This volume presents 43 articles dealing with models and methods of data analysis and classification, statistics and stochastics, information systems and WWW- and Internet-related topics as well as many applications. These articles are selected from more than 100 papers presented at the 21st Annual Conference of the Gesellschaft für Klassifikation.

This volume contains revised versions of 43 papers presented during the 21st Annual Conference of the Gesellschaft fur Klassifikation (GfKl), the German Classification Society. The conference took place at the University of Pots dam (Germany) in March 1997; the local organizer was Prof. 1. Balderjahn, Chair of Business Administration and Marketing at Potsdam. The scientific program of the conference included 103 plenary and con tributed papers, software and book presentations as well as special (tutorial) courses. Researchers and practitioners interested in data analysis and clus tering methods, information sciences and database techniques, and in the main topic of the conference: data highways and their importance for classifi cation and data analysis, had the opportunity to discuss recent developments and to establish cross-disciplinary cooperation in these fields. The conference owed much to its sponsors - Berliner Volksbank - Daimler Benz AG - Deutsche Telekom AG Direktion Potsdam - Dresdner Bank AG Filiale Potsdam - Henkel KGaA - Landeszentralbank in Berlin und Brandenburg - Ministerium fur Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kultur des Landes Brandenburg - Sci con GmbH - Siemens AG - Universitat Potsdam - Unternehmensgruppe Roland Ernst who helped in many ways. Their generous support is gratefully acknowl edged. In the present proceedings volume, selected and peer-reviewed papers are presented in six chapters as follows.

The book contains recent developments and cross-disciplinary advances and results in the fields of data analysis and clustering methods, information sciences and database techniques.

Autorentext
Prof. Dr. Ingo Balderjahn, Lehrstuhl für Betriebswirtschaftslehre mit dem Schwerpunkt Marketing, Universität Potsdam.

Inhalt
1: Classification and Data Analysis.- Entropy Optimizing Methods for the Estimation of Tables.- Automatic Spectral Classification.- An Approach to Modelling Directional and Betweenness Data.- The Application of Random Coincidence Graphs for Testing the Homogeneity of Data.- City-Block Scaling: Smoothing Strategies for Avoiding Local Minima.- Probability Models and Limit Theorems for Random Interval Graphs with Applications to Cluster Analysis.- Labor Supply Decisions in Germany A Semiparametric Regression Analysis.- A Multiplicative Approach to Partitioning the Risk of Disease.- Multiple Media Stream Data Analysis: Theory and Applications.- Multimedia Data Analysis using ImageTcl.- Robust Bivariate Boxplots and Visualization of Multivariate Data.- Unsupervised Fuzzy Classification of Multispectral Imagery Using Spatial-Spectral Features.- 2: Mathematical and Statistical Methods.- Some News about C.A.MAN Computer Assisted Analysis of Mixtures.- Mathematical Aspects of the Feature Pattern Analysis.- A Note on the Off-Block-Diagonal Approximation of the Burt Matrix as Applied in Joint Correspondence Analysis.- A New Look at the Visual Performance of Nonparametric Hazard Rate Estimators.- Multilevel Modeling: When and Why.- Upper Bounds for the P-Values of a Scan Statistic with a Variable Window.- A Branch-and-bound Algorithm for Boolean Regression.- Mathematical Classification and Clustering: From How to What and Why.- Heteroskedastic Linear Regression Models A Bayesian Analysis.- A Heuristic Partial-Least-Squares Approach to Estimating Dynamic Path Models.- 3: World Wide Web and the Internet.- Using Logic for the Specification of Hypermedia Documents.- Project TeleTeaching Mannheim Heidelberg.- WWW-Access to Relational Databases.- Technology, Data, Relevancy: ACulture-Theoretical Look at the Internet.- Self-Organizing Maps of Very Large Document Collections: Justification for the WEBSOM Method.- Segment-Specific Aspects of Designing Online Services in the Internet.- Design of World Wide Web Information Systems.- Large WWW Systems: New Phenomena, Problems and Solutions.- Structured Visualization of Search Result List.- 4: Speech and Pattern Recognition.- Application of Discriminative Methods for Isolated Word Recognition.- Statistical Classifiers in Computer Vision.- Speech Signal Classification with Hybrid Systems.- Stochastic Modelling of Knowledge Sources in Automatic Speech Recognition.- Classification of Speech Pattern Using Locally Recurrent Neural Networks.- 5: Knowledge and Databases.- Information Gathering for Vague Queries Using Case Retrieval Nets.- Characterizing Bibliographic Databases by Content an Experimental Approach.- Medoc Searching Heterogeneous Bibliographic and Text Databases.- Supervised Learning with Qualitative and Mixed Attributes.- 6: Marketing.- A Comparison of Traditional Segmentation Methods with Segmentation Based upon Artificial Neural Networks by Means of Conjoint Data from a Monte-Carlo-Simulation.- Classification of Pricing Strategies in a Competitive Environment.- Predicting the Amount of Purchase by a Procedure Using Multidimensional Scaling: An Application to Scanner Data on Beer.- Author and Subject Index.