International Conference on Adaptive Hypermedia and Adaptive Web-based Systems

Web-based application systems, as well as other complex hypermedia systems with a large variety of users, suffer from an inability to satisfy heterogeneous needs. A Web course presents the same static explanation of a concept to students with widely differing knowledge of the subject. A Web bookstore offers the same selection of bestsellers to customers with different reading preferences. A Web museum offers the same "guided tour" and the same narration to visitors with very different goals and interests. A remedy for the negative effects of the traditional "one-size-fits-all" approach is to enhance a system's ability to adapt its own behaviour to the goals, tasks, interests, and other features of individual users. Starting in the 1990s, many research teams began to investigate ways of modelling features of the users of hypermedia systems. This has led to a number of interesting adaptation techniques and adaptive hypermedia systems. The Web, with its clear demand for personalization, served as a real booster for this research area, providing both a challenge and an attractive platform.

The AH2000 Conference continues from a series of succesful workshops on the topic of adaptive hypermedia and adaptive Web applications. It will provide a forum in which researchers and practitioners with different backgrounds can exchange their complementary insights. The conference aims to promote a cross-fertilisation of ideas and highlight the prospects for future collaboration.