… and we’re back.
XML Today has been an exercise in discovering the limits of what PHP can do in handling content management systems. This site has run under Drupal and (very briefly) Joomla, and after having the last couple of months of content wiped out by an errant database error during a system upgrade on the previous system, it seemed like a good time to give WordPress a try.
The mission remains (more or less) the same … cover what’s going on in the XML Community, explore evolving technologies such as XQuery, XProc and the Semantic Web, and provide help and discussion about the technical and developmental aspects of XML.
As administrator, I will be making a few changes. In part, due to the problems that the site had with regards to spam and related content, I’ve decided at this stage that I will specifically extend the option to write to authors, rather than have people sign up on the site. If you are interested in writing on XML related topics, please contact me at kurt.cagle@gmail.com.
Beyond this, a few months ago I took a position as XML Data Architect working on a a project for the US National Archives, and have consequently moved out to Annapolis, MD, in order to actually do that job. This has had the effect of limiting the amount of time I’ve had to devote to XMLToday, but has also given me a fairly major insight into dealing with large scale XML projects, as well as taught me a great deal more about XML databases. Hopefully with a less cumbersome interface and work beginning to come under better control, the site should become more active over the next several months.
I wish to express a deep debt of gratitude to David Lee, inventor of XML Shell. Last year was a hard time for me and my family, as it has been for a lot of people, and I eventually reached a stage where I couldn’t pay the monthly fees necessary to support the site. David (and others) volunteered the use of their servers to keep the site going, and while things have been hectic, David’s efforts were instrumental in insuring that I could continue to provide content for the XML community. Things have improved considerably since then, and significantly hosting costs have also dropped dramatically in the last year (apparently I wasn’t the only one struggling), to the extent that the site should be stable for the next couple of years anyway.
Finally, I want to address an issue that has been bothering me for a while. XML is now pushing twelve years old, and has transitioned from being an exciting new technology to a comfortable mainstream one. It’s also seen by many people (with some reason) as being too heavyweight and cumbersome compared to other technologies – from JSON and JavaScript to Ruby to Erlang and CouchDB. So why cover XML?
I am finding the answer to that in the work that I am doing now. XML is moving into the realm of big data – it underpins a great deal of what is going on in various governments (from NIEM and XBRL to the various .gov initatives in the US, and corresponding efforts in much of the rest of the world) and that is trickling down to the state, provincial and local levels as well. Moreover, a lot of the things that XML enables as a data interchange mechanism, from the Semantic Web (RDF is still the primary vehicle for SW work) to the opening up of content management systems as XML databases grow up, gaining intelligence with XQuery modularization and integration with other types of data repositories. Your average web developer may not necessarily use XML, but many large organizations are discovering that the technology can, in many cases, radically simplify the huge interchange needs that arise when having to work with large numbers of data provides and consumers.
So, my mandate moving forward is to explore what is happening in this space, and how the technology is evolving in its second decade of existence. I’m looking forward to writing many more articles, and I encourage others to do so as well.
Managing Editor
XML Today
12 comments
Dominique Rabeuf says:
August 17, 2010 at 4:27 am (UTC -7)
I hope the previous site is not lost.
Kurt Cagle says:
August 17, 2010 at 5:10 am (UTC -7)
I have been backing it up, but it will take a little while to port older articles to the current CMS.
Alain Couthures says:
August 17, 2010 at 5:51 am (UTC -7)
XML documents would help for that
Kurt Cagle says:
August 17, 2010 at 6:13 am (UTC -7)
I am in fact working on my own internal system – either MarkLogic or eXist based (code for ML is farther along) that would give me precisely that flexibility. However, it’s not yet ready for prime time, even on an open source basis.
Bill Blondeau says:
August 17, 2010 at 6:55 am (UTC -7)
It’s very good to see the new site up and running. Sorry things have been so strained and crazy, but perhaps it helps to consider: people pay good money to go white water rafting.
Welcome back, Kurt.
John Turnbull says:
August 17, 2010 at 8:26 am (UTC -7)
Great to see you back and to learn that you are happily at work on the right coast.
I’m looking forward to some discussion about XQuery as a web language even for small sites like this one.
Dominique Rabeuf says:
August 17, 2010 at 10:25 am (UTC -7)
About recent sample about «Creating Tabs with XSLTForms and CSS»
I continued to illustrate this example (French)
Tabs XSLTForms & CSS
Dominique Rabeuf says:
August 17, 2010 at 11:08 am (UTC -7)
The inconvenience of this interface is that an user cannot change what he wrote.
May be within some months XMLToday community will set up a basic XML CMS over XForms and XQuery.
The boxes are full of XML tools.
Do not have the ambition to make a great Babylonian CMS such as Drupal and others who are very beautiful but fragile as straw huts.
Just be «Simple and Elegant» before making an Endeavour Software based on Eiffel Tower skeleton.
Kurt Cagle says:
August 17, 2010 at 11:19 am (UTC -7)
Click on the Edit Comment after a comment has been submitted in order to edit it.
Tweets that mention XML Today Returns -- Topsy.com says:
August 17, 2010 at 11:43 am (UTC -7)
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Piers says:
August 18, 2010 at 4:35 pm (UTC -7)
I was thinking of you when I read Len Bullard’s latest rant against everything. Hope the move south is working out for you!
http://lamammals.blogspot.com/2010/08/aroma-party-platform-immigration.html