Special Issue: Middleware for Grid Computing

We are pleased to present a special issue of best papers presented at the 4th International Workshop on Middleware for Grid Computing (MGC 2006), which was held in conjunction with the ACM/IFIP/USENIX 7th International Middleware Conference during November 2006 in Melbourne, Australia. The goal of the fourth edition of the MGC workshop was to bring together researches in the field of middleware, addressing large-scale and real-world problems in grid environments, including Grid and Web Services Architectures and Middleware, Object Metadata and Schemas in Grid Middleware, Programming Models and Tools in Grid Middleware, Resource Management and Scheduling, Strategies and Protocols for QoS in Grid Middleware, Information Services in Grid Middleware, Dependability and Fault Tolerance in Grid Middleware, Performance Evaluation and Modeling in Grid Middleware, Agent-based Approaches in Grid Middleware, Utility Computing, Core Grid Infrastructure, Grid Security, Virtualization in Grid Middleware, Wireless Grids Middleware, Data Grid Middleware, Peer to Peer Protocols in Grid Computing, Network Support for Grid Computing, Grid Application Frameworks, Portals, Portlet Containers, Adaptive-Autonomic Middleware, and Messaging in Grid Middleware. The MGC 2006 workshop received 42 papers from researchers all over the world. Each paper was peer reviewed by three program committee members and external reviewers. Based on their recommendations, we accepted 14 highly rated papers as regular papers. All accepted papers were presented at the workshop in Australia.