I've been waiting my whole life for this challenge!

["M. David Peterson" <m.david.x2x2x@gmail.com>]

Actually, I just registered the domains a few weeks ago and was going
to suggest that we do something similar to this but held off as at the
time I couldnt commit the necessary time to build the sites... but
when the gauntletts been thrown its been thrown via Mike Champion:

"I love that idea .   Iit would be fun and instructive to see a bakeoff
with Erik Meijer in one corner with C-Omega, Uche in another corner
with Amara, Michael Kay in another corner with XSLT, and an XQuery
zealot-to-be-named-later in another corner, working away at a few
randomly chosen XML problems. :-)  Anyone want to organize a physical
or virtual version of that?  (Apologies to the people named, I'm
personifying the tools for rhetorical purposes not making a serious
suggestion!)"

I do agree with most of the follow-up concerns Mike suggested to
attempting something like this so it would have to be organized after
giving it more thought and taking suggestions as to how best to do
something like this... In the mean time:

For all you fans of XSLT by visiting http://www.XSLTvsXQuery.com you
will find a quick graphic announcing that x2x2x.org has taken Micheals
challenges seriously and will be providing the hardware, software, and
bandwidth to host this competition right here in the WorldLiveWeb.

For you XQuery fan (yes, I left the s off on purpose ;-) by visiting
http://www.XQueryvsXSLT.com you will see a similar yet opposite
introduction.

I have had the XQueryBlog.com site open with an invitation to take
over its content development for a few days but so far no one has
pounded down my door wanting to take it on.  However, I have had
several suggestions from some pretty big XML mucky-mucks who shall
remain nameless... via these recommendations and through watching and
reading (and having a pretty good idea of who I have always thought
would be the best person for this) I have made a final decision as to
who I think would serve the needs of the XQuery community the best and
will be sending an invitation out now in hopes that we will have both
sides properly represented in the "press" via XSLTBlog.com and
XQueryBlog.com.  If suddenly the interest in taking on the content
development of XQueryBlog.com has increased and you feel you are a
better choice than who I am about to invite -- let me just say I
HIGHLY doubt it -- but if this person says no then I will then open it
up to someone who can state the case as to why they feel they would
best represent the interest of the XQuery community on this site.  And
I am serious about this... I actually do like XQuery and have been
using it a bit in several areas of my projects via Saxon.NET.  As such
I really hope the person I invite takes it but if not then it needs to
be someone dedicated....  If that ends up being me then I'll prewarn
that its not my strength at the moment so it may take a bit to get it
going.... well, lets see what happens with the invite first....

I have a few ideas on how this competition could be organized but I am
happy to simply host the competition(s) and develop the site designs
and necessary software for whatever the needs are for the chosen
formats.

Mike, do you want to take on the organization and subsequent invites
to the individuals you suggested for this?  Let me know what you think
is best with this and Ill make sure the sites are ready and loaded
with the necessary software to make this happen and happen right.

Any ideas from anyone else on this?

Cheers!

<M:D/>
-- 
:: M. David Peterson ::
XML & XML Transformations, C#, .NET, and Functional Languages Specialist