The full version of the program guide for WWW2010 is now available to download as a single document (PDF). Printed program guides will be available at the conference. Attendees may also want to use the conference Google calendar, which will have the latest information on any last minute changes to the schedule.

WWW2010 conference attendees traveling from Europe are watching with concern airline cancellations due to ash spread in high levels of the atmosphere by the eruption from Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano.

NATS, the UK’s leading Air Navigation Services Provider, offers continuous updates on the situation regarding UK air travel. Late breaking information about the volcano is also available from the Met Office.

EUROCONTROL, the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation, provides updates on air traffic across Europe.

Travelers are asked to consult with their airline for complete and up to date information in their locale.

The W3C will hold two “camps” at WWW2010 in Raleigh: the “Linked Open Data Camp” (April 29) and the “HTML 5 Camp” (April 30). Please see the W3C website for details on each camp.

WWW2010 coincides with the Grand Opening Festival of the North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA), Saturday and Sunday, April 24–25. The NCMA just completed a spectacular 127,000 square foot expansion to house the permanent collection and will open its doors to the new West Building for the first time to the public. The Museum will also unveil its new collection of twenty-six works of art by Rodin, which will be on display in the gallery and an outdoor sculpture garden.

The festival will include numerous celebrations of art and music. Admission to the new galleries (and to a special celebration and concert at the Museum Park Theater on Saturday evening) are free; however, entry requires a timed ticket. You can obtain tickets in advance by using the online ticketing service at www.ncartmuseum.org. Tickets are limited!

Congratulations to Elena Zheleva and Rongjing Xiang, this year’s winners of Google travel grant awards to attend WWW2010 in Raleigh.

Elena is a Ph.D. student in the Computer Science Department at University of University of Maryland, College Park. Her paper (with John Guiver, Eduarda Mendes Rodrigues and Natasa Milic-Frayling ) is titled Statistical Models of Music-listening Sessions in Social Media, to be presented in the Thursday morning session on Multimedia.

Rongjing is a 3rd-year PhD student in the Computer Science Department at Purdue University. Her paper (with Jennifer Neville and Monica Rogati) is titled Modeling Relationship Strength in Online Social Network, to be presented in the Wednesday afternoon session on Social Networks.

Thank you to Google Research for sponsoring the awards.

Microsoft Research has joined its counterparts at Yahoo! and Google as the third of three Gold sponsors of the 19th International World Wide Web Conference (WWW2010), which will be held in Raleigh, North Carolina, April 26-30. The three research labs have played a major role in sponsoring the WWW conference series in each of the past five years. The WWW2010 organizing committee is grateful to each organization, and indeed all of our sponsors, for helping to make the weeklong event possible.

The opening ceremony of WWW2010 will include a plenary panel offering perspectives from both sides of the Atlantic on the move to make data more open and accessible on the Web (data.gov and data.gov.uk). The panel features inventor of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee; Archivist of the United States, David Ferriero; Professor James Hendler of RPI, who will moderate the discussion; UNC professor and Director of iBiblio.org, Paul Jones; Andrew McLaughlin, Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer in the Executive Office of the President; and University of Southampton Professor Nigel Shadbolt, Director of the Web Science Trust and of the Web Foundation.

The schedule for WWW2010 paper presentations in now available online. Authors please see the Technical Papers section of the Program for the day and time of your presentation.

Attendees please make note of the special discount on ground transportation “Supershuttle” service from RDU Airport to the Raleigh Convention Center and hotel. For more information see: Travel Information

The WWW2010 Local Arrangements committee is delighted to announce the Carolina Chocolate Drops will perform at the conference social event Thursday evening at Meyandi Concert Hall. The Drops offer a modern take on traditional black string band folk music. They are currently touring throughout the U.S. to rave reviews following the release of their latest album in February. Below is a clip from their 2008 European concert tour:

You can find the Drops on iTunes.