1 The Smart Internet: Transforming the Web for the User Joanna W. Ng Mark Chignell James R. Cordy IBM Canada Laboratory University of Toronto Queen’s University Toronto, Ontario Toronto, Ontario Kingston, Ontario Abstract Key architectural elements of the web, namely, HTTP, URL and HTML enable a very simple user model of the web based on hyperlinks. While this model allows browser-based access to a wide array of online content and resources, the limita- tions in user experience provided in this interac- tion model are increasingly apparent. Two decades after the birth of the web, new technolo- gies such as Rich Internet Application, AJAX, and Web 2.0 seek to improve web user interfaces, but in general their main benefit is to individual server sites. Little advancement has been made to advance the user model of the web at a macro level where the interaction is driven not by the server but by the user. This paper proposes a novel approach to scientific study of the Web (Web science) where the traditional relationship between users and servers is inverted, so that web services are configured and integrated across mul- tiple servers/sites in order to address the needs of users. The resulting interaction paradigm is re- ferred to here as smart interaction. The Smart interaction approach is quite different from the current hyperlink-oriented user model driven from the perspective of the server side. Smart interac- tions require new web infrastructure (e.g., runtime components) and new patterns of services and resource interactions and compositions. A Com- plementary area of research is smart services; where the focus is on abstracting these web infra- structures and service interaction patterns into appropriate web models and algorithms. The combination of smart interaction and smart serv- ices will then result in a smart internet where user Copyright © 2009 IBM Canada Ltd., Mark Chignell and James R. Cordy. Permission to copy is hereby granted provided the original copyright notice is repro- duced in copies made. experience is enhanced, and user productivity unleashed, by passing control back to users. 1 A Copernican Transfor- mation The notion of a smart internet requires a transfor- mation in our understanding of the web and its architecture – a complete change of perspective, from a server-centric understanding to a user- centric one. This change will be much like the Copernican revolution, where the presumed struc- ture of the solar system changed from an Earth- centric one to a Sol-centric one. The smart inter- net revolution is likely to be just as controversial, and just as important as the Copernican revolution. Three major extensions are called for in this transformation. First, a new “Copernican” user model for the web is needed that is centered on the users’ concerns and cognition. Second, a new kind of session concept is required that centers on the user’s perspective and her situation rather than the server’s perspective of user interactions. Thirdly, the concept of dynamic social binding of web interactions, to turn what is currently a single user web interaction model into multi-users’ col- laborative web interactions under the user’s con- trol, is also needed. In essence, the smart internet supports an in- stinctive user model of the web, one in which the discovery, aggregation and delivery of services and resources results in rendered content that is optimal for each user or group’s situation. 2 Background In 1989, Tim Berners-Lee invented the web and began the modern internet era. The internet is viewed as an ‘irreversible innovation’ of en- hanced digital connectivity [11]. From its incep-