We are happy to announce that the Annenberg Network of Networks has joined a new international initiative launched by the Web Science Trust. The Web Science Network of Laboratories (WSTNet) is a joint effort of researchers from leading institutions around the world. Its goal is to promote the ongoing development of Web Science.

From the Web Science Trust:

Contributions from the Labs will include the organisation and hosting of summer schools, workshops and meetings, including the WebSci conference series. The WSTNet labs will also identify new opportunities for additional events and fundraising, all as part of the ongoing development of Web Science.

The list of the founding WSTNet labs includes:

• Annenberg Network of Networks, University of Southern California
• Decentralized Information Group, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Department of Computer Science, VU Amsterdam
• Digital Enterprise Research Institute, NUI Galway
• Institute for Web Science and Technologies (WeST), Universität Koblenz-Landau
• Oxford Internet Institute
• SONIC Lab, Northwestern University
• Tsinghua-Southampton Web Science Laboratory at Shenzhen
• Web Science Research Centre, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
• Web Science Research Group, University of Southampton

Today’s New York Times uses a network diagram to show the alleged flow if insider information between hedge fund managers and corporate executives.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/04/01/business/01galleon.html

It will be interesting to see how this case plays out.  The size and complexity of the network suggests that there is more than just information exchange taking place.  In particular, it will be interesting to see if there is what might be called “information laundering” in which tips are embedded in apparently legitimate communications using dyad-specific codes.  Stay tuned!