Welcome
to XTech '99
Last
year, GCA's spring technical conference, "XML;
The Conference" focused on XML. This year,
the focus of the conference has expanded to cover
the ever growing body of new Web technologies--hence
the new name for this year's spring conference,
XTech!
Co-chairs,
Jon Bosak and Tim Bray designed XTech '99 to be
the premiere developer networking event. XTech
is intended for application developers, system
architects, system integrators, technical publishing
professionals, Web developers, technical managers,
academics, and anyone with a need to know the
latest applications of XML technology. A management
track was added to attract managers whose technology
decisions impact the future of their organizations.
XTech will run from March 7 through March 11.
XTech;
The Tracks
This
year's conferece has 3 main tracks. Wherever possible
tracks focus on the "real" work being
done with XML rather than simply the theory:
- Strong
Back Track, focusing on the unseen but essential
machinery for making XML do useful work. Integration
tools and issues are considered.
- Pretty
Face Track, focusing on XML technology where
it comes face to face with human beings. This
includes browsing, editing, and interfaces to
databases.
- Management
Track , focusing on issues of organization,
objective-setting, and the business case.
XTech;
The Schedule
Because
technology and standards are changing so rapidly,
two days of the conference have been allowed for
tutorials. On Sunday, March 7 and Monday, March
8, you can select from a wide variety of full
and half-day tutorials. This is your opportunity
to learn more about the standards and technologies
which you will see applied throughout the remainder
of the conference. Combining tutorials with the
conference will provide you with both the concepts
and practical knowledge that you will need to
use X-technologies in your own environment.
Tutorials
this year include:
- Building
XML Applications
- Practical
XSL
- XLink
Quick Start
- ICE
- Mozilla
- Unicode
- Python
- Perl
- Java
- Dom
- Metadata
The
XTech conference runs Tuesday through Thursday.
The conference begins Tuesday morning with a welcome
from the co-chairs and an in-depth standards update
by Jon Bosak. Tracks begin following the morning
break. Wednesday morning XTech starts with keynotes
offered by David Siegle and J. Allard from Microsoft.
XTech closes Thursday afternoon with a closing
keynote by conference co-chair Tim Bray, sharing
his unique insights in "What Does it All
Mean?" The W3C XML Plenary Group will hold
its meeting following the conference on Friday,
March 12, 1999.
XIO
'99; A New Kind of Exposition!
If
you have worked in the information technology
arena since the early days, you may remember a
concept launched by DoD to test new information
standards and technologies. This test bed was
known as the CALS Test Network. CTN often sponsored
interchange demonstrations and product "bakeoffs"
during the expositions at major conferences. XIO,
the exposition being held in conjunction with
XTech, brings this idea to products that support
emerging Web standards. X (for XML and related
standards) and IO (InterOperability) is a new
kind of exposition. Rather than simply being a
place where vendors show their wares, XIO challenges
exhibitors to demonstrate technology interoperation
by using a selection of XML data sets provided
by the conference chairs. At XIO you can see how
XML really works!
XIO
will open on Monday, March 8 and run until Tuesday
March 9th. Look for further postings about the
interoperability demonstrations.
Welcome
from GCA
GCA
is proud to offer you this new conference and
expostion. We hope you enjoy the opportunity to
learn about the latest technologies and to network
with others on technology's leading edge. We welcome
your comments. Have a good conference!
Dianne
Kennedy
.
Editor,
XML Files
