Over the past seven years there has been an increasing interest in database programming languages that has resulted in a number of working prototypes and has influenced, for example, the design of query languages for object-oriented databases. This research is now taking on new directions. It includes foundations of database programming languages, bulk types and iterators, types and data models, distributed object stores, heterogeneous databases, interoperability and communication with structured text. Much of this research stems from co-operation between groups of researchers in the US and EC, and the objective is to maintain this cooperative research through a series of joint workshops that include the continuation of the Database Programming Language and Persistent Object Store workshops as well as new workshops on Finite Model theory, Data Exchange Formats, and Data Mapping and Matching. The results of these workshops, which will be published as conference proceedings, will provide new techniques for querying and and integrating not only standard database systems but also the wide variety of oth er structured data sources that are used, for example, for the representation of scientific data.
