Geert-Jan's research on advanced technology for Web-based information systems addresses the design, implementation and application of modern information systems based on Web technology, activities that are often referred to as Web engineering. Special attention is paid to networked information systems that are suited to manage the typical Web data with its semi-structured nature. While traditional information systems were designed to use strongly structured data in a closed world, more and more interconnected environments ask for interoperability and for information that is adapted to the context. This evolution has consequences for the way we design networked (Web-based) information systems. Characteristic for the research is the focus on the use of advanced technology, for instance Semantic Web technology, in the engineering of distributed Web information systems. 

Topics considered in this subject are: 

• Web and Semantic Web technology, e.g. XML, RDF
• semi-structured data
• Web query languages and transformation languages
• Web data integration and distribution
• Web presentation generation
• adaptation and personalization in Web applications
• Web engineering
• Web information system architecture

Part of this research is addressed in the Hera research program. Hera concentrates on the engineering of Web information systems with the aid of models that drive the automatic generation of Web-based presentations for semi-structured data collected from the information systems, thus providing Web access to information systems. Characteristic for Hera is its use of Semantic Web technology and its model-driven nature.

There are many domains in which the application of Semantic Web and Web 2.0 technologies and concepts to provide innovative solutions for personalized and collaborative access to large-scale data or resource collections via the Web is an interesting and relevant research topic. A nice open and illustrative application domain for this research is given by the cultural heritage domain.

• Information System Architecture: this research on information systems for the support of (enterprise) work processes covers topics like
• workflow management and work process (re)design
• enterprise information system architecture: mapping business process to information processes that can effectively and efficiently be implemented (by the available systems and technology)
• groupware and document management
• technologies for information systems, e.g. middleware
• Hypermedia and Multimedia: this research concentrates on the use of hypermedia (and multimedia) in providing (semantic-based) navigation over data with topics like
  • adaptation in hypermedia applications
  • user modeling for adaptation and user profiling
  • automatic generation of hypermedia navigation
  • design of support tools for adaptive hypermedia applications
• Database Models and Systems, with topics like
• query languages
• complex object models
• object oriented databases
• distributed databases
• ExSpect, a research project around the creation and industrial application of a tool that generates executable specifications of (information system) process models