We have been extensively working on virtual database refinements.  There aremany SQL cost model adjustments to better model  distributed queries and wenow support direct access to Oracle and Informix statistics system tables.Thus, when you attach  a table from one or the other, you automatically getup to date statistics.  This helps Virtuoso optimize distributed  queries.Also the documentation is updated as concerns these, with a new section ondistributed query optimization.

On the applications side, we have been keeping up with the SIOC RDF ontologydevelopments.  All ODS applications now make  their data available as SIOCgraphs for download and SPARQL query access.

What is most exciting however is our advance in mapping relational data intoRDF.  We now have a mapping language that makes  arbitrary legacy data in Virtuoso or elsewhere in the relational world RDF queriable.  We will putout a white paper on  this in a few days.

Also we have some innovations in mind for optimizing the physical storage ofRDF triples.  We keep experimenting, now with  our sights set to the highend of triple storage, towards billion triple data sets.  We areexperimenting with a new more space efficient index structure  for betterworking set behavior.  Next week will yield the first results.