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TechTalks Event

What Are Likely to be Your Best Uses for XML�

with guest expert Michael Sperberg-McQueen

February 8, 2001

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Transcript

Want to code your content once and then repurpose it endlessly with style sheets? Are you on the leading edge of XML use? Do you use it reluctantly? Would you like to use it, but don't know how to get started? Just how different is it from HTML? Are you unclear as to why you should even bother? Does XML frighten you? Can XML help you pull useful stuff from legacy systems? Like it or not, what will you likely be using it for in the near future?

Guest Expert

Sperberg-McQueen C.M. Sperberg-McQueen is a member of the technical staff at the World Wide Web Consortium, where he serves as co-chair with Dave Hollander of both the XML Schema Working Group and the XML Coordination Group. Before that he worked for twelve years in the Academic Computer Center of the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he had special responsibility for document processing, and for two years at Princeton University, where he served as a consultant for humanities computing questions. He is also a co-coordinator (with David R. Chesnutt), of the Model Editions Partnership, a project supported by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) to address issues relating to electronic presentation of historical documentary editions, e.g. papers of prominent figures, documents relating to important events, etc. Among his publications (edited with others) is Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0, which specification has won the 1997 Seybold Editors' Choice Award for Excellence, the 1998 WEBTechniques Technology of the Year Award, and the 1998 PC Magazine Award for Technical Excellence.

Co-Hosts

Howard Strauss (above, left), Manager of Academic Applications at Princeton University, is TechTalk's Technology Anchor.

Judith Boettcher is the Executive Director of the Corporation for Research and Educational Networking (CREN).

Together, Howard and Judith will ask the really tough questions—and relay the questions you email to them at expert@cren.net.

Background & Resources

Our Tech Talk Anchor, Howard Strauss, has an online slide show that explains XML in pretty easy terms. Note that you must view his slide show in IE! And W3 Schools provides a set of tutorials at various levels.

The resource that Michael himself points people to most frequently is "Robin Cover's heroic one-man survey of all things XML and SGML." He says that "Robin is indefatiguable and exhaustive in his coverage, and wholly independent in his judgements." Also, the XML in 10 Points page at W3C is a good place to bookmark. Michael's employer, the World Wide Web Consortium has, of course, great links to resources on XML. At W3C's XML Home, which is itself a fantastic XML online resource index, you will find many useful links, including:

At the more corporate end of things, here is a link to The XML Industry Portal. Also, for various industry perspectives, see A Blueprint for Education Software Interoperability and Data Access (K-12 education) and The Open Travel Alliance (e-commerce and travel industry). Closer to home is the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (museums), which Howard thinks likely to be used on campuses a lot.

We think CNet does a good job with some basic explanatory language: XML: HTML Done Right, XML In the Real World, and XML Tips & How-Tos.