Today we live in an information age: information has become a commodity, and every second thousands of new records are created. This explosion of massive data sets created by businesses, science and governments necessitates intelligent and more powerful computing paradigms so that users can benefit from this data. This information needs to be summarized and synthesized to support effective problem solving and decision making. The papers in this book assume an interdisciplinary approach based on three major methodologies: first, hybridization, i. e. , combining methods in order to harness their strengths and avoid their shortcomings; second, multiphase processing, i. e. , the step-wise preparation, evaluation and refinement of data; and, third, multi-agent and distributed processing, i. e. , using intelligent agents as well as Web or grid architectures. The final vision of the authors is an intelligent information technology, encompassing theories and applications from, for example, artificial intelligence, data mining, grid computing, and statistical learning.
This monograph presents the current state of research and development in both theoretical and application aspects of intelligent information analysis. It is a source of reference and includes numerous examples for researchers, graduate students and advanced professionals working in areas such as electronic commerce, business intelligence, and knowledge grids.