The WEKA workbench. Online appendix for "Data mining: Practical machine learning tools and techniques"

Abstract

The WEKA workbench is a collection of machine learning algorithms and data preprocessing tools that includes virtually all the algorithms described in our book. It is designed so that you can quickly try out existing methods on new datasets in flexible ways. It provides extensive support for the whole process of experimental data mining, including preparing the input data, evaluating learning schemes statistically, and visualizing the input data and the result of learning. As well as a wide variety of learning algorithms, it includes a wide range of preprocessing tools. This diverse and comprehensive toolkit is accessed through a common interface so that its users can compare different methods and identify those that are most appropriate for the problem at hand. WEKA was developed at the University of Waikato in New Zealand; the name stands for Waikato Environment for Knowledge Analysis. Outside the university the WEKA, pronounced to rhyme with Mecca, is a flightless bird with an inquisitive nature found only on the islands of New Zealand. The system is written in Java and distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License. It runs on almost any platform and has been tested under Linux, Windows, and Macintosh operating systems.