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The 15th International Federated Conference on Distributed Computing Techniques (DisCoTec) took place in June 15–19. It was organised by the Department of Computer Science at the University of Malta, but was held online due to the abnormal circumstances worldwide affecting physical travel.

The DisCoTec series is one of the major events sponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP). It comprises three conferences:

– COORDINATION, the IFIP WG 6.1 21st International Conference on Coordination Models and Languages
– DAIS, the IFIP WG 6.1 19th International Conference on Distributed Applications and Interoperable Systems
– FORTE, the IFIP WG 6.1 39th International Conference on Formal Techniques for Distributed Objects, Components and Systems

Together, these conferences cover a broad spectrum of distributed computing subjects, ranging from theoretical foundations and formal description techniques to systems research issues. As is customary, the event also included several plenary sessions in addition to the individual sessions of each conference, that gathered attendants from the three conferences.  These included joint invited speaker sessions and a joint session for the best papers from the respective three conferences. 

Associated with the federated event, two satellite events took place:
– ICE, the 13th International Workshop on Interaction and Concurrency Experience 
– FOCODILE - the 1st International Workshop on Foundations of Consensus and Distributed Ledgers

I would like to thank the Program Committee chairs of the different events for their help and cooperation during the preparation of the conference, and the Steering Committee and Advisory Boards of DisCoTec and their conferences for their guidance and support. The organization of DisCoTec 2020 was only possible thanks to the dedicated work of the Organizing Committee, including Davide Basile and Francisco “Kiko” Fernández Reyes (publicity chairs), Antonis Achilleos, Duncan Paul Attard, and Ornela Dardha  (workshop chairs), Lucienne Bugeja (logistics and finances), as well as all the students and colleagues who volunteered their time to help. Finally, I would like to thank IFIP WG 6.1 for sponsoring this event, Springer’s Lecture Notes in Computer Science team for their support and sponsorship, EasyChair for providing the reviewing framework, and the University of Malta for providing the support and infrastructure to host the event.

June 2020 
Adrian Francalanza