Knowledge Dissemination in the Web Era

In this research work we address the limitations of the current scientic knowledge dissemination model to face the new scenario posed by the Web. We explore the historical reasons behind the current model, and we show that it is essentially the same today, even if the Web has made dissemination nearly real time and free. We show how this misalignment between the current model and Web capabilities brings not only missed opportunities but also a serious overload problem, creating diculties for authors to gain visibility, and for readers to nd interesting content. Our approach has been to build from the ground up, by i) understanding how the very core concepts of the scientic publishing such as "scientic contribution", "scientic journal" and even "reputation" should adapt to the new scenario; ii) studying the dissemination and sharing practices that are inherently present in the scientic community, to understand how technology can empower those practices to reduce information overload. The outcome is novel models, tools and a platform for knowledge dissemination that takes full advantage of the Web while addressing the overload problem.