Some Wild & Crazy Thoughts on Potential Applications of XML

June 12, 2001 - I plan to use this page to keep track of some of my half-baked ideas on potential applications of eXtensible Markup Language (XML), which include:

We the People ... in Order to form a more perfect Union ... (WeML)

We ~ 1. I and the rest of the group that includes me : you and I and another or others : I and another or others not including you. 2. used by sovereigns; used by writers to keep an impersonal character. Sovereign ~ 1a. one possessing or held to possess sovereignty b. one that exercises supreme authority within a limited sphere c. an acknowledged leader : ARBITER. Arbiter ~ 1. a person with power to decide a dispute : JUDGE 2. a person or agency having absolute power of judging and determining.

People ~ 1a. persons who form an aggregate of human beings b. human beings as distinguished from the lower animals 2. human beings making up a group or assembly or linked by a common interest 3. the members of a family or kinship 4. the mass of a community as distinguished from a special class 5. peoples : a body of persons that are united by a common culture, tradition, or sense of kinship, that typically have a common language, institutions, and beliefs, and that often constitute a politically organized group ... 7. the body of enfranchised citizens of a state (emphases added) Enfranchise ~ 1. to set free (as from slavery) 2. to endow with a franchise as a. to admit to privileges of a citizen ... b. to admit (a municipality) to political privileges or rights -- enfranchisement

in Order to ~ for the purpose of

Union ~ 1a. an act or instance of uniting or joining two or more things as one: as (1) the formation of a single political unit from two or more separate and independent units (2) a uniting in marriage; also: sexual intercourse (3) the growing together of severed parts b. a unified condition: combination, junction 2. something that is made one: something formed from a combining or coalition of parts or members: as a. a confederation of independent individuals (as nations or persons) for some common purpose b. a political unit constituting an organic whole formed usually from previously independent units which have surrendered their principal powers to the government of the whole (as England and Scotland in 1707) or to a newly created government (as the U.S. in 1789) c. cap: an organization on a college or university campus providing recreational, social, cultural, and sometimes dining facilities; also: the building housing such an organization d. the set of all elements belonging to one or more of a given collection of two or more sets -- called also join, sum e. labor union 3a. a device emblematic of the union or two or more sovereignties borne on a national flag typically in the upper inner corner or constituting the whole design of the flag b. the upper inner corner of a flag 4. any of various devices for connecting parts (as of a machine); esp. a coupling for pipes or pipes and fittings syn see unity.

Reference:
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_transcript.html or http://www.senate.gov/civics/constitution_item/constitution.htm
http://xml.gov/registries.asp
../firm2/slide9.html

my.gov

Replacement for FirstGov. Individuals build their own, personal .gov schemas by subscribing to "inherently governmental" data elements, DTDs, and schemas registered and available in an ISO 11179 compliant repository. Personal schemas reside in client software, which serves as the individual's personal portal to well-formed XML records wherever they reside on the Net. In particular, citizens have instant access at all times to any and all data held by their government that is personally associated with them. In addition, they are empowered to quickly and easily access any documents of special interest to them, as indicated by their subscriptions to the pertinent metadata elements by which .gov records are classified and indexed.

References
http://www.firstgov.gov/
http://xml.gov/registries.asp
../freedom.html
http://computer.org/proceedings/meta97/papers/oambur/malfea1.html

XML.edu

Need to identify a sponsor to register and foster development of the xml.edu domain, and to coordinate with them in developing xml.gov domain.

Specify national and international educational standards in terms of XML data elements, DTDs, and schemas
Capitalize on the extensibility of XML to enable school systems to "think globally while acting locally"
Engage non-traditional stakeholder involvement

Enabled by XML, everyone can choose their own educational performance objectives and measures, while others will be free to take them for whatever they may be worth in the relevant context. (See definitions of "Company" and "Association" on my personal home page.)

Suggested theme for a national/international campaign focused on elementary school student portfolios: Building a Record of Which We Can Be Proud!

References:
http://xml.gov/documents/completed/charter.htm (See five chartered activities.)
http://xml.gov/related_links.asp (xml.edu is glaring by its absence.)
http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=education http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~syverson/olrtest/schematic.html

.kin

Top-level domain for "kin" (i.e., family members)

Family lineage may be the only hierarchy that is truly natural for human beings and, with the decline of outmoded management (control) practices, may be the only hierarchy that ought to (will inevitably) survive the natural selection process in the cyberage.

References:
http://158.169.50.95:10080/oii/en/archives.html#ISAAR
http://www.ica.org/isaar_e.html

Personal XML

Individuals subscribe to data elements, DTDs, and schemas that they choose for themselves

Collective results define the meaning of "voluntary consensus" and "open systems"
Results speak for themselves
Start with personal attributes and requirements for privacy
Ultimate objective: Organizations become attributes of individuals, rather than the reverse, which is current practice

Need to keep an eye on HailStorm to see if Microsoft delivers on its promise, as follows:

The key thing is that we take the individual and hang a bunch of services off that individual—and those services are exposed as an XML document... We take our whole service space and wrap that around this identity-based navigation system, and expose those services as XML that you can process using any tool set that you like.

Reference:
http://www.xmlmag.com/upload/free/hotlinks/ednote032101b.asp

Self-Actualization XML (ActML)

Data elements, DTDs, and schemas for Maslow's needs hierarchy -- focusing especially on self-actualiization

Define elements for personal priorities, together with matching DTDs/schemas for organizational objectives

Reference:
Human Markup Language at http://www.humanmarkup.org/

XML Kudos

"If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all." Over time, what is "said" (documented) as well as what is not documented on the Net may provide a fairly reliable record of personal performance -- particularly if the XML Kudos schema includes the pertinent performance elements. That is, a lack of kudos on a pertinent element may be cause for: a) further inquiry on the part of prospective business associates and trading partners, as well as b) new or renewed efforts by the individual to bolster the quality and/or quantity of their performance as perceived by others. The intent would be to highlight weaknesses by omission, thereby casting them as opportunities for positive action rather than negatives for defensive response. The concept is equally applicable to reporting the performance of businesses and other organizations (altho individuals are more likely to make objective criticism of organizations explicit than they are to provide honest, negative comments about other individuals in public).

References:
See speaker's notes below the slides at
../ARMA2/sld005.html
../ARMA2/sld006.html
../ARMA2/sld007.html

Owen Ambur, Co-Chair, XML Working Group | Friend and Past Vice Chair, FIRM Board | Personal Home Page