Web indicators : a new generation of S&T indicators?

Abstract

In this paper we discuss the need and possibilities for the development of web indicators for the characterization of emergent features of ICT-mediated scholarly practices based on the European WISER project 1. We summarize these developments as a turn to e-science. We place the research of web indicators in a virtual landscape of measuring and exploring the Internet and the Web. and provide an overview of webometrics research field from this point of view. We raise the issue of how the self-organization and meta-stability of the worldwide web will influence the development of web indicators. Theoretically, the paper is a plea for the combining of complex network theory and semiotics. In our view, this enables the combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis in the interpretation of web phenomena in innovation systems