Dear Frank, As you know, the registration form is handled by an external company,Cal conference agency. They might have been pretty inappropriate using "gender", I know. They have database and procedures limits, but they will update their system soon. However, their intentions are good in that they simply would like to communicate with registrant in an appropriate manner, especially in case of unfamiliar names for Dutch culture, like "ya yon chi". Registrants are free to choose the gender they want, especially here in the Netherlands :) but I have already made sure that in the registration form nobody is "forced" to chose. cheers! Monica Murero Conference Chair Monica Murero, PhD Project Leader and Senior Researcher International Institute of Infonomics University of Maastricht (NL) TEL.+31-45-4000-540 FAX +31-45-4000-545