1. CSIT 1999: Foreword

These proceedings contain the full technical papers, short papers and summaries of the tutorials and panels selected out for presentation at the 1999 International Workshop on Computer Science and Information Technologies (CSIT). This Workshop was held in conjunction with the RFBR track for discussing the results of granted ongoing research in a field of science. CSIT is an annual international forum for the dissemination and discussion of new results and ideas in research, development and applications in computing and information and addresses both practitioners and theorists. This year's workshop, CSIT'99, was held in Moscow, Russia, and was organized by the Institute for Contemporary Education ``JurInfoR-MSU'' (Russia), Moscow State Engineering Physical Institute (Russia), University of Karlsruhe (Germany) and Humboldt University of Berlin (Germany) in collaboration with the Russian Foundation for Basic Research.

The workshop attracted 93 submitted technical papers. This year both conceptual and experience papers were solicited. Both types of submissions were evaluated similarly, in accordance with high standards of international forums. The careful reviewing procedure by the program committee resulted in 33 papers being chosen for presentation at the international track. In addition, the program committee supported Ph.D. students contributions as well as contributions of the younger generation researchers. They were judged not only for scientific quality but also for suitability as a basis for broader discussion. Data mining, warehousing, similarity matching, spatial data and Web information systems (WISs) seem to grow in interest. More traditional topics such as complexity, performance, distributed systems attract the continuos interest. Some of the experience papers, especially at the industrial sessions, reflect the results in development/application of real systems, and were considered by the program committee to be of interest to a wider community.

This workshop is the collaborative work of many people. The program committee carefully scheduled the written evaluations of each paper. Klaus Dittrich and Dirk Jonscher of University of Zuerich (Switzerland) coordinated the European reviewing. Dimitris Dervos of Technology Educational Institute (Tessaloniki, Greece) coordinated the evaluations for suitability of broader discussions. Olga Plechova of RFBR (Russia) coordinated the submissions for RFBR track.

Our deep appreciation and special thanks to Dr. Peter Lockemann who launched an idea of the International Computer Science Workshop which should attract the younger generation researchers. Both he and Johann-Christoph Freytag, together with Heinz Schweppe of Berlin, have taken the initiative to strengthen the contacts between researchers in Western Europe and those in Central and Eastern Europe. They plan to host large international database and information systems conferences in Berlin over the next several years so that these are within easy reach for the young researchers in Central and Eastern Europe, and to find suitable financial support for their participation. The fact that CSIT'99 counts 18 international papers from all over the world is witness to the evergrowing ties between the former socialist countries and the remainder of the international computer science community.

The Program Committee would like to express appreciations to all those who submitted the preliminary versions of papers or extended abstracts for international peer reviewing. We are thankful to those colleagues who took part in evaluation process using the electronic copies. On behalf of the CSIT committee we would like to express our thanks to the supporting organization Russian Foundation for Basic Research for the continuous assistance and support.

Finally, our thanks to all the attendees of the workshop here in Moscow to boost the research activity in the Computer Science and Information Technologies areas.