Conference Link: http://www.webist.org/

Foreword: This volume contains the proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies (WEBIST 2008), co-organized by the Institute for Systems and Technologies of Information, Control and Communication (INSTICC) and the University of Madeira (UMa) and co-sponsored by the Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC). The purpose of this Conference is to bring together researchers, engineers and practitioners interested in the technological advances and business applications of web-based information systems. It has four main topic areas, covering different aspects of Web Information Systems, including “Internet Technology”, “Web Interfaces and Applications”, “Society, e-Business, e-Government” and “e-Learning”. WEBIST 2008 received 238 paper submissions from more than 40 countries in all continents. A double-blind review process was enforced, with the help of more than 200 experts from the international program committee, all of them with a Ph.D. in one of the main conference topic areas. After reviewing, 32 papers were selected to be published and presented as full papers, i.e. completed work (8 pages in proceedings / 30’ oral presentations) and 64 additional papers, describing work-in-progress as short papers for 20’ oral presentation. Furthermore there were also 58 papers presented as posters. The full-paper acceptance ratio was 13%, and the total oral paper acceptance ratio was 40%. These ratios denote a high level of quality, which we intend to maintain or reinforce in the next edition of this conference. Besides the proceedings edited by INSTICC, a post-conference book will be compiled with extended versions of its best papers, and published by Springer-Verlag. Appropriate indexing has been arranged for the proceedings of WEBIST 2008. One of the remarkable aspects of the WEBIST conference series, since its first edition in 2005, is the expertise brought about by a large number of distinguished keynote speakers internationally recognized for their scientific level of excellence, whose lectures and whose participation in the conference panel definitely contribute to highly enhance the quality of this event. This year WEBIST hosted six keynotes, delivered by Dr. Tony Shan (Bank of America, U.S.A.), Dr. Leszek Maciaszek (Macquarie University, Australia), Dr. Claudia Medeiros (UNICAMP, Brazil), Dr. Marcin Paprzycki (Systems Research Institute Polish Academy of Science, Poland), Dr. Rainer Unland and Dr. Klaus Pohl (both from the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany). Building an interesting and successful program for the conference required the dedicated effort of many people. Firstly, we must thank the authors, whose research and development efforts are recorded here. Secondly, we thank the members of the program committee and additional reviewers for their diligence and expert reviewing. We also wish to include here a word of appreciation for the excellent organization provided by the conference secretariat, from INSTICC, who have smoothly prepared the most appropriate environment for a productive meeting and scientific networking. Last but not least, we thank the invited speakers for their invaluable contribution and for taking the time to synthesize and prepare their talks. We wish you all an exciting conference and a pleasant stay in Funchal, Madeira. We hope to meet you again next year for the 5th WEBIST, in Lisbon, Portugal, details of which will be shortly made available at http://www.webist.org. (More)

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