The VLDB Tutorial Series

Why another set of tutorials?

The VLDB tutorial series is being proposed with a specific goal of disseminating basic and advanced knowledge related to the field of database management to the developing nations worldwide. It will bring leading experts in various fields of database systems research and practice to audiences that are otherwise deprived of such an opportunity.

Who is the target audience?

The tutorials will generally address both basic and advanced topics. The basic material will be geared to practitioners, consultants, middle managers, government officials in charge of information system planning, etc. Advanced tutorials will be of interest to the academicians including faculty and graduate students as well as to industrial Research and Development personnel.

What topics will be covered:

Although the list is open ended, following is a set of possible topics.

Basic Topics:

Relational Database Systems and Extensions
Implementation and tuning of relational database applications
Object-Oriented databases: modeling, design and implementation
Database Languages and Application Development Tools
Interoperability and Heterogeneous Database Management
Geographic Information Systems
Object-Oriented Database Application Methodologies

Advanced Topics:

Active Databases
Real-time Databases
Multimedia database management
Spatial and Temporal Data Management
Semistructured Data and XML
Mediators, Meta-searchers and Web-DB query languages
Data Warehousing
Data Mining
Performance Measurement and Database Tuning
Parallel Databases: architectures, data organization and query processing

How do we organize one in our country?

The organization of tutorials within a country is left entirely to the local organizers. The following VLDB Endowment tutorial representative may be contacted to discuss possible organizational matters; but the entire proposal must come from the hosting country so that it can be evaluated by a subcommittee of the VLDB Endowment.

Prof. Timos Sellis

Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engin.
Division of Computer Science
National Technical University of Athens
Zographou 157 73, Athens GREECE
Tel. +30-1-7721-601
FAX. +30-1-7721-659
Email: timos@dbnet.ece.ntua.gr

The proposal should include details about location, dates, topics, possible speakers contacted, target audience etc. The representatives will have a form that must be filled out. Please follow these links to access the form in: PDF, Word, or HTML.

Countries hosting a VLDB conference are encouraged to propose VLDB tutorials in preceding years to set the stage for the conference.

How will the endowment run the tutorial series and lend its prestige for the undertaking?

The VLDB foundation currently will act as a facilitator of the VLDB tutorials. No financial commitment will be undertaken; however, seed funding may be made available to assist the organizers. There will be a committee of VLDB trustees that will oversee the tutorial selection process as well as promote it in various countries. VLDB will make efforts to encourage speakers to participate in the tutorials.

Suggestions regarding the VLDB tutorial series and its organization should be directed to the above co-ordinators.

Benefits

The VLDB foundation is a true international body that has run 25 international conferences of high quality in the four continents of the world (very soon to be in five continents). Besides running the VLDB journal, it is now embarking on a tutorial series to bring quality tutorials within reach of developing countries of the world. The host countries as well as the speakers stand to gain in the process of planning and delivering these tutorials.