The German-language Web with currently more than six billion webpages constitutes a huge data source for many applications in the area of business intelligence, for example, in market and trend research. In the project “MIA – A Marketplace for Information and Analytics”, which is funded by the German BMWi within their “Trusted Cloud” programme, a prototype for such a marketplace is developed by a consortium of industrial and academic partners, including Fraunhofer FOKUS.

By creating a marketplace infrastructure that enables a fast access to this wealth of data, the project aims at providing users with the possibility to process, refine, and finally offer data and services on this marketplace. A particular feature of the marketplace is the provision of the German-language Web including its historical data. This infrastructure enables completely new business models with information and analysis as electronically tradable goods. The collective storage, analysis and utilization of data from the German Web offers many cost savings and high innovation capabilities. Thus, especially for SMEs, significant market entry barriers and impediments to innovation are eliminated. In the initial phase, the marketplace includes applications for the business areas “media”, “market research” and “consultation”. In this context, Fraunhofer FOKUS develops a Berlin School Information System as a prototypical application.