An Introduction

A summary of this introduction is as follows. . . The problem of not being aware of one's business environment is described, followed by the potential that web content and web technology currently has. The point that web farming is farming, not mining, implies that a clear discipline and stable infrastructure is required. The agricultural metaphor is extended to imply a large business, rather than a backyard garden. The issue of reliability of web content is critical to the requirement of refining information through the processes of discovery, acquisition, structuring, and dissemination. A four-stage methodology is proposed, along with an architecture to support this methodology within a data center. Finally, the challenge of rendezvous with the data warehouse is explained.

Several trade articles and reviews on Web Farming are available:

• Article in DB2 Magazine, Summer 1999
  ( PDF format, 137KB, 10 pages) 
   
• Article in DM Review, June 1999
  ( PDF format, 57KB, 8 pages)
   
• Book review by Columnist Jason Levitt  
  in Information Week, November 1, 1999
  ( PDF format, 33KB, 1 page)
   
• Book review by Prof. Elliot King of 
  Enterprise Systems Journal, June 1999
  ( PDF format, 41KB, 2 pages)
   
• Website review by KM World, March, 1999
  ( PDF format, 33KB, 2 pages)
   
• Editor's Choice Award by DM Review 
  on March 5, 1999
   
• Article in DBMS, August, 1998
  ( PDF format, 74KB, 8 pages)
   
• Article in BYTE, October, 1997 
  ( PDF format, 126KB, 7 pages) 

To obtain further information on web farming, see the book Web Farming for the Data Warehouse

Various endorsements for the book and website are contained here.

A seminar series, bookstore, and monthly newsletter are available. See the Services section for details.