I always assumed that scientists generally do not participate in the wider web as much due to having much faster academic links than the average net user could

I always assumed that scientists generally do not participate in the wider web as much due to having much faster academic links than the average net user could even dream of. However, that said, there are many things that can be improved upon that the wider web would be great for. Academic publishing is one obvious one and the Elsevier boycott is a strong indication that this is well underway. Data collection and sensing is another, which with the new class of cheap networked devices like the Rasperry Pi, as well as pads and smartphones, could well be something that is worth putting some thought into. Distributed computing and mass collaboration is another obvious one, however it seems that academics can often get this more or less for free, if you look at examples like folding@home and the NASA moon crater identification project thingy, so there might not be so much requirement for things like EC2 or mechanical turk, when compared to getting people to donate resources for nothing.