systems.
- - Probing analogies between natural and socio-technological MDF systems.

THE WORKSHOP ASKS:

- How do we build better ways of understanding MDF systems?
- How can MDF approaches be used to make sense of the data collected by web observatories?
- What new web technologies might be inspired by the concept of MDF?

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SUBMISSION
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Full research papers (5 to 10 pages, ACM double column.)

Full paper should be formatted according to the official ACM SIG proceedings template (http://www.acm.org/sigs/publications/proceedings-templates).

Please make use of the ACM 1998 classification scheme (http://www.acm.org/about/class/1998/),

Submit papers using EasyChair at https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=mdf2014.

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WORKSHOP CHAIRS
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- Seth Bullock (University of Southampton, UK)
- Takashi Ikegami (The University of Tokyo, Japan)
- Mizuki Oka (University of Tsukuba, Japan)