Defining a formal domain ontology is generally considered a useful, not to say necessary step in almost every software project. This is because software deals with ideas rather than with self-evident physical artefacts. However, this development step is hardly ever done, as ontologies rely on well-defined and semantically powerful AI concepts such as description logics or rule-based systems, and most software engineers are largely unfamiliar with these.

Ga evic and his co-authors try to fill this gap by covering the subject of MDA application for ontology development on the Semantic Web. Part I of their book describes existing technologies, tools, and standards like XML, RDF, OWL, MDA, and UML. Part II presents the first detailed description of OMG s new ODM (Ontology Definition Metamodel) initiative, a specification which is expected to be in the form of an OMG language like UML. Finally, Part III is dedicated to applications and practical aspects of developing ontologies using MDA-based languages. The book is supported by a website showing many ontologies, UML and other MDA-based models, and the transformations between them.

"The book is equally suited to those who merely want to be informed of the relevant technological landscape, to practitioners dealing with concrete problems, and to researchers seeking pointers to potentially fruitful areas of research. The writing is technical yet clear and accessible, illustrated throughout with useful and easily digestible examples." from the Foreword by Bran Selic, IBM Rational Software, Canada.

"I do not know another book that offers such a high quality insight into UML and ontologies." Steffen Staab, U Koblenz, Germany"

Defining a formal domain ontology is considered a useful, not to say necessary step in almost every software project. This is because software deals with ideas rather than with self-evident physical artefacts. However, this development step is hardly ever done, as ontologies rely on well-defined and semantically powerful AI concepts such as description logics or rule-based systems, and most software engineers are unfamiliar with these. This book fills this gap by covering the subject of MDA application for ontology development on the Semantic Web. The writing is technical yet clear, and is illustrated with examples. The book is supported by a website.

This volume contains mainly the revised versions of papers presented at the wo- shop '98, "Beyond the Notation," that took place in Mulhouse, France on June 3-4, 1998. We thank all those that have made this possible, and particularly all the people in Mulhouse that worked hard to make this meeting a success, with such a short delay between the announcement and the realization. We are specially grateful to Nathalie Gaertner, who put in a tremendous amount of effort in the initial preparation of the workshop. We were pleasantly surprised of the quality of the submitted material and of the level of the technical exchanges at the Mulhouse meeting. More than one hundred attendees, from about twenty different countries, representing the main actors in the UML research and development scene, gathered in Mulhouse for two full study days. We would like to express our deepest appreciation to the authors of submitted - pers, the editorial committee for this volume, the program committee for the initial workshop, the external referees, and many others who contributed towards the final contents of this volume. April 1999 Jean Bezivin Pierre-Alain Muller"

In October 1983 an informal meeting was organized in Le Cap d'Agde with the help of the BIGRE bulletin. Sixty people turned out to hear more than ten presentations on object-oriented programming. More important was their unanimous demand for other, more structured encounters. So, about one year later, the Object group was created by AFCET. A second workshop was organized in Brest, and again one year later in Paris, each time showing increased attendance and interest. The success of these meetings and the fact that similar activities were taking place in other European countries, especially Great Britain and Germany, led to the idea of an annual European Conference, providing a forum for theorists and practitioners interested in the object-oriented programming paradigm. It is impossible to acknowledge here all the people and organizations that welcomed with great enthusiasm the birth of the ECOOP conference and contributed to its organization. More than a hundred submissions were received and the program committee had the unpleasant task of turning down many valuable contributions. We hope, however, that the selection of papers for ECOOP'87 emphasizes the fundamental issues and problems of object-oriented programming and will point toward interesting future research directions.