A vision of perfection is a wonderful thing but it should not be permitted to become the enemy of that which is merely good. The relevant issue is how to make measured progress. Measured progress requires not "optimal" vision, but realistic goals, performance objectives, metrics, and particularly records. Indeed, objectives without records are mere wishes ... And metrics without records may as well be myths.
In reality, information can be described as falling into one of two categories -- highly structured or relatively unstructured. XML helps to bridge the gap between the two.
I first proposed the concept for the BuDDMan browser in my May 19, 1998, presentation to the American Society for Information Science (ASIS), which is available at http://users.erols.com/ambur/ASIS/KMvalue.html XML is helping to make it a reality.
Electronic Business XML (ebXML) is a joint initiative of the United Nations and the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Systems (OASIS). Additional information on ebXML is available at http://www.ebxml.org/
