Advances in Multimedia and Network Information System Technologies

Growth of knowledge, unparalleled in the history of the human race, results in the rapid development of technology. The solutions that until quite recently remained in the domain of science-fiction now become a part of our everyday life. Information systems and their technologies enter all the spheres of human's existence. Their influence is multiplied by network connections and by multimedia presentations and communications. Our intention was to offer to the readers of this monograph a very broad review of the recent scientific problems in that area. Searching for their solutions had became a principal task of numerous scientific teams all over the world. Preparing this book we have asked for cooperation many European research teams. In effect the monograph is a collection of carefully selected and the most representative - in our opinion - investigations, solutions, and applications presented by different scientific groups from nine countries. Content of the book has been divided into five parts: 1. Multimedia information technology 2. Data processing in information systems 3. Information system applications 4. Web systems and network technologies 5. E-learning methodologies and platforms. We hope that the book will be useful for teachers and students of informatics, computer science, as well as of other related disciplines. We will be also very pleased if the book inspires the research community working on the Multimedia and Network Information Systems domain.