This book contains the best papers of the First International Conference on Software and Data Technologies (ICSOFT 2006), organized by the Institute for Systems and Technologies of Information, Communication and Control (INSTICC) in cooperation with the Object Management Group (OMG). Hosted by the School of Business of the Polytechnic Institute of Setubal, the conference was sponsored by Enterprise Ireland and the Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal. The purpose of ICSOFT 2006 was to bring together researchers and practitioners int- ested in information technology and software development. The conference tracks were “Software Engineering”, “Information Systems and Data Management”, “Programming Languages”, “Distributed and Parallel Systems” and “Knowledge Engineering.” Being crucial for the development of information systems, software and data te- nologies encompass a large number of research topics and applications: from imp- mentation-related issues to more abstract theoretical aspects of software engineering; from databases and data-warehouses to management information systems and kno- edge-base systems; next to that, distributed systems, pervasive computing, data quality and other related topics are included in the scope of this conference. ICSOFT included in its program a panel to discuss the future of software devel- ment, composed by six distinguished world-class researchers. Furthermore, the c- ference program was enriched by a tutorial and six keynote lectures. ICSOFT 2006 received 187 paper submissions from 39 countries in all continents.
