Carl-Christian Kanne  Department for Practical Computer Science III, University of Mannheim, 68131 Mannheim, Germany (ccinformatik.uni-mannheim.de). Dr. Kanne is a researcher at the University of Mannheim. He received a Masters (Diplom) degree in computer science from Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule (RWTH) Aachen in 1998, and a Ph.D. degree from the University of Mannheim in 2003. His current work focuses on Natix, a native XML data store developed at the University of Mannheim.

Guido Moerkotte  Department for Practical Computer Science III, University of Mannheim, 68131 Mannheim, Germany (moerkotteinformatik.uni-mannheim.de). Dr. Moerkotte studied computer science at the University of Dortmund, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and the University of Karlsruhe. From the University of Karlsruhe he received a diploma in 1987, a doctoral degree in 1989, and his habilitation in 1994. He is currently a full professor at the University of Mannheim. His research interests include all aspects of database management systems. He is especially interested in system design and implementation. He is a co-author of more than 100 publications.