Special issue on “Data Exploration in the Web 3.0 Age”

This FGCS special issue aims at supporting the discussion and the circulation of research on the various kinds and ways for Data Exploration, in a sense that especially stems from the enormous possibilities provided by the emerging Web 3.0 paradigm. Indeed, the availability of data in whatever format and dimension, the growth of semantic technology and availability of APIs for searching through the Web, and the possibility of a new level of integration of data and interoperability of applications, stimulate new bold ideas and suggest that methods, techniques and technologies that were confined to be used within closed environments can be applied, and fully exploited, at an unbelievably larger scale. The papers contained in this issue leverage on this world of opportunities, spanning from user interaction and visualization to linked data and ontologies, to machine learning, data mining and pattern discovery in networks, to social behaviour and recommendations.