The Way Of XML
by Liam Quin

Table of contents

• Data is more valuable when it's labelled
• What does it mean?
• What it means
• Informal labels are better than no labels
• Computer-readable labels must also be human-readable
• There's no single set of labels for all people and all purposes
• People need to be able to define their own labels
• The value of data is multiplied when groups of people share labels
• When we share sets of labels
• People won't share labels unless it's easy
• XML Is Plain Text: The View Source Principle Applies
• Our confidence in shared labels can be increased by inspecting the data
• When we share constraints on data we also share confidence in the labels.
• Summary of High-Level Principles
• XML is about Sharing and Interoperability
• Some Benefits
• Building More Layers
• XPath
• XSLT
• XSl/FO
• XML Query
• Web Services and XML-RPC
• RDF and RSS
• MathML
• Conclusion: XML and the Vision