The Design and Implementation of a Web-based Information System Integrating Cooperation, Information Gathering and Classification

The explosive increase of resources available on the World Wide Web (WWW) not only provides users with valuable information, but also makes the information usage difficult. On the other hand, nowadays it is a trend that more and more people cooperatively and collaboratively work together to complete a task. Efficient coordination and cooperation is required. Thus a cooperative information system is needed. This paper presents the design and implementation of a web-based cooperative information system. It automatically collects information from the WWW, intelligently classifies them into different categories and transforms them into structured records before storing them into the repository. Meanwhile, the system supports cooperative information query and provides a platform that allows users to exchange their ideas with their coworkers. The cooperative features of the system are outlined. Then, the design architecture and implementation techniques are described. Finally its application is illustrated.