The semantic web, as recently proposed by Tim Berners-Lee, is a "new form of Web content that is meaningful to computers". According to Berners-Lee, the semantic web will bring "structure to the meaningful content of Web pages, creating an environment where software agents roaming from page to page can readily carry out sophisticated tasks for users." This course will consists of lectures by outside speakers who conduct research in aspects of the semantic web. Through studying the lecture and reading, we will examine the compute science, information infrastructure, and changes in the ways people write and read web sites, that would be required to make Berners-Lee's dream a reality. We will also examine the socio-cultural-historical context of the web/semantic web and the application of the semantic web for one domain, the new National Science Foundation Cyberinfrastucture initiative.

The serise is joinly offered by Student Originated Software, Data to Information, Algebra to Algorithms, and the CSEMS Scholars . All students in those programs will participate in the colloquium. Students not in the above programs may take the colloquium for two units and earn credit by attending the lecture series and turning in a notebook with written reflections on each of the lectures.