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<showtitleslide>
  <title>IV. XML for People</title>
  <occasion>University of California Extension</occasion>
  <location>Sunnyvale, June 10, 1999</location>
  <speaker>Jon Bosak</speaker>
  <org>Sun Microsystems</org>
</showtitleslide>
 
<slidemodule>
 
  <moduletitleslide>
	 <title>The Social Dimension of XML</title>
  </moduletitleslide>
 
  <slide>
	 <head>Beyond a narrow interpretation of XML</head>
	 <numberedlist>
		<item>
		  <p>XML is not just about exchanging data between machines</p>
		  <bulletlist>
			 <item>
				<p>It's also about the establishment of agreements between
				  humans</p>
			 </item>
		  </bulletlist>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p>XML is not just about the web</p>
		  <bulletlist>
			 <item>
				<p>It's about information in many different media</p>
			 </item>
		  </bulletlist>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p>XML is not just about technology</p>
		  <bulletlist>
			 <item>
				<p>It's also about the relationship between content
				  creators and software vendors</p>
			 </item>
		  </bulletlist>
		</item>
	 </numberedlist>
  </slide>

  <slide>
	 <head>The two agendas</head>
	 <p>XML has two very different agendas.</p>
	 <bulletlist>
		<item>
		  <p>Technical</p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p>Social</p>
		</item>
	 </bulletlist>
  </slide>

  <slide>
	 <head>Isn't XML about technology?</head>
	 <p>Yes, XML provides key features needed for a new generation of
		Web applications:</p>
	 <bulletlist spacing="wide">
		<item>
		  <p>Extensibility</p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p>Structure</p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p>Validation</p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p>Media independence</p>
		</item>
	 </bulletlist>
	 <p>But all of these could have been accomplished with a proprietary
		binary format. Why did we start a movement to establish an <emph>open
		character-based </emph>format instead?</p>
  </slide>

  <slide>
	 <head>XML is about freedom</head>
	 <p>Socially, XML is about two things:</p>
	 <numberedlist>
		<item>
		  <p>Freedom of groups of users to define special languages that
			 accommodate their agreed-upon needs</p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p>Freedom of individual users from the tyranny of proprietary
			 software tools</p>
		  <bulletlist>
			 <item>
				<p>Vendor neutrality</p>
			 </item>
			 <item>
				<p>Platform neutrality</p>
			 </item>
			 <item>
				<p>Language neutrality</p>
			 </item>
		  </bulletlist>
		</item>
	 </numberedlist>
	 <p>The political agenda of XML is similar to that of <emph>Linux
		</emph>and <emph>Java</emph>. Linux and Java are about ownership of
		<emph>programs</emph>; XML is about ownership of <emph>data</emph>.</p>
  </slide>

  <slide>
	 <head>The XML accomplishment</head>
	 <p>XML itself is a <emph>big open-standards victory </emph>for
		users.</p>
	 <bulletlist>
		<item>
		  <p>Freely extensible</p>
		  <bulletlist>
			 <item>
				<p>No tag name limitations</p>
			 </item>
			 <item>
				<p>No language limitations</p>
			 </item>
		  </bulletlist>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p>Human-readable</p>
		  <bulletlist>
			 <item>
				<p>Can maintain data using basic text tools like sed, awk,
				  perl, Word macros</p>
			 </item>
		  </bulletlist>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p>Open standard</p>
		  <bulletlist>
			 <item>
				<p>In theory, XML users can't be held hostage to vendor
				  control</p>
			 </item>
		  </bulletlist>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p>Easy to implement</p>
		  <bulletlist>
			 <item>
				<p>There will be many powerful, cheap, off-the-shelf
				  commercial XML tools</p>
			 </item>
			 <item>
				<p>There is already an ever-growing set of free XML tools
				  (almost all of them Java-based)</p>
			 </item>
		  </bulletlist>
		</item>
	 </bulletlist>
  </slide>

</slidemodule>

<slidemodule>
 
  <moduletitleslide>
	 <title>The Strategic Implications of XML</title>
  </moduletitleslide>
 
  <slide>
	 <head>The implications of XML+XSL</head>
	 <p>Technical fact: the combination of XML and XSL can replace all
		existing word-processing and publishing formats.</p>
	 <bulletlist>
		<item>
		  <p>A single format for both print and online publishing</p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p>A single format across different products</p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p>A single format for all languages</p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p>A single tools and training infrastructure</p>
		</item>
	 </bulletlist>
	 <p><emph>What does this mean?</emph></p>
	 <bulletlist>
		<item>
		  <p>Users no longer tied to a proprietary format</p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p>A change in the relationship between software vendors and
			 customers</p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p>An end to control of the market by a few big companies</p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p>An end to control of the market by a few big countries</p>
		</item>
	 </bulletlist>
  </slide>

  <slide>
	 <head>What can go wrong?</head>
	 <p>The complete implementation of XML standards would mean an end
		to control of users through proprietary formats.</p>
	 <p><emph>Companies that have built their business models on
		proprietary formats can be expected to resist this.</emph>There are
		billions of dollars at stake here!</p>
	 <p>The most obvious ways to subvert the user-empowerment agenda of
		XML are:</p>
	 <bulletlist>
		<item>
		  <p>Vendor control of standard schemas and namespaces</p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p>Incomplete Unicode support</p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p>Incomplete XSL support</p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p>Incomplete XLink support</p>
		</item>
	 </bulletlist>
  </slide>

