Report on the 3rd web dynamics workshop, at WWW'2004

The web is highly dynamic in both the content and quantity of the information that it encompasses. In order to fully exploit its enormous potential as a global repository of information, we need to understand how its size, topology, and content are evolving. This then allows the development of new techniques for locating and retrieving information that are better able to adapt and scale to its change and growth. The web's users are highly diverse and can access the it from a variety of devices and interfaces, at different places and times, and for varying purposes. Thus, new techniques are being developed for personalising the presentation and content of web-based information depending on how it is being accessed and on the individual user's requirements and preferences. New applications in areas such as e-business, sensor networks, and mobile and ubiquitous computing need to be able to detect and react quickly to events and changes in web-based information. Traditional approaches using query-based `pull' of information to find out if events or changes of interest have occurred may not be able to scale to the quantity and frequency of events and changes being generated, and new `push'-based techniques are being deployed in which information producers automatically notify consumers when events or changes of interest to them occur. Semantic Web and Web Service technologies are being developed and adopted, with the aim of providing standard ways for web-based applications to share and personalise information.