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RE: The Three Myths of XML
- From: "Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <clbullar@ingr.com>
- To: Dave Winer <dave@userland.com>, XML-Dev Mailing list <xml-dev@lists.xml.org>
- Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2001 11:01:05 -0500
His premise is right on. He misses his audience if that
isn't a satire. Developers already know that stuff and
marketeers don't care because hyping to the emotions is
what they do. So who is being fooled or who is the audience
for such myths? We have a lot kids out there who are
in their zealot phase of growth, but that is just mammal
stuff. None of this has anything to do with XML. If
Kendall is demythologizing XML, he should publish in
the Wall Street Journal because the audience for XML.COM
already knows what a data standard is and does.
But compatibility is not just a problem of people wanting
it. It has to be possible in the sense that for a product
to be a commodity, sufficient commonality must exist to
create a sharable data definition. Now you can be right
because the mere existence of the data standard does not
create market; a market has to want interoperability, accept
the costs of local customization (usually unavoidable but
reducible because of the data standard) but without the
data standard all the wishing and hoping and thinking
and praying only wears out the knees.
So how are these sold? Myths. Come to grips with the
mammalStuff. Mammals really don't mind being
lied to if they see money or thrils in accepting that lie for a
period of time. The Semantic Web is a myth. But just like
before, old technology will be repackaged, given new
names, *inventors* will be given honorary degrees
(as Robin Williams says, nerf dildos) and the press
will tout all of that, and lo and behold, the web
will become semantic. Will that make a difference?
The actual problem will be if people can't tell the
difference between a machine's opinion and a person's
opinion. Otherwise, we know what expert systems (aka,
closed world models) do.
Did anyone really think the Bay City Rollers were the
next Beatles? Well, it put a lot of screaming girls
in the seats and they paid for their tickets. Some of
them still treasure the posters and some of those go
for high prices. Gotta love it.
Len
http://www.mp3.com/LenBullard
Ekam sat.h, Vipraah bahudhaa vadanti.
Daamyata. Datta. Dayadhvam.h
-----Original Message-----
From: Dave Winer [mailto:dave@userland.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2001 10:37 AM
To: Bullard, Claude L (Len); XML-Dev Mailing list
Subject: Re: The Three Myths of XML
Len, I didn't get that it was a satire, and I thought his premise was right
on.
Basically you'll get compatibility when that's what people want.
And (my opinion) XML is a fantastic way to do it.
In other words I agree that it's computer science, nothing amazing about it,
the amazing thing is when people open their systems to be compatible with
others.