In recent years Internet-based systems and applications have become pervasive and have been
the focus of many ongoing research efforts. They range from semi-structured information to
multimedia systems and applications to P2P and ad hoc information sharing networks and
service-centric systems and applications. This book p- sents a collection of articles from the
best papers presented at the SITIS 2006 International Conference aiming to cover recent
advanced research on distributed information systems including both theoretical and applied
solutions. This volume is designed for a professional audience practitioners and researchers in
industry. It is also suitable as a reference or secondary text for advanced-level students in
computer science and engineering. The articles in this book are a selection of papers presented
at the IMRT and WITDS tracks of the international SITIS 2006 conference. The authors were asked
to revise and extend their contributions to take into account the comments and discussions made
at the conference. A large number of high-quality papers were submitted to SITIS 2006
demonstrating the growing interest of the - search community for Internet-Based and multimedia
information systems. We would like to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of many people.
Our deepest gratitude goes to the authors who contributed their work. We appreciate the
diligent work of the SITIS Committee members. We are grateful for the help support and
patience of the LNCS publishing team. Finally thanks to Iwayan Wikacsana for his invaluable
help. February 2007 Ernesto Damiani Kokou Yetongnon Richard Chbeir Albert Dipanda