This year Organising Committee received 92 contributions - papers and poster abstracts (59 from abroad and 33 from Croatia), by 185 authors: 114 authors were from 19 foreign countries: Australia, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Egypt, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Macedonia, P.R.China, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, UK, Ukraine and USA, and 71 authors were from Croatia.

All submitted papers have been reviewed by at least two independent referees: 104 reviews were given by 59 referees from abroad, and 86 by 50 Croatian referees. The proceedings contain 71 accepted papers (40 from abroad), written by 146 authors (81 from abroad). The choice of referees and the publishing policy was conducted by the International Program Committee.

Traditionally, a wide range of topics was covered indicating the variety of the participants' interests:

• Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems
• Biometrics
• Computer Systems and Networks
• Data Analysis and Statistics
• Design, Synthesis and Test, Methodologies and Applications
• Information Systems and Databases
• Mathematics and Computation
• Modelling, Simulation and Optimization
• Multimedia
• Software Engineering and Programming Languages.

• Keynote Lectures from several countries, covering different topics:
  
  H. Adeli, USA;
  K. Proszeky, John von Neumann Computer Society, Hungary;
  A. Sampson, USA;
  T. Saracevic, Usa;
  M. Schemper, Austria;

  Presentation of the contributed papers as the essential core of the Conference. During 4 working days 40 contributed papers were presented, including 27 papers presented by foreign authors;

  Posters presentations as an old novelty, after many years of absence; 15 poster abstracts written by 27 authors from 8 countries were reviewed and published in the booklet "ITI'99 Poster Abstracts";

  A panel discussion about "Etics in Software Engineering";

  BIOSTAT '99, organized by the Croatian Society for Biometrics;

  - 6th Meeting of Researchers in Biometrics;

  - 4rd School of Biometrics:

  Topic Order-restricted Inference: Overview and Applications to Biometry,

  Lecturer A. Sampson, USA;

A selection of papers presented at the Conference (longer, revised versions) are considered for publishing in the following international journals:

• IMACS journal Mathematics and Computers in Simulation
• CIT Journal of Computing and Information Technology.

We are grateful to all who have contributed to this Conference. Our special thanks go to the authors of papers and poster abstracts and to the referees. The keynote speakers are always responsible for creation of a specific atmosphere that distinguishes one conference from the other. Panel discussions are usually a pleasant social event where some common problems are discussed in a relaxed atmosphere with an international flavour. We are thankful to the co-operating institutions and sponsors who have helped us.

We are looking forward to seeing you at the 22nd International Conference on Information Technology Interfaces ITI 2000. We believe that ITI 2000 will bring a growth in quality and abundance of the Conference activities and an increase in the number of participants. We had hoped for the same last year, but probably due to the unhappy events in our neighbourhood, that has not materialised. We hope that you, the participants of ITI '99, will spread the information that Croatia is not a dangerous place in the Balkans, as many people still believe. After the solution of the problems in our neighbourhood, we hope to restore Cavtat near Dubrovnik as an alternative place where ITI can be held. In the meantime, let us all enjoy the lovely city of Pula, beautiful sea and the proven Istrian hospitality.

June 1999