If you have data that you want to analyze and understand, this book and the associated Weka toolkit are an excellent way to start.

--From the foreword by Jim Gray, Microsoft Research

As with any burgeoning technology that enjoys commercial attention, the use of data mining is surrounded by a great deal of hype. Exaggerated reports tell of secrets that can be uncovered by setting algorithms loose on oceans of data. But there is no magic in machine learning, no hidden power, no alchemy. Instead there is an identifiable body of practical techniques that can extract useful information from raw data. This book describes these techniques and shows how they work.

The book is a major revision of the first edition that appeared in 1999. While the basic core remains the same, it has been updated to reflect the changes that have taken place over five years, and now has nearly double the references. The highlights for the new edition include thirty new technique sections; an enhanced Weka machine learning workbench, which now features an interactive interface; comprehensive information on neural networks; a new section on Bayesian networks; plus much more.

Offering a thorough grounding in machine learning concepts as well as practical advice on applying the tools and techniques, inside youll find:

+ Algorithmic methods at the heart of successful data mining'"including tried and true techniques as well as leading edge methods;

+ Performance improvement techniques that work by transforming the input or output;

+ Downloadable Weka, a collection of machine learning algorithms for data mining tasks, including tools for data pre-processing, classification, regression, clustering, association rules, and visualization'"in a new, interactive interface.

--Peter Norvig, Director of Search Quality, Google, Inc.

"This book presents this new discipline in a very accessible form: both as a text to train the next generation of practitioners and researchers, and to inform lifelong learners like myself. Witten and Frank have a passion for simple and elegant solutions. They approach each topic with this mindset, grounding all concepts in concrete examples, and urging the reader to consider the simple techniques first, and then progress to the more sophisticated ones if the simple ones prove inadequate.

If you have data that you want to analyze and understand, this book and the associated Weka toolkit are an excellent way to start."

--From the foreword by Jim Gray, Microsoft Research

--Dr. Tilmann Bruckhaus, StickyMinds.com

+ Performance improvement techniques that work by transforming the input or output;

+ Downloadable Weka, a collection of machine learning algorithms for data mining tasks, including tools for data pre-processing, classification, regression, clustering, association rules, and visualization — in a new, interactive interface.

+ Downloadable Weka, a collection of machine learning algorithms for data mining tasks, including tools for data pre-processing, classification, regression, clustering, association rules, and visualization — in a new, interactive interface.

1. Whats it all about?

2. Input: Concepts, instances, attributes

3. Output: Knowledge representation

4. Algorithms: The basic methods

5. Credibility: Evaluating whats been learned

6. Implementations: Real machine learning schemes

7. Transformations: Engineering the input and output

8. Moving on: Extensions and applications

Part II: The Weka machine learning workbench

9. Introduction to Weka

10. The Explorer

11. The Knowledge Flow interface

12. The Experimenter

13. The command-line interface

14. Embedded machine learning

15. Writing new learning schemes

References

Index