Re: [xml-dev] "XML for the Long Haul" program available

[Rick Jelliffe <rjelliffe@allette.com.au>]

B Tommie Usdin wrote:
> People who create, store, query, or serve XML expect it to live a very 
> long time. XML is platform- and application-independent, and by and 
> large it is platforms and applications that vanish. If by encoding 
> information in XML we have freed it from dependency on specific 
> platforms or applications, have we succeeded in ensuring that the XML 
> can live long into the future? Or is there more to it than using XML? 
> How can we best ensure that our data, all our data, and its semantics 
> survive this year, next year, ten years? into the next millennium?
>  
Hmmm.  People who created, stored, queried and served SGML expected it 
to live a very long time. I think the people who use XML expect it to 
live a very short time.

The longevity of data is a function of its interest.  Data that is 
continuously of contemporary interest will endure because people will 
have systems that provide it. 

So perhaps your question is "how do we ensure that our data can survive 
periods when no-one is interested in it?"'

Cheers
Rick