Conferences provide a means for researchers and industry people to get together and discuss what they have done, are doing, and going to do. But the list of topics varies and it is not always easy to get to listen and speak to the researchers in the topic areas that you might be interested in. Part of research is about taking steps in building up knowledge, generally over a long period, towards a goal. These knowledge evolving steps can be short or long and can become very complex. With books like Intelligent Agents for Data Mining and Information Retrieval researchers can read research that is directly and laterally related to the particular area of interest. This books is a more convenient and efficient way for researchers to become more efficient in taking the steps towards their goals. Intelligent Agents for Data Mining and Information Retrieval provides a foundation on many of the perspectives of what is going on in this research area. I encourage anyone in the field of intelligent agents to read what others are doing and see where you can, do, and might fit in.
– Ric Jentzsch, University of Canberra, Australia