SYMBOLICDATA grew out of a ``grass root initiative'' of a small number of people. We think that this is the most natural and productive way to start up and realize such a project. During the development we have striven for a good balance between far-reaching ideas and usable, deliverable results. Most of the concepts and tools described in this paper have undergone major revisions, as we gained further experience with the subject. We thank all the developers of SYMBOLICDATA for their skill, patience, and vigor during our collaboration, and present this paper on behalf of this community.
SYMBOLICDATA has now reached a stage where its main concepts and tools are reasonably stable, general and approved. In other words, SYMBOLICDATA is ready to be shared with a greater community for use, further development, and extension. For this, we seek cooperations for the design and implementation of data collections from other areas of Computer Algebra.