Web Farming for the Data Warehouse

Web Farming is an exciting new area emerging out of data warehousing and web technology. It is defined as systematic business intelligence by farming the information resources of the Web. The objective is to enhance the contents of a data warehousing system. Data warehouses are usually based upon the contents of internal operations databases. With Web Farming, the focus can be balanced with external business factors, dealing moment by moment with global changes in the business environment.

Instead of surfing the Web haphazardly or gathering massive search results, Web Farming concentrates on an evolutionary process to systematically discover, acquire, structure, and disseminate content, constantly guided by business-critical intelligence to the enterprise. A four-stage methodology is suggested, along with growth strategy in the supporting architecture. Extensive coverage of standards, tools, and resources for Web Farming is given, along with an in-depth discussion of the important societal issues of privacy, confidentiality, intellectual property, and information espionage.

This is the first book that focuses on the critical features of Web Farming. This book will appeal to both a technical and business audience. The technical audience is anyone interested in the use of Web technology for data warehouse development, including corporate IT professionals, database administrators, network administrators, and all others who are responsible for data warehouse and data mining. The business audience is anyone interested in establishing effective business intelligence, such as strategic planners, business development managers, competitive intelligence analysts, and market researchers.