xml:namespace

Overheard in the corridor, xml-europe 2003.
The speakers would (IMO) have standing here.

"I checked with 4 different language implementations,
and they all agree there are pieces of it that don't work. "

The summary was that ns have got it wrong! It's broken.
I find them useful for disambiguating vocabs.

What are the alternatives?
What's wrong with them as they stand?
  Are my two speakers wrong in their conclusions?

<grin/> Apart from Joe English wanting plain tags :-)
Curious DaveP