  <slide>
	 <head>Protecting against subversion</head>
	 <numberedlist>
		<item>
		  <p>Watch out for nonstandard extensions and incomplete
			 UTF-8/UTF-16 support</p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p>Beware of strategies that limit XML to the role of
			 middleware; it's more than that</p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p>Beware of strategies that limit XSL to the role of
			 transformation language; it must be able to render formatting objects,
			 not just HTML tags</p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p>Beware of strategies that ignore or attempt to limit
			 XLink/XPointer functionality -- linking is the next big architectural
			 breakthrough for the web</p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p>Resist corruption of the XML family in the name of
			 "backwards compatibility"</p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p>Support independent tools vendors</p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p>Foster vertical-industry development of standard schemas
			 (DTDs) and namespaces</p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p>Support the only organization dedicated to interoperable
			 document standards in general: <hlink
			 href="http://www.oasis-open.org">OASIS</hlink>(http://www.oasis-open.org)
		  </p>
		</item>
	 </numberedlist>
  </slide>

</slidemodule>

<slidemodule>
 
  <moduletitleslide>
	 <title>XML as a Social Framework</title>
  </moduletitleslide>
 
  <slide>
	 <head>The human function of XML</head>
	 <p>XML allows people sharing a common data exchange problem to work
		out an <emph>open solution </emph>to that problem.</p>
	 <bulletlist>
		<item>
		  <p>Without interference from third parties</p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p>Without dependence on large software vendors</p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p>Without bindings to specific tools</p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p>Without artificial language restrictions</p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p>In a way that lets anyone with a similar problem use the
			 same solution</p>
		</item>
	 </bulletlist>
	 <p>XML provides <emph>a standard framework for making agreements
		about communication</emph>.</p>
  </slide>

  <slide>
	 <head>Mechanisms for agreement</head>
	 <bulletlist spacing="wide">
		<item>
		  <p>Industry DTDs</p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p>Industry schemas</p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p>Industry namespaces</p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p>Organizational stylesheets (formatting specifications)</p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p>Individual public key certificates</p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p>etc.</p>
		</item>
	 </bulletlist>
  </slide>

  <slide>
	 <head>What's missing?</head>
	 <p>We're lacking a mechanism for finding this stuff when we need
		it.</p>
	 <numberedlist spacing="wide">
		<item>
		  <p>Human search: what existing industry standard meets my
			 needs?</p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p>Machine resolution: where is the DTD (schema, namespace,
			 etc.) pointed to in this document?</p>
		</item>
	 </numberedlist>
	 <p>What's needed is an <emph>XML registry and repository. </emph>
	 </p>
  </slide>

  <slide>
	 <head>Requirements for an XML Registry</head>
	 <bulletlist spacing="wide">
		<item>
		  <p>Universally accessible</p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p>Trusted and vendor-neutral</p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p>Low cost of entry for individuals and small organizations 
		  </p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p>Distributed model</p>
		</item>
	 </bulletlist>
	 <p>Answer: <emph>XML.org </emph>(<hlink
		href="http://xml.org/">http://xml.org/</hlink>).</p>
  </slide>

  <slide>
	 <head>Anything else?</head>
	 <p>Yes, we need a place for organizations building XML industry
		specifications to come together.</p>
	 <bulletlist spacing="wide">
		<item>
		  <p>Host meetings</p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p>Share resources</p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p>Share techniques</p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p>Express common needs to providers of XML tools and services 
		  </p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p>Foster interoperability among XML applications</p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p>Give <emph>individuals </emph>a say in the creation of the
			 XML infrastructure</p>
		</item>
	 </bulletlist>
	 <p>Answer: <emph>OASIS </emph>(<hlink
		href="http://www.oasis-open.org/">http://www.oasis-open.org/</hlink>).
	 </p>
  </slide>

  <slide>
	 <head>OASIS for individual developers</head>
	 <p>OASIS memberships for individuals and representatives of
		recognized industry groups are now just <emph>$250/year.</emph></p>
	 <bulletlist spacing="wide">
		<item>
		  <p>Full participation in technical work</p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p>Basic level of registry services at XML.org (TBD)</p>
		</item>
	 </bulletlist>
	 <p>See <hlink
		href="http://www.oasis-open.org/">http://www.oasis-open.org/</hlink>for
		more information.</p>
  </slide>

  <slide>
	 <head>Coming events in the XML world</head>
	 <bulletlist>
		<item>
		  <p><emph>11-13 August 1999: </emph>OASIS Summer Workshop
			 (Montreal)</p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p><emph>16-20 August 1999: </emph>GCA Metastructures
			 Conference and XML Developers' Conference (Montreal)</p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p><emph>6-8 October 1999: </emph>XML One Europe (London)</p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p><emph>??-?? November 1999: </emph>XML One Conference in U.S.
			 </p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p><emph>5-9 December 1999: </emph>GCA XML and Markup
			 Technologies Conferences (Philadelphia)</p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p><emph>10 December 1999: </emph>OASIS General Meeting
			 (Philadelphia)</p>
		</item>
		<item>
		  <p><emph>15-19 May 2000: </emph>WWW9 (Amsterdam)</p>
		</item>
	 </bulletlist>
  </slide>

</slidemodule>

</slideshow>
