Letter from the Incoming ICDE Steering Committee Chair

Steering Committee(StC) to communicate directly with TCDE members. Second, I want to thank members of the StC for electing me as the new chair. I will do my best to carry out the duties of the StC chair. The main purpose of this letter is to explain the function of ICDE StC. Foremost is an acknowledgement and expression of gratitude to the past StC chair, Dr. Erich Neuhold. During the last 8 years, Erich has provided firm leadership that brought ICDE to the Modern Era, characterized by a successful democratization of ICDE. The main tenets established by Erich are: Principle of Law. StC functions, conduct, and member election are governed by written rules, which have been published in the Charter document http://www.informatik.uni-trier.de/ ley/db/conf/icde/bylaws.html. Principle of Openness. A nurturing environment that encourage the active participation of delegates from all countries and underrepresented groups in all aspects of ICDE, including the StC itself. Principle of Least-Interference. The best organizers are selected to run the ICDE conferences. They are allowed to make their own decisions (responsively) and to innovate according to their talents. These principles have had a huge impact by bringing in new talents and ideas into each new ICDE. My goal as the new StC chair is to uphold these principles established by Erich, so the StC can guide the future ICDEs towards both greater intellectual impact and wider participation. Concretely, the main function of StC is to select the organizers of future ICDE conferences. For details of the proposal and selection process, please contact me at [email protected]. After a team is selected, the StC also monitors the progress of future ICDE organization as a process and provides support to the organizers to help them make every ICDE a success. The current StC members are: Calton Pu, Karl Aberer, Rakesh Agrawal, Dimitrios Georgakopoulos, Masaru Kitsuregawa, Per-Åke Larson, David B. Lomet, Kyu-Young Whang.