Is (web) science ready for empowerment?

ABSTRACTThe World Wide Web opens up many avenues for new research. Some of them (Web as observable phenomenon, Web as engineered technology) fall quite well within mainstream academic paradigms of research. However, this is much less so if we position the Web as a mechanism for empowerment related to social development. Informed by our W4RA field research experiences in West Africa, we review contextual as well as general issues of scientific research and scientific method if it is to be relevant to issues of empowerment.