As a professional working in object-oriented technology, you know that the ability to keep up with the latest research results and technical trends is essential. For researchers and developers, the USENIX Conference on Object-Oriented Technologies and Systems (COOTS) has become the conference of choice. With its emphasis on research, advanced engineering topics, and experimental systems, this intentionally small conference provides a cozy setting for you to meet and network with other leading researchers and developers and to get expert advice relevant to your current project needs.

The week starts with our tutorial program. Well-known experts and educators cover concurrent and real-time Java programming, design patterns to build middleware, advanced issues in CORBA, and programming in C++ using and extending the standard library. In addition, two new tutorials provide a detailed look into new paradigms: C# from Microsoft, and XML/XSD/SOAP. Tutorials typically sell out quickly, so register soon.

The COOTS technical program is the venue for the serious examination of advanced R&D results from the foremost universities and industrial labs. We again offer a selection of excellent papers representing new directions in such topical areas as distributed objects, Java, and reflection and other programming techniques.

Keynote speaker Stu Feldman, Head of Computer Science and Institute for Advanced Commerce at IBM, is guaranteed to provoke thoughtful discussions of what we, as professionals, need to work on as the world around us changes with the advent of pervasive computing devices. Bjorn Freeman-Benson of Amazon.com will share his experiences in building highly complex, organically grown infrastructures. Robert Martin from Object Mentor will show how extreme programming can shrink time-to-market delivery of high-quality software. Jennifer Hamilton of MicrosoftÕs Common Language Runtime Development Team will demonstrate how the various components of Runtime work together to enable inter-language object sharing.

Murthy Devarakonda of the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center chairs this year's Advanced Topics Workshop with the timely theme of "Distributed Inter-Object Communication: Can We Do Better than RPC?"

If you are looking to share your expertise with your peers and hear the latest in OO technologies, join us in San Antonio from January 29 to February 2, 2001. We look forward to seeing you there!

Rajendra K. Raj	Yi-Min Wang

Sincerely,

Rajendra K. Raj, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co.
Yi-Min Wang, Microsoft Research

Program Co-Chairs