On the Accuracy of Meta-learning for Scalable Data Mining

In this paper, wedescribe a general approach to scaling data mining applications thatwe have come to call meta-learning. Meta-Learningrefers to a general strategy that seeks to learn how to combine anumber of separate learning processes in an intelligent fashion. Wedesire a meta-learning architecture that exhibits two key behaviors.First, the meta-learning strategy must produce an accurate final classification system. This means that a meta-learning architecturemust produce a final outcome that is at least as accurate as aconventional learning algorithm applied to all available data.Second, it must be fast, relative to an individual sequential learningalgorithm when applied to massive databases of examples, and operatein a reasonable amount of time. This paper focussed primarily onissues related to the accuracy and efficacy of meta-learning as ageneral strategy. A number of empirical results are presenteddemonstrating that meta-learning is technically feasible in wide-area,network computing environments.