Communities are groupings of distributed objects that communicate, directly orindirectly, throughthemediumofasharedcontext.Thisconferencebrought togetherresearchersinterestedinthetechnicalissuesofsupportingcommunities. DCW 2002 was held in Sydney, Australia, and was hosted by the Software EngineeringResearchGroupandtheSchoolofComputerScienceandEngine- ingattheUniversityofNewSouthWales.ItwasthefourthintheDCWseries, thepreviousconferenceshavingtakenplaceinQu ebec(2000, LNCS1830)and inRostock(1998and1999, UniversityofRostockPress). Theprogramcommitteeselected25papersfrom59submissionsfromaround...