Just like the previous workshop at VLDB 1999 in Edinburgh, the purpose of this workshop is to promote telecom data management as one of the core research areas in database research and to establish a strong connection between the telecom and database research communities. As I wrote in the preface of those proceedings, data management in telecommuni- tions is an interesting area of research given the fact that both service management and service provisioning are very data intensive, and pose extreme requirements on data management technology. Given the feedback on the previous workshop we decided to keep the same program set-up for this workshop: an invited speaker, a collection of research papers, and a panel discussion. We received 18 good quality papers from which we selected 12 to construct a very interesting program. The program has been divided into four sections. The first section focuses on CDR data warehouse and data mining technology. Data warehousing and data mining around customer usage data remains an important area of interest for telecommunication operators. The growing competition, especially in the mobile market, means that operators have to put more effort into customer retention and satisfaction. The second section focuses on performance issues around databases in telecommunication. Since telecommunication databases are characterized by their extreme requirements, for example in terms of volumes of data to be processed or response times, high volume data management and embedded and real-time data management are key aspects of the telecommunication data management problems in today’s operational environments.

Developments in network and switching technologies have made telecommu- cations systems and services far more data intensive. This can be observed in many telecommunications areas, such as network management, service mana- ment, and service provisioning. For example, in the area of network management the complexity of modern networks leads to large amounts of data on network topology, con?guration, equipment settings, etc. In addition, switches generate large amounts of data on network tra?c, faults, etc. In the area of service ma- gement it is the registration of customers, customer contacts, service usage (e.g. call detail records (CDRs)) that leads to large databases. For mobile services there is the additional tracking and tracing of mobile equipment. In the area of service provisioning there are the enhanced services like for example UMTS, the next generation of mobile networks, but also the deployment of data intensive services on broadband networks such as video-on-demand, high quality video conferencing, and e-commerce infrastructures. This results in very large databases growing at high rates especially in new service areas. The integration of network control, network management, and network administration also leads to a situation where database technology gets into the core of the network (e.g. in architectures like TMN, IN, and TINA).

This volume contains the best papers presented at the 12th East-European Conference on Advances in Databases and Information Systems (ADBIS 2008) held during S- tember 5–9, 2008, in Pori, Finland. The series of ADBIS conferences is the successor of the annual international workshops with the same title that during 1993-1996 were organized in Russia by the Moscow ACM SIGMOD Chapter. ADBIS 2008 continues the series of ADBIS conferences held in St. Petersburg, Russia (1997), Poznan, Poland (1998), Maribor, Slovenia (1999), Prague, Czech Republic (2000), Vilnius, Lithuania (2001), Bratislava, Slovakia (2002), Dresden, Germany (2003), Budapest, Hungary (2004), Tallinn, Estonia (2005), Thessaloniki, Greece (2006), and Varna, Bulgaria (2007). The conferences are initiated and supervised by an international Steering Committee chaired by professor Leonid Kalinichenko. The ADBIS conferences established an outstanding reputation as a scientific event of high quality serving as an internationally highly visible showcase for research achie- ments in the field of databases and information systems. ADBIS 2008 aimed to create conditions for experienced researchers to impart their knowledge and experience to the young researchers at pre- or post-doctoral level, and to promote interaction and colla- ration between European research communities (especially from Central and East Europe) and the rest of the world. The conference encourages contacts between the p- ticipants who are nationals of, but active outside, the Member States and Associated States and their colleagues in Member States and Associated States. Special attention is paid to collaboration of researchers in Central and East Europe.

The Eighth International Conference on Extending Database Technology, EDBT 2002, was held in Prague, Czech Republic, March 25–27, 2002. It marks the 50th anniversary of Charles University’s Faculty of Mathematics and Physics and is the most recent in a series of conferences dedicated to the dissemination and exchange of the latest advances in data management. Previous conferences occurred in Konstanz, Valencia, Avignon, Cambridge, Vienna, and Venice. The topical theme of this year’s conference is Data Management in the New Millennium, which encourages the community to see beyond the management of massive databases by conventional database management systems and to extend database technology to support new services and application areas. The intention is to spur greater interest in more integrated solutions to user problems, which often implies the consideration of data management issues in entire information systems infrastructures. There is data (almost) everywhere, and data access is needed (almost) always and everywhere. New technologies, services, and app- cations that involve the broader notion of data management are emerging more rapidly than ever, and the database community has much to o?er. The call for papers attracted numerous submissions, including 207 research papers, which is a new record for EDBT. The program committee selected 36 research papers, 6 industrial and applications papers, 13 software demos, and 6 tutorials for presentation at the conference. In addition, the conference program includes three keynote speeches, by Jari Ahola, Ian Horrocks, and Hans-J ̈org Schek, and a panel.

Despite the growing interest in Real-Time Database Systems, there is no single book that acts as a reference to academics, professionals, and practitioners who wish to understand the issues involved in the design and development of RTDBS. Real-Time Database Systems: Issues and Applications fulfills this need. This book presents the spectrum of issues that may arise in various real-time database applications, the available solutions and technologies that may be used to address these issues, and the open problems that need to be tackled in the future. With rapid advances in this area, several concepts have been proposed without a widely accepted consensus on their definitions and implications. To address this need, the first chapter is an introduction to the key RTDBS concepts and definitions, which is followed by a survey of the state of the art in RTDBS research and practice. The remainder of the book consists of four sections: models and paradigms, applications and benchmarks, scheduling and concurrency control, and experimental systems. The chapters in each section are contributed by experts in the respective areas. Real-Time Database Systems: Issues and Applications is primarily intended for practicing engineers and researchers working in the growing area of real-time database systems. For practitioners, the book will provide a much needed bridge for technology transfer and continued education. For researchers, this book will provide a comprehensive reference for well-established results. This book can also be used in a senior or graduate level course on real-time systems, real-time database systems, and database systems or closely related courses.

The Code of Federal Regulations is a codification of the general and permanent rules published in the Federal Register by the Executive departments and agencies of the United States Federal Government.

The Code of Federal Regulations is the codification of the general and permanent rules published in the Federal Register by the executive departments and agencies of the Federal Government.