Call for information/registration from data mining and database related
companies.

Microsoft's Data Warehouse Product Unit within Microsoft SQL Server
Division,
and Microsoft Research, are interested in extending SQL Databases to
better support data mining applications. As part of this effort, we have
been developing a new API intended to support Data Mining based on
Microsoft's
OLE DB API for database connectivity.

In July 1999, following a series of focused meetings with data mining
vendors individually, a design-preview meeting was held and over 100
vendors and companies were invited to participate and provide feedback on
the initial draft of the proposed API. Feedback was collected from that
meeting and from individual interactions with companies. The invitations
were sent to companies that have interacted with Microsoft in the past
in the areas of Data Mining, OLAP, and Data Warehousing. We are now
preparing
to share the new API draft with a larger and more global set of interested
parties.

In order to help us more effectively and rapidly communicate new
developments
and updates to interested parties, we are requesting that companies provide
a point of contact and a little information on the level of interest in
OLE DB for Data Mining as well as related updates regarding Microsoft's
future
plans in this area.

We have established a web-based form for signing-up:
    http://research.microsoft.com/dmx/oledbdm

This sign-up page is intended for companies who are active in providing
services and/or products within or related to Data Mining. This list
will only be used to update our database of companies who are
interested in becoming providers, consumers, or solution providers
on top of Microsoft's proposed extensions for data mining: OLE DB for
Data Mining. This information is being collected for purposes of the
product development and documentation groups, and will not be
forwarded outside Microsoft. If you are an individual interested in
OLE DB for Data Mining (not a vendor or company), please do not
sign up at that page. We hope to make copies of the spec available
to the general public sometime in the near future. If you are a
company that's already on our lists, we ask that you please do register
at this web form any way to make sure our new list is complete.

Usama Fayyad - on behalf of Data Mining Product and Research Teams
Data Mining & Exploration (DMX) Group, Microsoft Research

For inquiries, please e-mail [log in to unmask]

_____________________
Usama Fayyad ([log in to unmask])           Tel. 425-703-1528
http://research.microsoft.com/~fayyad       Fax  425-936-7329
Data Mining & Exploration (DMX) Group
Microsoft Research,  Redmond, WA 98052-6399, USA