Extreme Markup Conference 2001

Extreme Markup Languages 2001 opened Tuesday August 14 at the Sheraton Le Centre, Montreal. David Steinhardt, new President and CEO of IDEAlliance, introduced the conference chairs. In his opening remarks, Steinhardt brought the delegates up-to-date with GCA's separation from Printing Industries of America and the new identity and mission of IDEAlliance. According to Steinhardt, the newly independent IDEAlliance now has ability to control its own agenda.

The chairs for Extreme Markup 2001 are Steven R. Newcomb and B. Tommie Usdin. Deborah A. Lapeyre and C.Michael Sperberg-McQueen served as co-chairs for the event.

This year's conference attendance decreased slightly. However, in his welcome speech Newcomb noted that "smaller is not an indication of diminishing strength." According to Newcomb, a smaller conference audience means that this year's conference can be "more highly interactive, have a tighter focus, and be better able to allow for passionate excesses" that are so typical at this conference.

Extreme Markup Languages is designed to bring together the best and the brightest— software developers, markup theorists, information visionaries, and "assorted geeks." The conference is designed to be highly interactive— from poster sessions to nocturne sessions to "birds of a feather" lunches to evening receptions featuring lively interaction and Canada's best beers!

B. Tommie Usdin provided the opening keynote for this year's conference. Based on the Jay Williams/ Mercer Mayer children's book, "Everyone Knows What a Dragon Looks Like," Usdin's witty opening focused on the "magic" dragons of standards and technology that are often touted to be the "solution" to all our problems. Usdin slayed XML dragons, Topic Maps Dragons and RDF Dragons in her keynote presentation. She cautioned us to be a bit more skeptical and a lot more critical as we examine the latest information technologies.