From tiny acorns mighty oak trees grow. An idea from Ilan Ben-Zvi in 1996, nurtured by others, has finally spread its branches as the JACoW collaboration reaches maturity in 2004.

The vision of a Joint Accelerator Conferences Website, maintaining a central database of information of all main participants in the accelerator community and holding electronic copies of all the papers published at the conferences under its umbrella, has taken eight years to reach fruition.

Seven conference series are now involved (PAC, EPAC, APAC, CYCLOTRONS, DIPAC, ICALEPCS, LINAC).  The Russian PAC, RUPAC, is about to join, as are several other conference series. A recent decision has confirmed funding to complete the electronic scanning of all PAC and EPAC proceedings back to 1967 and 1988 respectively. The papers will be available to all on the central JACoW site (http://www.jacow.org).

At this conference, EPAC’04, the Scientific Programme Management System (SPMS) is being used for the first time. The central database will allow standardised procedures for submission and publication of papers, and will be of immeasurable benefit to those who work so hard behind the scenes to ensure every conference is a success. Delegates will also see improvements, with developments such as the inclusion of facilities for registration, expected to follow.

While many individuals have played a part, none would begrudge recognition to the two people whose foresight and enthusiasm have served to blend so many varied ideas together: John Poole, the Chairman of JACoW, and Christine Petit-Jean-Genaz, the EPAC Conferences Coordinator.

The Organising Committees of the EPAC and PAC conference series would like to acknowledge their achievement and thank them, and all those involved in JACoW, for their efforts to further the dissemination of scientific knowledge throughout the accelerator community.