EDBT 2000 is the seventh conference in a series dedicated to the advancement of database technology. This year s conference special theme, Connect Millions of Users and Data Sources," underscores the importance of databases for the information age that is dawning with the new millennium. The importance - rives not just from the observation that the information age essentially rests on theconvergenceofcommunications, computing, andstorage.Equallyimportant, many of the concepts and techniques underlying the success of databasesystems have independent meaning and impact for today s distributed...