XML (Extensible Markup Language) has, fortunately, moved from the “hype” stage – common to many new technologies – to where the value of XML projects is generally recognized. Throughout its development, XML has received input from localization and internationalization experts through the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to ensure its use in any natural language. Similar efforts have been made to make XML accessible from any programming language and computer operating system, although these have been secondary to the requirement that XML processors support Unicode.

The fact that XML has support for multiple languages built into it means that all XML-related technologies can be used in every natural language, regardless of the writing system it uses (as long as it can be expressed in Unicode). There are still issues with making user interfaces generally language-customizable, but these should disappear with time as XML-based development systems and configuration files become more ubiquitous, and more XML (and Unicode) support is built into operating systems. The various technologies that are presented each year at the XML conference are therefore likely to be of interest to the localization community, even if the talks are not directly discussing localization or translation issues.

Conference Theme

The theme for XML 2004 is From Syntax to Solutions, which underscores the reality that XML is increasingly being used in production systems to solve real-life problems in a variety of areas. Thus, talks at the conference will no longer be about how to understand the syntax, but rather about the many areas in which XML is being implemented. The talks with a sense of slight surprise (“Yes, it really does work!”) that the conference featured five years ago have given way to presentations on how to make XML-based systems work better, faster and/or more efficiently.

In this article, I will highlight areas of the conference that will be of particular interest to LISA Members. NOTE: Since the conference is still a couple of months off, there is always the chance that any particular presentation may be cancelled, but the general themes will remain valid.

Technical Talks

Publishing

The XML conference has always had a strong publishing component. XML itself was first created as a system for publishing documents on the web, so it is not surprising that publishers have been some of the strongest adopters of XML. They are not always traditional book publishers, of course. Some of the biggest publishers are manufacturers, and one of the conference keynotes reflects this. David Haslam of the MOPAR (parts) division of DaimlerChrysler will be talking about the strategic importance of XML to the process of getting information to parts resellers and service departments. There are many other talks that will focus on different parts of publishing systems, ranging from the creation process through how best to store the resulting documents in content management systems, and how to present them to the final reader.

Although XML has been used for years in the publishing world, there are always new methods and techniques that are presented at the conference. Examples this year will include a presentation on how to use XML for marketing brochures in which the appearance is often of more importance than the content, and how to generate internationalized back-of-the-book indices with XSLT (Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformation) and XSL-FO (Extensible Stylesheet Language Formatting Objects), both part of XSL (Extensible Stylesheet Language).

A related track is e-learning, a topic that is currently enjoying much interest, and XML is a natural for this. Companies such as Cisco are finding that building systems to deliver training over the Internet to many people with differing prior expertise is worthwhile. Of course, much of this information must be delivered in more than one language. LISA Members will find the concepts behind the systems being built very valuable, with the emphasis on delivering different information to different people speaking different languages.

Publishing aspects will also be covered in several other tracks, especially the case study and government tracks. It’s an old saying that “everyone’s a publisher,” but it’s true.

Web Services and Service-Oriented Architectures

The web services family of specifications and standards is designed to provide a method for application-to-application communication using the Internet. These robust, message-based integration methods are increasingly being used to put together decentralized applications across intranets and the Internet. There is much discussion about what parts of web services are necessary, and whether the area as a whole is suffering from hype. Accordingly, there will be a number of different presentations at the conference that represent different points of view, divided into two areas: standards and applications.

The web services standards talks will concentrate on the fundamental and generally applicable standards such as those governing security. The emphasis will be on how to use the standards, rather than on esoteric details that interest only the experts. Thus, there will be presentations on the principles of service-oriented architectures and how they can be implemented with XML, as well as on the standards in place to specify access control and reliability.

The web services applications discussed at XML 2004 will include financial industry and government applications, along with how to ensure that deployed systems do what they’re designed to do.

Integration

The integration presentations will focus on integrating products from different parts of a company, or different companies, to enable information to be transferred from one application to another, or to enable the combining of information from more than one application. The applications typically come from different vendors and web services are often part of the underlying technology. The talk of most interest to LISA Members in this area will be Coping with Babel - How to Localize XML, by Andrzej Zydron of xml:Intl.

Government

The government presentations will cover the use of XML in government-related projects, with XML-related technologies being used in variety of case studies. Since various government projects have extreme requirements, these talks are often showcases for what can be done with any given technology. The keynote in this area will be on the use of semantic models in enterprise architectures from Michael Daconta, Metadata Program Manager, Department of Homeland Security. Some government presentations will focus on how legislatures produce their documents in XML, while others will concentrate on how governments are using web services or knowledge management to deliver services and information to their citizens.

