Data mining is a mature technology. The prediction problem, looking for predictive patterns in data, has been widely studied. Strong me- ods are available to the practitioner. These methods process structured numerical information, where uniform measurements are taken over a sample of data. Text is often described as unstructured information. So, it would seem, text and numerical data are different, requiring different methods. Or are they? In our view, a prediction problem can be solved by the same methods, whether the data are structured - merical measurements or unstructured text. Text and documents can be transformed into measured values, such as the presence or absence of words, and the same methods that have proven successful for pred- tive data mining can be applied to text. Yet, there are key differences. Evaluation techniques must be adapted to the chronological order of publication and to alternative measures of error. Because the data are documents, more specialized analytical methods may be preferred for text. Moreover, the methods must be modi?ed to accommodate very high dimensions: tens of thousands of words and documents. Still, the central themes are similar.

One consequence of the pervasive use of computers is that most documents originate in digital form. Widespread use of the Internet makes them readily available. Text mining - the process of analyzing unstructured natural-language text - is concerned with how to extract information from these documents. Developed from the authors' highly successful Springer reference on text mining, Fundamentals of Predictive Text Mining is an introductory textbook and guide to this rapidly evolving field. Integrating topics spanning the varied disciplines of data mining, machine learning, databases, and computational linguistics, this uniquely useful book also provides practical advice for text mining. In-depth discussions are presented on issues of document classification, information retrieval, clustering and organizing documents, information extraction, web-based data-sourcing, and prediction and evaluation. Background on data mining is beneficial, but not essential. Where advanced concepts are discussed that require mathematical maturity for a proper understanding, intuitive explanations are also provided for less advanced readers. Topics and features: presents a comprehensive, practical and easy-to-read introduction to text mining; includes chapter summaries, useful historical and bibliographic remarks, and classroom-tested exercises for each chapter; explores the application and utility of each method, as well as the optimum techniques for specific scenarios; provides several descriptive case studies that take readers from problem description to systems deployment in the real world; includes access to industrial-strength text-mining software that runs on any computer; describes methods that rely on basic statistical techniques, thus allowing for relevance to all languages (not just English); contains links to free downloadable software and other supplementary instruction material. Fundamentals of Predictive Text Mining is an essential resource for IT professionals and managers, as well as a key text for advanced undergraduate computer science students and beginning graduate students. Dr. Sholom M. Weiss is a Research Staff Member with the IBM Predictive Modeling group, in Yorktown Heights, New York, and Professor Emeritus of Computer Science at Rutgers University. Dr. Nitin Indurkhya is Professor at the School of Computer Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales, Australia, as well as founder and president of data-mining consulting company Data-Miner Pty Ltd. Dr. Tong Zhang is Associate Professor at the Department of Statistics and Biostatistics at Rutgers University, New Jersey.

Data mining is a mature technology. The prediction problem, looking for predictive patterns in data, has been widely studied. Strong me- ods are available to the practitioner. These methods process structured numerical information, where uniform measurements are taken over a sample of data. Text is often described as unstructured information. So, it would seem, text and numerical data are different, requiring different methods. Or are they? In our view, a prediction problem can be solved by the same methods, whether the data are structured - merical measurements or unstructured text. Text and documents can be transformed into measured values, such as the presence or absence of words, and the same methods that have proven successful for pred- tive data mining can be applied to text. Yet, there are key differences. Evaluation techniques must be adapted to the chronological order of publication and to alternative measures of error. Because the data are documents, more specialized analytical methods may be preferred for text. Moreover, the methods must be modi?ed to accommodate very high dimensions: tens of thousands of words and documents. Still, the central themes are similar.

The potential business advantages of data mining are well documented in publications for executives and managers. However, developers implementing major data-mining systems need concrete information about the underlying technical principles and their practical manifestations in order to either integrate commercially available tools or write data-mining programs from scratch. This book is the first technical guide to provide a complete, generalized roadmap for developing data-mining applications, together with advice on performing these large-scale, open-ended analyses for real-world data warehouses.
Note: If you already own Predictive Data Mining: A Practical Guide, please see ISBN 1-55860-477-4 to order the accompanying software. To order the book/software package, please see ISBN 1-55860-478-2.
+ Focuses on the preparation and organization of data and the development of an overall strategy for data mining.
+ Reviews sophisticated prediction methods that search for patterns in big data.
+ Describes how to accurately estimate future performance of proposed solutions.
+ Illustrates the data-mining process and its potential pitfalls through real-life case studies."