ICSE2000: Window on the World - Issue 1- Welcome from the Conference General Chair

Hello and welcome to ICSE 2000! I hope that over the next few days you will enjoy and help create an exciting, informative conference that you will remember as one of the best ICSEs you have been too. Although I might like to take full credit for the conference, the quality that you will see here is the result of many people's efforts.

Let me explain a bit more. I first sought the collaboration of a local coordinator for all logistic and financial aspects. This was absolutely crucial, since I was not living in Ireland and doing that remotely would have been impossible. I was lucky to find Kevin Ryan, who put his best energies, enthusiasm, and skills in these tasks. Second, I needed two PC chairs I could trust and who would share with me the vision of what a top quality technical conference should be. Mehdi Jazayeri and Alex Wolf were my ideal candidates for that, and the outstanding results of what they did went even far beyond what I had expected when I sought their collaboration. Finally, I tried to apply the concepts of separation of concerns and modularity to provide an architecture for the rest of the conference. I defined a number of tracks, outlined their goals, decided their interface, and I sought the collaboration of dedicated and competent colleagues, who chaired each track. Some of these tracks were already in the ICSE tradition (e.g., tutorials); others were new for ICSE, and I am sure that they will raise much interest and bring new valuable contributions to our flagship conference. I'd like to briefly mention all these tracks and their main architects.

Michal Young designed the Tutorial Program, which featured 3 full day and 17 half day tutorials. Antonella Bertolino and Gail Murphy designed a Workshop Program, consisting of 16 specialized workshops, attended by the surprising number of over 370 people. A broad-scope conference like ICSE can benefit tremendously from having joint focused workshops, since they provide an opportunity for people working in the same specific area to closely interact and share their experience. Anthony Finkelstein put together the "Future of Software Engineering" track. This is new for ICSE, and something that will be remembered for many years. In this track, an international group of leaders provides a view of the state of the art in various fields of software engineering, as it appears at the turn of the millennium. Hans-Juergen Kuegler designed the Practical Experience and Technology Transfer track, whose aim is to bridge the ever-lasting gap between research and practice. Bashar Nuseibeh designed the Software Engineering Education and Training track, which provides a number of events that will help us exchange research and experience in the crucial area of education. David Rosenblum and Wolfgang Emmerich designed the Research Demos and Posters track, which is providing new ways both to exchange in-depth experiences in tool development and to have interactive discussions on on-going research projects. Of course, the technical papers program is still the "core" of the conference. Mehdi and Alex put together an outstanding program, which clearly reflects the high quality of research that is performed in the field internationally. Finally, Mehdi, Alex, Kevin, and I worked hard on identifying keynoste speakers whose prestige and knowledge could give a message on the fundamental issues that will affect our exciting profession in the coming years. We were lucky to reach our target: you will hear exciting presentations from Manuel Castells (UC Berkeley), Grady Booch (Catapulse), Chris Horn (IONA Technologies), and A. Van Lamsweerde (University of Louvain).

I mentioned the names of the track chairs who helped shape the architecture of the conference, but one should consider that many other individuals also helped in each track and on the overall organization. I'd like to especially recognize the work of Gianpaolo Cugola, who officially was "just" our Publicity Chair, but in practice was helping on every single issue; and the local "Limerick team", including Mikael Fernström, Nuala Kitson, Mary Finucane, and Ita Richardson. And also you guys, who will be doing WOW. To all of these people goes my deepest appreciation for their outstanding work and enthusiastic dedication.

So when you see these people, keep in mind the work they did to put together this conference, and enjoy the myriad of activities and opportunities over the next three days!

Designer and Webmistress
Caroline Kehoe