It co-locates three related and complementary successful conferences (DOA = infrastructure, ODBASE = meaning of data, CoopIS = application in organizations). Each of these conferences covers different aspects: theory (i.e. underlying theoretical solutions), conceptual (e.g. technical and conceptual solutions) and applications (e.g. case studies and industrial solutions).

Scope: All three conferences are about the distributed and ubiquity aspects of modern computing systems, and the resulting application-pull created by the Internet and the so-called "Semantic Web". For DOA'03, the primary emphasis is on the distributed object infrastructure; for ODBASE'03, it is on the knowledge bases and methods required for enabling semantical use; and for CoopIS'03, it is on the interaction of such technology and methods within an organization or network of organizations.As they must, these subject areas overlap and, in fact, the organizers specifically welcome submissions in any of the areas that also emphasize the envisaged impact on or from relevant issues in the others. To stimulate this "cross-pollination", a common program of representative keynote speakers, a joint tutorial program, and a common Industry Track that runs parallel with the entire event are being assembled.