The multistrategy knowledge discovery tool, INLEN, is applied to databases consisting of economic and demographic facts and statistics about the countries of the world. Preliminary experiments focus on discerning and comparing various patterns in the status and development of countries in different regions of the world. These experiments have provided some interesting and often unexpected results, but they are only a beginning in exploring such data. By discovering patterns and exceptions such as the ones presented, domain experts may have new insights into national development patterns, predict future developments in certain countries, or use these discoveries to influence national policies. Users who are not experts in the domain may also make interesting discoveries with INLEN. The results of these initial experiments are presented and future paths of research in this domain are proposed.
Kenneth A. Kaufman