CS 856 - Web Data Management

M. Tamer Özsu
DC 3350, ext. 4043
tozsu@db.uwaterloo.ca

Course Objectives

The objective of the course is to study the new data management problems (and solutions) that emerge in the Web environment. The course will quickly cover the classical distribution issues and then it will focus on Web data management

Prerequisites

Good knowledge of database internals at least at the level of CS 448/648 and of distributed computing/computer networks at the level of CS454 and 456 is required. Of course, students are expected to have the maturity to deal with data structures and algorithms.

Course Outline

The following is not the complete list and will be updated. Note that I will only lecture on the first topic, and then it will be the students who will read and present material. Each of the following can and will be subdivided.

Introduction to distributed database management issues
- Classical distributed databases
- Distributed data management in the Internet age
- Web data management problems
Web querying and searching
Peer-to-peer data management

Textbooks and References

Principal reference:

There are no required textbooks, but the following can be helpful in understanding the fundamental distributed database problems:
- M.T. Özsu and P. Valduriez, Principles of Distributed Database Systems, 2nd edition, Prentice-Hall, 1999.
The following focuses more on the data model and XML issues, but may be useful:
- A. Abiteboul, P. Buneman, and D. Suciu, Data on the Web, Morgan-Kaufman, 1999.
We will also read many papers from literature. Possible papers are listed on the Reading Material page and specific papers will be listed on the Weekly Schedule page.

Workload and Evaluation

(20%) Paper critiques to be chosen from conferences or journals. See the guidelines.
(20%) Presentations in class. See the guidelines.
(10%) Class participation.
(25%) Technical survey paper of one research topic. See the guidelines.
(25%) A term project that is an in-depth study of one problem. See the guidelines.

There will be no tests or exams.

Students who wish to audit the course have to be willing to give one presentation and write 3 paper critiques in addition to participating in class discussion.

University of Waterloo

Computer Science

M.T. Özsu

CS 856 Home Page