Case Studies

Case studies are often of invaluable use to people facing the same problems as discussed during the presentations. They focus on the application of some XML technology to a project that has moved well into the implementation stage, and preferably to the production stage. This year, the conference will have case studies in various fields, including publishing, government and web services. One talk of particular interest to LISA Members will be the one detailing how CEDROM-SNi, a bilingual news aggregator, uses XML.

Knowledge Management and Storing XML

Knowledge Management talks will look at the use of metadata, the semantic web, RDF (Resource Description Framework), topic maps and related topics. The Storing XML talks will focus on ways of storing and retrieving XML, including databases of all types and content management systems. They will also cover extending the usefulness of XML and making it easier to get information into XML for processing.

Core Technologies

Core technology talks will focus on the basic standards and specifications that are the foundation of XML technologies and systems. There is overlap with other areas, such as Knowledge Management, that use the core specifications. The interest currently is in defining and applying the “second wave” of XML specifications, such as XQuery and the new versions of XSLT and XSL-FO. There is also continuing interest in how to use various models, such as those used for software modeling, in XML. One of the keynotes, from Jack Greenfield of Microsoft, is about the use of XML for enterprise software modeling. XML schema design is fundamental to many systems, and work is continuing on how to design these in a robust way. One talk of likely interest to LISA Members will be Characters Matter, by Diederik Gerth van Wijk of Kluwer.

A mini-track on extensibility and versioning for XML formats and schemas contains four talks that will be of interest to anyone needing to build systems to take advantage of XML’s inherent flexibility.

Business-Business Communications

Business-business communication talks will concentrate on the technologies and systems that are used for business-to-business communication of different types, including the ebXML (Electronic Business using Extensible Markup Language) family of standards and specifications. ebXML is being positioned as the international replacement for EDI systems and should be cheaper to implement. Part of the interest in ebXML is due to the Universal Business Language (UBL), which is a collection of schemas for common business documents. It was designed for international use, as shown by the fact that the UBL Technical Committee also has Chinese, Japanese, and Korean sub-committees (as far as I know, the only OASIS Technical Committee to do so). Jon Bosak of Sun Microsystems will discuss UBL.

Client Applications

The presentations on client applications will focus on the user experience, including desktop applications. As such, they will typically describe new ways of allowing users to create or view XML, whether that be with forms or with new types of editors. The current focus will be on the use of XForms, along with a discussion about the XML implemented in the iTunes library from Apple.

Tutorials

No conference is complete without tutorials, and XML 2004 will be no exception. Tutorials generally will fall into two categories:

1. tutorials about a technology, either at an introductory or an advanced level
2. tutorials about specific products and how to use them

These two types of tutorials will be clearly labeled. Although many of the tutorials will be of general interest, the ones most likely to be of interest to LISA Members are the following:

• Creating Multilingual Web Sites with XML, by Pierre Cadieux of i18N Inc.
• Unicode Ate My Brain, by John Cowan of Reuters
• Managing Multilingual Content, by Pierre Cadieux of i18N Inc.

Exhibit Floor

The exhibit floor will feature product presentations from individuals and companies, as well as interoperability demonstrations coordinated by various conference co-hosts. For example, OASIS is intending to showcase some aspects of web services. These will provide the opportunity for attendees to see vendors’ products working together under various standards-based scenarios.

A section of the exhibit floor will be given over to posters to be displayed by attendees and exhibitors at the conference. There will be no limits to the subject matter (within reason!), but there will be limits on how many posters any given person may put up. This will enable people to talk about ideas early on in their development, or limited in their interest, or perhaps that are not suitable for some reason for other means of dissemination during the conference. For example, (1) independent consultants who are attending the conference, but who do not have a booth, (2) companies soliciting feedback on extremely specialized products (in addition to their booths) and (3) individuals looking for others to help on their particular projects.

Of course, vendors will also be showing their latest products and services on the exhibit floor. Confirmed exhibitors include TRADOS, a LISA member and a company well-known for its localization expertise.

Summary

XML 2004 will continue the tradition of providing content about XML and its uses to a variety of attendees. There are presentations suitable for those new to XML, as well as talks that will give the experts something to think about. Many of the speakers at this conference are known industry authorities who speak at very few conferences; for several of them, this is the one conference they make sure to attend every year.

The conference this year will be held in a hotel, which makes it easier for attendees to ask questions of speakers in a less formal setting. Although much of the content is not directly aimed at localization issues, many of the features of XML systems make it valuable for these uses. Since there are still a few late-breaking slots open on the program, I would also encourage readers to consider giving a presentation (October 4 is the deadline). And if not this year, then please consider it for next year’s conference!

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For more information on the XML Conference, please see http://www.xmlconference.org/, or email Marion Elledge, Conference Director or Lauren Wood, Conference Chair.