xml-dev - Re: King of Stupid XML Articles?

[Lisa Rein <lisarein@finetuning.com>]

Well the list includes technical inaccuracies such as this:

"(ICE and RDF are overlapping attempts to describe
                      types of Internet-accessible data)"

ICE is an XML-based syndication format.  RDF is an abstract model for
representing relationships between web-based resources.  Not even
closely related -- although they may be used together in the future.  To
say that they are overlapping attempts at doing the same thing (as if
they were both failing somehow or were redundant in nature) and to use
this faulty comparison as an example of why xml "won't work", is unfair
to new people trying to learn, and just plain irresponsible from a
journalistic standpoint.

most of these "stupid articles" just needed a fact check before they
went to press.  i always fact checked my articles, even when there used
to be only about 200 people in the world capable of providing it. Now
there are at least 2,000 -- so i say "no excuses".

anyway, when i have time this week, i will list the inaccuracies and
email them to those of you that have asked. there are many more of them,
and i do already have them documented, but i need to weed out the
insulting commentary and stick to the facts (for everyone's sake :-)

thanks,

lisa

Simon St.Laurent wrote:
> 
> At 09:48 AM 9/25/00 -0700, Lisa Rein wrote:
> >This one has my vote:
> >
> >http://www.business2.com/content/magazine/breakthrough/2000/09/15/18549
> >
> >it's from this months Business 2.0.  And it's written by a professor of
> >new media at hunter college in NY.  Which shows that even professors
> >sometimes don't do their homework.  I guess this guy thought he was so
> >smart, he didn't need to be bothered with the facts.
> 
> While this article is certainly pouring water on the hype, I'm not clear
> where you think Clay Shirky's lost track of the facts.
> 
> I really like hearing that:
> >XML does not mean less pain. It does not remove the
> >pain of having to describe your data; it simply front-loads the pain where
> >it’s easier to see and deal with.
> 
> And also that:
> >Interoperability isn’t an engineering issue, it’s a
> >business issue.
> 
> I'd appreciate hearing which facts you think he got wrong.  I don't think
> he sees XML as a magic bullet, and as much as I love XML, I think he's
> right on that count.
> 
> Simon St.Laurent
> XML Elements of Style / XML: A Primer, 2nd Ed.
> XHTML: Migrating Toward XML
> http://www.simonstl.com - XML essays and books