Challenges in Adaptive Web Information Systems: Don't Forget the Link!

In this invited talk we will consider a number of issues that are interesting research topics for the area of Web Engineering and WIS (Web Information System) Design Methodologies. Since this is a workshop we will raise a few questions and identify challenges for the research area, and hope to provide food for the discussions and panels in this workshop. In order to indicate some interesting research topics in relation to methods and design approaches for WIS, we take the perspective of adaptation and personalization. Not only is the aspect of adaptation a challenging one in Web Engineering where the (business) interest in personalization is much higher than the general understanding of the adaptation engineering process. Moreover, the field of Adaptive Hypermedia has considered adaptation for some time and some important lessons can be learned from that research. Topics that are discussed are device adaptation, user modeling, data integration, interaction and dynamics, and quality. While modern trends in Web Engineering, e.g. Semantic Web, consider content engineering in the new environment, we do argue that for the effective use of the Web paradigm it is crucial not to underestimate the value of the hypermedia navigation, and therefore not to forget the hyperlink in the engineering process.