Alexandra Poulovassilis

Larry Kerschberg

Peter M.D. Gray

Peter J.H. King

It is over 20 years since the functional data model and functional programming languages were first introduced to the computing community. Although developed by separate research communities, recent work, presented in this book, suggests there is powerful synergy in their integration. As database technology emerges as central to yet more complex and demanding applications in areas such as bioinformatics, national security, criminal investigations and advanced engineering, more sophisticated approaches like those presented here, are needed. A tutorial introduction by the editors prepares the reader for the chapters that follow, written by leading researchers, including some of the early pioneers. They provide a comprehensive treatment showing how the functional approach provides for modeling, analyzis and optimization in databases, and also data integration and interoperation in heterogeneous environments. Several chapters deal with mathematical results on the transformation of expressions, fundamental to the functional approach. The book also aims to show how the approach relates to the Internet and current work on semistructured data, XML and RDF. The book presents a comprehensive view of the functional approach to data management, bringing together important material hitherto widely scattered, some new research, and a comprehensive set of references. It will serve as a valuable resource for researchers, faculty and graduate students, as well as those in industry responsible for new systems development.

Modeling, Analyzing and Integrating Heterogeneous Data

The Functional Approach to Data Management

Sushil Jajodia

Motivation Modem enterprises rely on database management systems (DBMS) to collect, store and manage corporate data, which is considered a strategic corporate re source. Recently, with the proliferation of personal computers and departmen tal computing, the trend has been towards the decentralization and distribution of the computing infrastructure, with autonomy and responsibility for data now residing at the departmental and workgroup level of the organization. Users want their data delivered to their desktops, allowing them to incor porate data into their personal databases, spreadsheets, word processing doc uments, and most importantly, into their daily tasks and activities. They want to be able to share their information while retaining control over its access and distribution. There are also pressures from corporate leaders who wish to use information technology as a strategic resource in offering specialized value-added services to customers. Database technology is being used to manage the data associated with corporate processes and activities. Increasingly, the data being managed are not simply formatted tables in relational databases, but all types of ob jects, including unstructured text, images, audio, and video. Thus, the database management providers are being asked to extend the capabilities of DBMS to include object-relational models as well as full object-oriented database man agement systems.

Advanced Transaction Models and Architectures

Matthias Klusch

These arethe proceedingsof the Fourth InternationalWorkshopon Cooperative Information Agents, held in Boston Massachusetts, USA, July 7-9, 2000. Cooperative information agent research and development focused originally onaccessingmultiple,heterogeneous,anddistributedinformationsources. Ga- ingaccesstothesesystems,throughInternetsearchengines,applicationprogram interfaces, wrappers, and web-based screens has been an important focus of - operative intelligent agents. Research has also focused on the integration of this information into a coherent model that combined data and knowledge from the multiple sources. Finally, this information is disseminated to a wide audience, giving rise to issues such as data quality, information pedigree, source reliability, information security, personal privacy, and information value. Research in - operative information agents has expanded to include agent negotiation, agent communities, agent mobility, as well as agent collaboration for information d- covery in constrained environments. TheinterdisciplinaryCIAworkshopseriesencompassesa widevarietyoft- ics dealing with cooperative information agents. All workshop proceedings have been published by Springer as Lecture Notes in Arti?cial Intelligence, Volumes 1202 (1997), 1435 (1998), and 1652 (1999), respectively. This year, the theme of the CIA workshop was ”’The Future of Information Agents in Cyberspace”, a very ?tting topic as the use of agents for information gathering, negotiation, correlation, fusion, and dissemination becomes ever more prevalent. We noted a marked trend in CIA 2000 towards addressing issues related to communities of agents that: (1) negotiate for information resources, (2) build robust ontologies to enhance search capabilities, (3) communicate for planning and problem so- ing, (4) learn and evolve based on their experiences, and (5) assume increasing degrees of autonomy in the control of complex systems.

Larry Kerschberg

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