This book is the first coherently written multi-author monograph on Web Intelli gence (WI). It offers a thorough introduction and a systematic overview of the new field. It reflects the current state of the research and development in various areas of WI, as well as theoretical and application aspects of WI and Web-based intelligent information systems and services. It highlights several promising WI topics, which will impact on the development of the ultimate Wisdom Web. The book contains one introductory paper and 19 survey/research papers. The papers are structured into six parts: Web agents, Web mining and farming, Web information retrieval, Web knowledge management, the infrastructure for Web in telligent systems, and social network intelligence. We conceived and coined the notion Web Intelligence in late 1999. Back then although there was a variety of Web- or Internet-related conferences, journals, and books, none was devoted to the intelligence aspects of Web information systems and services. It was felt that there was a need for a conference, a journal, and/or books for researchers, scientists, and industry practitioners who wanted to publish and exchange ideas on Web Intelligence. At the 24th Annual International Computer Software and Applications Confer ence (IEEE COMPSAC) in 2000, we first introduced Web Intelligence. In 2001, the first Web Intelligence conference (WI 2001, http://kis.maebashi-it.ac.jp/wiOll) was successfully held in Maebashi, Japan.
Web Intelligence is a new direction for scientific research and development that explores the fundamental roles as well as practical impacts of artificial intelligence and advanced information technology for the next generation of Web-empowered systems, services, and environments. Web Intelligence is regarded as the key research field for the development of the Wisdom Web (including the Semantic Web).
As the first book devoted to Web Intelligence, this coherently written multi-author monograph provides a thorough introduction and a systematic overview of this new field. It presents both the current state of research and development as well as application aspects. The book will be a valuable and lasting source of reference for researchers and developers interested in Web Intelligence. Students and developers will additionally appreciate the numerous illustrations and examples.
