Being Smart in Information Processing

A very exciting development in current intelligent information processing is the Semantic Web and the innovative e-applications it promises to enable. This promise will not come true, however, if research limits itself to the technological aspects and challenges only. Both supply-demand sides and business-technology sides need to be investigated in an integrated fashion. This implies that we simultaneously have to address technological, social, and business considerations. Therefore, a comprehensive research strategy for the next decade of intelligent information processing must be of an integrated socio-technical nature covering different levels: (1) Definition and standardization of the baseline infrastructures, content libraries and languages that make up the Semantic Web; (2) The associated construction of generic smart web services that dynamically bridge the low-level (for the end user) infrastructures and the high-level user applications; (3) Designing and studying innovative e-services, information systems, and business processes at the domain, customer, and business level; (4) Understanding and influencing the business and market logics and critical success factors that will determine the social adoption of smart web-based innovations.