CUC 2002 is taking place at the time when we are celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Internet in Croatia. In the past 10 years the Internet has become a part of our lives. It has affected the way we work and live. I am convinced that CUC conferences have been a part of that process. We witnessed the growing interest of authors and participants from Croatia and abroad for CUC over the past 4 years. This was a challenge. We made our best to prepare CUC 2002 to meet the expectations.

CUC 2002 is entitled "Seize the Internet". Under the motto "Enhancing Your Virtual Presence" we want to shed more light on the topics like:

• Virtual worlds and virtual citizens;
  
• Electronic workplace;
  
• Learning/teaching experience on the Net;
  
• Social aspects of the Internet;
  
• Quality of the Internet information space;
  
• Multimedia and real-time applications.

There will be two distinguished keynote speakers, Mr. Ole J. Jacobsen and Mr. Peter Gietz who will join us this year. Mr. Jacobsen will discuss the impact of the Internet on our lives, and Mr. Gietz will talk about the role of directories in the emerging network technology. Here, I would like to thank them both for their valuable contributions.

To enhance the learning experience we will have three tutorials (T1, T2, T3):

• T1: Building Intranet Services on Linux - from home to big business
• T2: Media on Demand Services
• T3: How to get the best out of the INSPEC Database?

and five workshops (WS1 - WS5):


• WS1 - Electronic Signatures: Introduction and Applications,
• WS2 - Content Management Systems,
• WS3 - Metadata on the Web,
• WS4 - How to make the most of your Linux workplace?
• WS5 - Introduction to LDAP

In that effort, renowned experts will be joining us with the wish to provide you with high quality and up-to-date information. My sincere thanks to all the authors for their time and contributions.

This year's Program Committee has accepted a record number of 53 papers and presentations. Therefore we will have 10 paper sessions where authors will present their work. For the second, consecutive time we will have guest speakers over the Net. Mr. Michael Gettes and Mr Ken Kligenstein, representing Internet 2 middleware activities will join us from their offices in the USA to share their views on the Middleware arena.

In addition, we will have three very interesting panel sessions. Two of them dedicated to our special topic: 10 years of the Internet in Croatia.

Web festival competition this year is looking for the best unofficial Web site on an arbitrary but well-defined topic. Until September 6 we received over 150 applications out of which the jury will select the best sites that will enter the final competition for awards. Traditionally, apart from the awards presented by the official jury, the users will have the opportunity to vote for the "Users Choice" Award via the Conference Web site.

In the end I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the members of the program committee, the organising committee and the Web festival jury for their dedication.

Thanks to our sponsors - they made it possible.

Welcome to CUC 2002. I hope our Conference will meet your needs and expectations.

Miroslav Milinovic
Program Committee Chair