Since its first edition in 2003, the XML Database Symposium series (XSym) has been a forum for academics, practitioners, users and vendors to discuss the use of and synergy between databases and XML. The previous symposia have provided opportunities for timely discussions on a broad range of topics pertaining to the theory and practice of XML data management and its applications. XSym 2007 continues this tradition with a program consisting of three research sessions, two keynote talks and a panel. We received 28 full paper submissions, out of which 8 were accepted for publication in these...

In the 1980s, traditional Business Intelligence (BI) systems focused on the delivery of reports that describe the state of business activities in the past, such as for questions like "How did our sales perform during the last quarter?" A decade later, there was a shift to more interactive content that presented how the business was performing at the present time, answering questions like "How are we doing right now?" Today the focus of BI users are looking into the future. "Given what I did before and how I am currently doing this quarter, how will I do next quarter?" Furthermore, fuelled...