Initially the Internet was designed for research purposes—so was the World Wide
Web. Yet, society deviated from this intended use and as such many aspects of our
daily lives have changed drastically over the past 20 years. The Internet has
changed our ways of communicating, watching movies, interacting, shopping, and
travelling. Many tools offered by the Internet have become second nature to us.
At first, the net was designed as a plain data transfer network for researchers, yet it
has since morphed into a vivid, transforming, living network. The evolution of the
Internet came with barely foreseeable cultural changes, affecting core elements of
our society, such as collaboration, government, participation, intellectual property,
content, and information as a whole. This book will give researchers, scientists, decision makers, politicians, and
stakeholders an overview on the basics, the tools, and the vision behind the current
changes we see in the field of knowledge creation. It is meant as a starting point for
readers to become an active part in the future of research and to become an
informed party during the transition phase. This is pivotal, since research, as a
sensitive, complex process with many facets and millions of participants, hierarchies,
personal networks, and structures, needs informed participants.


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