Eighth International Conference on Data, Text and Web Mining and their Business Applications including Information Engineering Management

 Overview

The Conference was co-organised by WIT, represented by its Director, Professor Carlos A Brebbia; TEMIS Mining Solutions of Italy, represented by Dr Alessandro Zanasi, and the Post-graduate School (COPPE) of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, represented by Professor Nelson F F Ebecken.  

The Data Mining Conference came back to the UK after seven years away (it was held at Cambridge University in 2000).  The Conference remains faithful to its original idea of providing a platform to discuss theory and applications of data mining.

 Opening Address

Professor Brebbia opened the Conference by referring to the important role that conferences such as Data Mining play as a mechanism for transfer of knowledge, collaborative efforts and in helping to find new avenues for research.  WIT itself, Professor Brebbia said, has developed its research capabilities through the input provided by many of the conferences in its programme.  

WIT is a unique institution to act as a forum for the transfer of knowledge at international level.  This is carried out through a series of post-graduate training initiatives, and a substantial number of research contracts, many of them with industrial partners.  As such, WIT does not reproduce the work of other university institutions but seeks to develop an ever evolving research capability, responding to the needs of industry, academia and society as a whole.  

Many of the more recent initiatives at WIT have been the result of participation in inter-disciplinary conferences.  The Institute is now involved in ecological and environmental projects, as well as looking into the health effects due to factors such as electromagnetic devices, pharmaceutical and food products, and many others.  

Professor Brebbia also referred to the success of WIT’s publishing activities, particularly as they relate to the conferences.  The Web Library containing the Transactions of Wessex Institute contains the papers presented at all WIT conferences since 1993.  They are consulted by an ever increasing number of colleagues from all over the world.  

WIT, Professor Brebbia said, sees itself as promoting new research fields, including some involving trans-disciplinary subjects.  Because of that, it supports initiatives such as three new journals (Ecodynamics, Sustainable Development & Planning, and Design and Nature). These publications are motivated by scientific rather than business concerns and it is hoped that they will bring together colleagues from different disciplines working on projects which are fundamentally trans-disciplinary.

 Address by Dr Alessandro Zanasi

Dr Zanasi addressed the Meeting, mentioning the growth of the European Union in data mining, especially as applies to unstructured data (e.g. text mining). The latest Framework Programme, the programme by which the European Commission funds research, has a new line of funding:  Security Research, where ‘business analytics’, such as data and text mining, are well represented.  

This is proof that data mining is seen not only as an exciting area of research but also as a technology that may solve European citizen’s current concerns with problems such as security.  For a discipline which is central to research and also to business and which generates interest not only among software developers, but also among large companies and government departments and agencies, it is important to look at the market and its evolution.  A recent analysis about the growth rate of the text mining market estimates it to be between 30 and 60% per year.  This is a significant figure if we recall IBM’s estimate which suggests that the text analysts market was worth around $5 billion in 2005.  

Professor Zanasi believes that the market is still young and not yet consolidated, as demonstrated by the series of mergers and acquisitions that are still taking place.  A conference such as this will help to understand better the new and exciting possibilities offered by data mining at present.

 Conference Sessions

The Conference sessions included the following:  

• Categorisation methods
• Data preparation
• Enterprise information systems
• National security
• Data and text mining
• Mining environmental and geospatial data
• Applications in business, industry and government

 Invited Presentations

The invited presentations were as follows:  

• “Data and text mining: European technologies for securing Europe”, by A Zanasi, TEMIS Mining Solutions, Italy
• “A generalized algebraic approach to finding rough set approximations and generating logic rules”, by D Sitnikov, Kharkiv National University, Ukraine
• “Mining geospatial data in a transductive setting”, by R P Singh, University of Bari, Italy
• “Remote sensing and US crop insurance program integrity: data mining satellite and agricultural data”, by B. Little, Tarleton State University, Texas, USA

 Excursions

Delegates were able to visit several places of interest in the New Forest including Lyndhurst, where some of them were staying.  Lyndhurst is often referred to as “the capital of the Forest”.  The most prestigious building in Lyndhurst is the Verderers’ Court, which deals with all sorts of Forest regulations and customs.  The Court is a fine building called the King’s (or Queen’s) House, dating from the early 1600s, although the Verderers’ Hall itself was built in the 1300s. The presence of the King’s House ensured that Lyndhurst had its share of royal visitors.  

Although the present church of Lyndhurst was built in 1863, there has been a church on the site since time immemorial.  The church is worth a visit.  The main artistic decoration is a fresco of the wise and foolish virgins by Lord Leighton. Two of the windows are the work of a famous pre-Raphaelite artist.  It is also the burial place of Alice Hargreaves, daughter of a Dean at Oxford, who was the girl who inspired Prof Charles Dodgson, Mathematics Don at Christchurch College and better known as Lewis Carroll, to write Alice in Wonderland.  

Lyndhurst is also home to the New Forest Museum which is worth visiting to learn more about this unique National Park, now nearly 1,000 years old.  

During one of the lunch breaks, the delegates were taken to Buckler’s Hard, also a picturesque place of historic interest.  Originally it was dedicated to ship building using timber from the New Forest. Many fine wooden ships were built there, including the famous Agamemnon commanded by Nelson during the siege of Calvi. This ship, together with Swiftsure and Euryalus, all built at Buckler’s Hard, took place in the Battle of Trafalgar. 

In 1818, the construction of ships ceased, mainly as a consequence of the enterprise having over-extended itself.  It is now a small village with an interesting Museum which provides an interesting display of the activities that took place there.

 Conference Dinner

The Conference dinner took place at Rhinefield House, formerly a stately home in the Forest, built by a rich heiress from Nottingham.  The house, which is now a hotel, was built at the end of the 1800s, and has the aspect of a neo-gothic castle.  It has a series of large reception rooms and the apartments of the original owners.  

The most impressive room in the house is the Grand Hall with a hammer-beam roof resembling the one in Westminster Hall.  The dining room is beautifully panelled with a large carving on the mantelpiece representing the defeat of the Spanish Armada.  Other smaller rooms are decorated in Italian and French styles, the most surprising being the Alhambra Room, where the conference banquet took place. It was a smoking room, given as a present by the lady of the house to her husband, a Navy officer.  It is inspired by the Alhambra Palace and the works have the same type of gesso work as in Almujar architecture.  

Professor Brebbia gave a short speech thanking the delegates for coming to the Conference and participating in the banquet.  He offered them a souvenir of a piece of pottery made by a local artist who still prepares his own clay and pigments, and fires the pieces in a wood fired kiln.  

 Publication of Papers

The proceedings of Data Mining VIII: Data, Text and Web Mining and their Business Applications, 368pp (ISBN: 1-84564-081-1) are available in hard back from WIT Press priced at £118/US$235/€177. Orders can be placed by telephone: +44 (0) 238 029 3223, fax: +44 (0) 238 029 2853, e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or via the WIT Press web site at www.witpress.com.  

Papers from the conference will also be hosted online at the WIT eLibrary as Volume 38 of WIT Transactions on Information and Communication Technology (ISSN: 1743-3517). For more details visit the WIT eLibrary at www.witpress.com.  

Patagonia a forgotten land – from Magellan to Peron, by C.A. Brebbia, 384 pp (ISBN 978-1-84564-061-3) is available in hard back from WIT Press, priced at £33/US$59/€49.50.  Orders can be placed as above.  

The New Forest: A Personal View, by C.A. Brebbia, 112pp (ISBN 1-85312-504-0) is available in hard back from WIT Press, priced at £22.50/US$35.10/€37.50.  Orders can be placed as above.