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This came up in the Blueberry debate, but
didn't get much discussion: How many real-world, mission-critical,
money-making applications currently depend on XML technology? My
semi-educated guess is:
In "internet
commerce" broadly defined, XML is a widely used, perhaps even dominant
technology. In more traditional business to business transactions,
traditional EDI rules, and there are numerous pilot projects to *supplement* EDI
with XML B2B technology so that the benefits of EDI can be extended to small
shops.
In the "information" industry broadly defined
(publishing, web sites, portals), a fair amount is really done today. I
suspect that most of us are using or selling XML solutions in this
sector.
In manufacturing, XML is being used in
prototypes, proof of concept applications, and lots of vertical industry
standards discussions, but relatively little day-to-day business depends on it
now. Even the electronics industry, where RosettaNet was an early XML
effort, I get the impression that RosettaNet-based processes are just starting
to come into production, with significant but modest "real world" milestones set
for later this year.
In general, I get the impression that the
prototypical response of a real-world Chief Information Officer to XML is
something like "Very interesting stuff; we're keeping an eye on it and doing
some pilot projects. When our industry standardizes on a small set of XML
vocabularies, we plan to incorporate it into our business
processes."
Anybody with hands-on experience care to
comment, pro or con, on my semi-educated guesses? A reference to any
articles on this subject would also be appreciated.
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