Dear fellow MonetDB developers/users, we plan to have a new release of the MonetDB software family within the next two weeks, i.e., Feature Freeze: Friday Jun 01 2007 Release: Monday Jun 11 2007 This release cycle is used to reduce the component dependencies, such that we are better prepared to release individual components more frequently. A synopsis of what to expect: MonetDB 5 beta status is dropped and it becomes the sole back-end for the SQL front-end. SQL now supports Persistent Stored Modules. XQuery Update Facility has undergone a large series of stress tests to improve correctness, performance and robustness against concurrent updates. Many bug-fixes based on highly appreciated feedback from our user community. The priorities set for post-release actions as agreed upon by the development team are: shortterm:(summer) SQL GIS geometry model testing and release SQL/XML support development and release PF/SQL exploration (research focus) Skyserver demo website (target 2.7TB online demo) midterm: (fall) Remote SQL execution in a cluster setting SQL adaptive partitioning of large databases XQuery Algebra -> MIL compiler Date/time support in XQuery MonetDB Private BATs policy (kernel modification) lngterm: (fall/spring) XQuery Algebra -> MAL compiler public release of StreetTivo for collaborative media analysis Of course, as always, progress in each of these areas depend on availability of resources and their contribution to our research agenda. We are looking forward to messages from projects based on/exploitation of the MonetDB platform. We plan to add a section in the website to make this work more broadly visible. regards, Martin