This volume comprises papers from the following ?ve workshops that were part of the complete program for the International Conference on Extending Database Technology (EDBT) held in Heraklion, Greece, March 2004: • ICDE/EDBT Joint Ph. D. Workshop (PhD) • Database Technologies for Handling XML-information on the Web (DataX) • Pervasive Information Management (PIM) • Peer-to-Peer Computing and Databases (P2P&DB) • Clustering Information Over the Web (ClustWeb) Together, the ?ve workshops featured 61 high-quality papers selected from appr- imately 180 submissions. It was, therefore, dif?cult to decide on the papers that were to beacceptedforpresentation. Webelievethattheacceptedpaperssubstantiallycontribute to their particular ?elds of research. The workshops were an excellent basis for intense and highly fruitful discussions. The quality and quantity of papers show that the areas of interest for the workshops are highly active. A large number of excellent researchers are working on the aforementioned ?elds producing research output that is not only of interest for other researchers but also for industry. The organizers and participants of the workshops were highly satis?ed with the output. The high quality of the presenters and workshop participants contributed to the success of each workshop. The amazing environment of Heraklion and the location of the EDBT conference also contributed to the overall success. Last, but not least, our sincere thanks to the conference organizers – the organizing team was always willing to help and if there were things that did not work, assistance was quickly available.

After a decade of major technical and theoretical advancements in the area, the scope for exploitation of database technology has never been greater. Neither has the challenge. This volume contains the proceedings of the 17th British National Conference on Databases (BNCOD 2000), held at the University of Exeter in July 2000. In selecting the quality papers presented here, the programme committee was p- ticularly interested in the demands being made on the technology by emerging application areas, including web applications, push technology, multimedia data, and data warehousing. The concern remains the same: satisfaction of user - quirements on quality and performance. However, with increasing demand for timely access to heterogeneous data distributed on an unregulated Internet, new challenges are presented. Our three invited speakers develop the theme for the conference, considering new dimensions concerning user requirements in accessing distributed, hete- geneous information sources. In the ?rst paper presented here, Gio Wiederhold re?ects on the tension between requirements for, on the one hand, precision and relevance and on the other completeness and recall in relating data from heterogeneous resources. In resolving this tension in favour of the former, he maintains that this will fundamentally a?ect future research directions. Sharma Chakravarthy adds another dimension to the requirement on inf- mation, namely timeliness. He shares a vision of just-in-time information de- vered by a push technology based on reactive capabilities. He maintains that this requires a paradigm shift to a user-centric view of information.

Networked computer games, distributed virtual reality systems and shared whiteboard presentations are prominent examples of distributed interactive media - they allow a group of users to interact with the medium itself. This book investigates the distributed interactive media class in detail. Topics include: abstract media model, how to ensure consistency, an application-level protocol and how to develop reusable functionality such as support for late-comers and session-recording. The main intention of this book is to demonstrate that distinct distributed interactive media have many problems in common and to show how to solve these problems in a generic and reusable fashion for the whole media.

For more than 20 years, the series of Conceptual Modeling – ER conferences has provided a forum for research communities and practitioners to present and - change research results and practical experiences in the ?elds of database design and conceptual modeling. Throughout the years, the scope of these conferences has extended from database design and speci?c topics of that area to more u- versal or re?ned conceptual modeling, organizing originally weak or ill-structured information or knowledge in more cultured ways by applying various kinds of principles, abstract models, and theories, for di?erent purposes. At the same time, many technically oriented approaches have been developed which aim to facilitate the implementation of rather advanced conceptual models. Conceptual modeling is based on the process of conceptualization, and it is the core of system structuring as well as justi?cation for information systems development. It supports and facilitates the understanding, explanation, pred- tion, and reasoning on information and knowledge, and their manipulation in the systems, in addition to understanding and designing the functions of the systems. The conceptualization process aims at constructing concepts relevant for the knowledge and information system in question. Concepts in the human mind and concept descriptions in computerized information systems are quite di?erent things by nature, but both should be taken into account in conceptual modeling. Usually concept descriptions are properly observed, but concepts in the human mind and their properties are often neglected quite carelessly.

sers: GADA, MOIS, WOSE, and INTEROP. We trust that their audiences will mutually productively and happily mingle with those of the main conferences. A special mention for 2004 is in order for the new Doctoral Symposium Workshop where three young post-doc researchers organized an original set-up and formula to bring PhD students together and allow them to submit their research proposals for selection. A limited number of the submissions and their approaches will be independently evaluated by a panel of senior experts at the conference, and presented by the students in front of a wider audience. These students also got free access to all other parts of the OTM program, and only paid a heavily discounted fee for the Doctoral Symposium itself (in fact their attendance is largely sponsored by the other participants!). If evaluated as s- cessful, it is the intention of the General Chairs to expand this model in future editionsoftheOTMconferencesandsodrawinanaudienceofyoungresearchers to the OnTheMove forum. All three main conferences and the associated workshops share the dist- buted aspects of modern computing systems, and the resulting application-pull created by the Internet and the so-called Semantic Web.

Content Description #Includes bibliographical references and index.

"This collection compiles research in all areas of the global information domain. It examines culture in information systems, IT in developing countries, global e-business, and the worldwide information society, providing critical knowledge to fuel the future work of researchers, academicians and practitioners in fields such as information science, political science, international relations, sociology, and many more"--Provided by publisher.