Introducing Web Intelligence for communities

Abstract

The field of Web Intelligence has grown quickly in the last decade as a crossroads between the re- searches in Arti cial Intelligence and the development of the web. In this eld, communities appear as a rst-class object as is found in many diverse web applications. The most popular and well known examples are social network sites for entertainement. But their success should not hide other application domains where the concept of communities is central. Education, healthcare, design, knowledge management or virtual enterprises are other domains in which communities appear and require technological support. The contribution of web technologies is obvious as the intrisic nature of the web is precisely to provide and support links between individuals. Research works related to these technologies, especially web intel- ligence, provide then innovative approaches and contributions to every step of the lifecycle of a community supported by the web.