Message from the Chair of IW3C2

"Tis true: there’s magic in the web of it"

On behalf of the International World Wide Web Conference Committee (IW3C2), the steering committee for this conference series, I welcome you to the 18th conference of our series. As you already know, the World Wide Web was first conceived in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. The first conference of the series, WWW1, was held at CERN in 1994 and organized by Robert Cailliau. The IW3C2 was founded by Joseph Hardin and Robert Cailliau later in 1994 and has been responsible for the conference series ever since. I have personally been lucky enough to be part of this community since WWW2, when I co-authored a poster. Except for 1994 and 1995 when two conferences were held each year, WWWn became an annual event held in late April or early May. The location of the conference generally rotates among North America, Europe, and Asia/Pacific. In 2001 we changed the conference designator from a number (1 through 10) to the year it is held; i.e., WWW11 became known as WWW2002, and so on. You may browse our website http://www.iw3c2.org/ for information on past and future conferences. WWW2013 is now open for bids, preferably from a host in North America. We encourage you to point interested parties to the “Host a Conference” section of the IW3C2’s web site.

The International WWW Conference series provides the world with a premier forum about the development of the Web, the standardization of its associated technologies, and the Web’s impact on society and culture. These conferences bring together researchers, developers, users, and vendors – indeed all of you who are passionate about the Web and what it has to offer, now and in the future. Part of what is exciting about this series is the cross boundary and eclectic nature of the topics covered, and the opportunity it provides for exploration of new directions, both technological and social.

We appreciate the cooperation of ACM and IEEE which makes our conference the best in the Web area. We also wish to recognize our long-term partner, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

We are excited about the opportunity to bring the web community to Madrid, to share the art, food, and culture of this beautiful city with all of you. We thank Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) and Madrid municipality who serve as our gracious hosts, and the general chairs Juan Quemada and Gonzalo León for all their hard work. Let us all take this opportunity to learn new things in technology, in culture, and in business!

Mary Ellen Zurko, IBM Software Group