Representatives from MIT and the University of Southampton have announced the Web Science Research Initiative (WSRI), a multidisciplinary project to study the social and technological implications of growing Web adoption.

Berners-Lee, who is also a senior research scientist at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), detailed the initiative with other organizers at MIT here on Thursday.

The universities intend to combine several disciplines, including social sciences, psychology and life sciences, with technology development.

The social aspect of the Web–and the Web’s huge impact on society–demands that a field separate from computer science be explored, organizers said.