) At its November 1995 meeting, the Committee on Applied and Theoretical Statistics (CATS) decided that given the new developments in the field, it was timely to hold another U.S. workshop on record linkage. Since the whole concept of data sharing is broad based and pervasive, many different governmental agencies as well as the private sector will benefit from this workshop. The last workshop of this nature was held by the Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology (FCSM) in 1985, however, the concept of record linkage has expanded beyond the privy of that committee. While there are many important issues that deserve further research and analysis, none is more important than data sharing as it relates to privacy. Talks and software exhibits are planned for the two day workshop. The talks will be divided into two groups: long talks (30 to 45 minutes with 10 minutes of questions and discussion) will be selected from submitted abstracts as invited papers; other contributed papers will consist of 15 minute talks followed by 5 minutes of discussion. Software exhibits will be in 3-hour time periods. Exhibitors will demonstrate their software, informally discuss how the software works and how they developed it. The exhibits will be primarily for educational purposes so that technical information can be shared. Exhibitors will be asked to provide their own projection panels and laptop computers. Release of the report is anticipated 11 months from project initiation, and the last 3 months of the 14 month project will be devoted to dissemination efforts. The total estimated funding being requested in order to organize the workshop, produce and disseminate the proceedings is $130,000.
