Intelligent information processing has become one of the key issues on our way to a knowledge society. Research has led to exciting advances in technologies that will shape our future. Knowledge-based systems have matured to provide services in a well-founded ontological framework, and intelligent knowledge management can be supported by tools that are ready for practical applications. This work presents contemporary research with special emphasis on knowledge-based system architecture and intelligent information management. It comprises the proceedings of the Conference on Intelligent Information Processing (IIP 2002) held in conjunction with the 17th World Computer Congress, which was sponsored by the International Federation of Information Processing (IFIP) and which convened in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in August 2002. The conference represented a major activity of IFIP Technical Committee 12 (Artificial Intelligence), Working Group 12.5, which is dedicated to "knowledge-oriented development of applications". This Working Group brings together an international community of scientists concerned with the use of knowledge-based techniques in the engineering of real-world software systems.