Starting in 2002 we will have four regular issues per year instead of
three. The first issue of the year features a Special Section on Data
Management Issues in Electronic Commerce, guest edited by Asuman
Dogac. This section consists of an introduction, by the guest editor,
followed by eleven technical papers, spanning a wide variety of topics
on electronic commerce, from data integration, XML, personalization,
ontology to event notification, negotiation, and B2B integration.
In addition to the Special Section, we have contributions from regular
feature sections such as Book Reviews, Distinguished DB Profiles,
Database Principles, Industry Perspectives, In uential Papers,
Reports, and Career Forum. The Book Reviews section consists of three
interesting articles and a short introduction by Karl Aberer, the
section editor. The Distinguished Database Profiles section features
an interview with Dr. Avi Silberschatz by Marianne Winslett. Avi
shared with us his insights on a number of issues of common interest,
including Academia versus Industrial Labs, Startup Fever, Database PhD
Quality, IP Issues, and Future of Data Mining as a Research Area. The
Database Principles section contains an insightful article by Dan
Suciu, sharing his expertise and understanding on the XML typechecking
problem. The Industry Perspective section presents a contribution by
Mike Stonebraker, telling us his experience and predictions on
middleware related efforts.
The issue ends with an interesting essay in the Career Forum section,
entitled "Why I Like Working in Academia", by Rick Snodgrass. Rick
shares with us his twenty years of academic life in a number of
episodes, from disadvantages that were anticipated (or not) at the
interviewing time, experiences for balancing short-term, medium-term
and long-term tasks in research, teaching, and committee services, to
his views on tenure, students, and grant application, his passion and
belief in academic life. This is the first article of the series
solicited by Alex Labrinidis. I believe that the article is very
valuable to those who are at the beginning of their academic
careers. At the same time, it is very enjoyable reading for veterans
in academia and industry.
Finally, I would like to thank the guest editor Asuman Dogac for her
high quality special topic section on data management issues in
Electronic Commerce. My sincere thanks are also due to the associate
editors and the authors for their contributions to this issue. I hope
you enjoy reading this issue as much as I do.
