Conceptual modeling is about describing the semantics of software applications at a high level of abstraction in terms of structure, behavior, and user interaction.

Embley and Thalheim start with a manifesto stating that the dream of developing information systems strictly by conceptual modeling as expressed in the phrase the model is the code is becoming reality. The subsequent contributions written by leading researchers in the field support the manifesto's assertions, showing not only how to abstractly model complex information systems but also how to formalize abstract specifications in ways that let developers complete programming tasks within the conceptual model itself. They are grouped into sections on programming with conceptual models, structure modeling, process modeling, user interface modeling, and special challenge areas such as conceptual geometric modeling, information integration, and biological conceptual modeling.

The Handbook of Conceptual Modeling collects in a single volume many of the best conceptual-modeling ideas, techniques, and practices as well as the challenges that drive research in the field. Thus it is much more than a traditional handbook for advanced professionals, as it also provides both a firm foundation for the field of conceptual modeling, and points researchers and graduate students towards interesting challenges and paths for how to contribute to this fundamental field of computer science.

Conceptual modeling is about describing the semantics of software applications at a high level of abstraction in terms of structure, behavior, and user interaction. Embley and Thalheim start with a manifesto stating that the dream of developing information systems strictly by conceptual modeling - as expressed in the phrase "the model is the code" - is becoming reality. The subsequent contributions written by leading researchers in the field support the manifesto's assertions, showing not only how to abstractly model complex information systems but also how to formalize abstract specifications in ways that let developers complete programming tasks within the conceptual model itself. They are grouped into sections on programming with conceptual models, structure modeling, process modeling, user interface modeling, and special challenge areas such as conceptual geometric modeling, information integration, and biological conceptual modeling. The Handbook of Conceptual Modeling collects in a single volume many of the best conceptual-modeling ideas, techniques, and practices as well as the challenges that drive research in the field. Thus it is much more than a traditional handbook for advanced professionals, as it also provides both a firm foundation for the field of conceptual modeling, and points researchers and graduate students towards interesting challenges and paths for how to contribute to this fundamental field of computer science.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 25th International Conference on Conceptual Modeling, ER 2006, held in Tucson, AZ, USA in November 2006. The 37 revised full papers presented together with two keynote talks, two panel session papers, six industrial papers, and five demo/posters papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 158 submissions.

The objective of the workshops associated with the ER'99 18th International Conference on Conceptual Modeling is to give participants access to high level presentations on specialized, hot, or emerging scientific topics. Three themes have been selected in this respect: - Evolution and Change in Data Management (ECDM'99) dealing with han dling the evolution of data and data structure, - Reverse Engineering in Information Systems (REIS'99) aimed at exploring the issues raised by legacy systems, - The World Wide Web and Conceptual Modehng (WWWCM'99) which ana lyzes the mutual contribution of WWW resources and techniques with con ceptual modeling. ER'99 has been organized so that there is no overlap between conference ses sions and the workshops. Therefore participants can follow both the conference and the workshop presentations they are interested in. I would like to thank the ER'99 program co-chairs, Jacky Akoka and Mokrane Bouzeghoub for having given me the opportunity to organize these workshops. I would also like to thank Stephen Liddle for his valuable help in managing the evaluation procedure for submitted papers and helping to prepare the workshop proceedings for publication. August 1999 Jacques Kouloumdjian Preface for ECDM'99 The first part of this volume contains the proceedings of the First International Workshop on Evolution and Change in Data Management, ECDM'99, which was held in conjunction with the 18th International Conference on Conceptual Modehng (ER'99) in Paris, France, November 15-18, 1999.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Conceptual Modeling, ER '97, held in Los Angeles, California, USA, in November 1997.
The 32 revised full papers presented in the book were carefully selected from a total of 93 submissions. Also included are two full invited papers.The volume is divided in topical sections on automated design, temporal modeling, languages, activity modeling, applied modeling, object-oriented modeling, theoretical issues in modeling, experience and applications, distributed systems, integration, and tools.