The contents of this volume are taken from the Switzerland-Japan Joint Seminar on Multimedia and Databases. This seminar hoped to present and discuss research results and provide an opportunity for exchanging ideas for further promotion of science and technology.

Interoperability and flexible interactive document design for distance learning, C. Vanoirbeek and O.A. Khaled; workflow modelling from a database point of view, K. Yokota and T. Kunishima; high performance parallel association rule mining and its dynamic load balancing mechanism over homo/heterogeneous PC cluster system, M. Kitsuregawa et al; the Virtual World Database System - its concept, design, and prototyping, Y. Masunaga and C. Watanabe; enhancing databases by introducing spatial data types for non-geographical applications, A. Makinouchi and S. Kuroki; all together now - towards integrating the world's information systems, K.R. Dittrich and D. Jonscher; higher order databases and multimedia information, H.-J. Schek and R. Weber; access control and views in Web data management, K. Tanaka et al. (Part contents)