Book excerpt: The Database and Expert Systems Applications (DEXA) conferences have established themselves as a platform for bringing together researchers and practitioners from various backgrounds and all regions of the world to exchange ideas, experiences and opinions in a friendly and stimulating environment. The papers presented at the conference represent recent developments in the field and important steps towards shaping the future of applied computer science and information systems. DEXA covers a broad field: all aspects of databases, knowledge based systems, knowledge management, web-based systems, information systems, related technologies and their applications. Once again there were a good number of submissions: out of 183 papers that were submitted, the program committee selected 92 to be presented. In the first year of this new millennium DEXA has come back to the United Kingdom, following events in Vienna, Berlin, Valencia, Prague, Athens, London, Zurich, Toulouse, Vienna and Florence. The past decade has seen several revolutionary developments, one of which was the explosion of Internet-related applications in the areas covered by DEXA, developments in which DEXA has played a role and in which DEXA will continue to play a role in its second decade, starting with this conference.