One Day Conference

XML Access Languages
Tuesday 26 September
CCLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
Didcot, Oxfordshire

Conference Chair: Michael Wilson, W3C Office for UK and Ireland

XML Access Languages are essential tools for exploiting the full value of your XML assets. This event will bring together in a single programme some of the leading world experts in the field as well as present some practical use cases. Attendees can expect to have their knowledge of XML Access Languages significantly enhanced both at a theoretical level and at a practical application level.

Provisional Programme

Venue

The venue will be the Pickavance lecture theatre at the CCLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.

The CCLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory is situated in the Oxfordshire countryside some 6 miles south of Didcot. Access via road is straightforward via the M4 and A34, whilst Didcot Station is the closest railway station.

See the CCLRC website for further details.

Registration

Student members of XML UK / EPSG: £45
XML UK / EPSG / UKUUG / W3C Members (first two registrations only for corporate members of XML UK and EPSG): £60
Additional registrations for XML UK / EPSG corporate members: £85
Non members: £110

To register, please download, print and complete the registration form.

All registration is required in advance as, due to security arrangements at CCLRC, we cannot accept registration on the day. All registrations must be received by 5pm on Friday 22 September 2006.

Summaries of Presentations and Speaker Biographies

Intro to XML family and XML Access languages
Dr Brian Matthews, CCLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
Brian Matthews is a group manager in the CCLRC e-science centre who has brought expertise in software engineering and formal methods to XML languages. He wrote one of the first Java XML parsers while the language was passing through the W3C standardisation process, and has subsequently been involved in the development of both XML access and semantic web technologies as well as teaching them at Oxford Brookes University. The talk will present a general overview to the family of XML access languages including Xpath, Xpointer and Xlink which are used in the higher level languages. The talk will place these languages in the context of the broader W3C web architecture.

XML Query: what is it, how do I use it and why?
Liam Quin, W3C
Liam joined the W3C in 2000; he’s been working with text-based markup and digital typography since 1981 and with SGML since 1987. He worked at SoftQuad Inc in Toronto, where he was involved in the development of SoftQuad’s HoTMetaL, the first commercial HTML editor for the Web, and also with SoftQuad Panorama, a browser plugin to display SGML; this in turn demonstrated a need to standardise the use of SGML on the Web, and Liam was involved in the development of the XML specification. At the W3C today, Liam is XML Activity Lead and alternate contact for the XML Query and Binary Characterization Working Groups.

This short talk will position XML Query against other standards, showing how it fits in with XPath, XSLT, SQL, and with proprietary middlewear solutions. The talk presents a high-level view together with some examples, and is suitable both for IT professionals and for managers.

XSLT: Where does it come from and where is it going?
Michael Kay, Saxonica
Michael Kay has had a significant influence on the design of XSLT and Xquery while they have passed through the W3C standardisation process. Michael Kay is the developer of the Saxon XSLT and XQuery processor, the editor of the W3C XSLT 2.0 specification, the author of the best-selling book XSLT Programmer’s Reference, and the founder of Saxonica Limited, which develops and markets the commercial version of the Saxon processor and provides XML-related consultancy services. He is based in Reading, England.

What’s new in XSLT 2.0 ?
Jeni Tennison, Jeni Tennison Consulting Ltd
Jeni Tennison is a consultant on XML technologies who is more frequently asked to talk or write on both the technologies and their applications than she has time to do. Jeni Tennison Consulting Ltd was set up to enable her to work on XML and XSLT projects as a freelance contractor.

Application of XML Access: XForms and XQuery, via REST
Mark Birbeck, x-port.net Ltd
Mark Birbeck is the founding director of x-port.net Ltd., the company behind formsPlayer, an XForms processor that fully implements the W3C’s XForms specification. He is also the founder of Sidewinder, a company building a next-generation semantic web browser that seamlessly combines XForms with other languages such as SVG, MathML and X3D.He has nearly 30 years experience in software development, and has contributed to books and written articles on XForms, RDF, and XML.He is an Invited Expert on both the XForms and HTML W3C Working Groups where he is particularly involved in the development of XHTML 2, a semantic-based version of XHTML. His most recent work for the W3C has involved proposing and developing RDF/A, a new and simpler way to mark up RDF in documents without having to use RDF/XML.His blog focuses on building a new generation of internet applications, and a number of entries relate to Ajax, XForms, and the use of declarative mark-up.

Using RDF with XML – SPARQL and XML Access languages
Andy Seaborne, HP Research Labs
Andy Seaborne is a research scientist at Hewlett Packard Research Laboratory in Bristol, UK. He has been a driving force behind the Jena toolkit for RDF since its inception and has significant influence on the development of Semantic Web technologies within W3C.

Application of XML Access: Information Systems development with Xquery and eXist.
Chris Wallace, University of the West of England
Chris Wallace is a Senior Lecturer in Information Systems at the University of the West of England, Bristol where he is teaching courses ranging from aerospace systems engineering to information systems, web application development and databases. He is also the project manager on FOLD. Chris has had a varied background in commercial and scientific computing, consultancy and lecturing. A long interest in object-oriented languages, starting with Smalltalk has been somewhat surplanted of late by enthusiasm for rapid application development with XML and Xquery.

Abstract: This session will explore the lessons learnt in the development of a faculty information system (FOLD) using eXist, an open-source Native XML database, using XQuery and XSLT. This application provides an extensive knowledge base for staff, students and the public. The database integrates a range of data sources including complex documents and spreadsheets to support an intranet and public web site. FOLD is in productive use after a year of development and we are currently extending the functionality with emphasis on workflow and the feasibility of rolling this out across the University.

Michael Wilson, Conference Chair
Michael Wilson is manager of the W3C Office in the UK and Ireland based at the CCLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. He has been involved with Web technologies since the laboratory hosted one of the first 50 Web sites in the world in 1992.