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After exploring XML one gets the idea that this technology can become something really important. It is globally important and it will have a big impact on India. First, let's look at the technology and then the implications.

As I see it the hype about XML is mostly as a result of the potential use of XML with the web its ability to distribute information. Now what two bigger topics can you pick, than the web and information? With XML, data can be made more easily available to websites (there are plenty of other uses for XML).

XML is a way of labeling or tagging information so that it can be retrieved or inserted into a website. Suppose a Word document is tagged so that the sender's name is given a tag as "sender." This then makes this portion of the document more universally available to be retrieved or placed on a website.

The information about the sender can be placed on any website and at that time the format will convert to fit the website. In other words the information (senders name) is place on the website and not the font size or other formatting. The data is separate from the formatting.

This universal availability of data separated from the formatting is what the hype is about. Data can freely flow independently. Isyndicate.com is taking advantage of this. They are making their news articles available in XML so that they can be placed on any website.

It seems the publishers are the first to realize the potential of XML. Articles can be created and kept in one place and can be accessed by many different sources. Who will be next? How far can XML go? Just pause to think of the amount of information there is in almost every office in America.

Take a law firm. Suppose they had their documents tagged in XML. They could find and assemble information very quickly. They could do a Yahoo type search and retrieve all the important paragraphs from their files that might pertain to a case or contract.

But that is just a small example. Huge amounts of information will be able to flow once the information is put it a format that will allow it to flow. Now that is where the India connection comes in. Much of the conversion to XML will not be done because it expensive to manually do it in the USA or Europe. Even though it would save a company money and help them be more efficient in the long run the short run expense may prevent this. But we here in India are happy to do this work at a very reasonable rate. Right now people are doing similar work and earning more money than Attorneys.

Our labor rates make it feasible to do this type of data conversion. This XML conversion will be a boom for India creating many jobs and opportunities. Additionally the use of the technology within India will create another boom.

With over one billion people there is a lot of paper that is being moved unnecessarily. The information that passes across 10 desks to get to one person will now be available across India via the web. We are really in the information age. Any Indian is going to leapfrog into it and the benefits will be much higher proportionally than in the West.

The Headlines of the July 31, 2000 issue of Newsweek reads " Armed with High Hopes and Harvard MBAs the Country's Best and Brightest Head Home. That's right the opportunities are better in China or India than they are in American or Europe. XML in India is going to play its part in transforming the lives of one billion people.

XML Resources

Microsoft XML workshop
This section provides information on Microsoft's support of the Extensible Markup Language (XML) - the universal format for data on the Web. You can also see the XML development center, XML introduction and get plenty of developer resources. Serious stuff for XML developers.

IBM's XML Zone
Site with XML introductory articles, Visual XML tools, Latest news on XML and JAVA, IBM's news section on XML and much more.

Java and XML
Resources for developers of XML using Java centric technologies. Mailing lists, news and downloads.

VBXML.com
A site for XML developers with VB and ASP. You can download and uses many free XML, XSL and ASP stuff written by others. You can learn XSLT, XPATH, DOM and more.

XMLinfo.com
Site for advanced users. Get news on XMLPointer, XML syntax checkers, online papers, mailinglists and discussion forum.

XML101
Plenty of information on XML for Beginners. You can start learning XML here.

oasis - open
A non-profit organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, product-independent formats based on public standards, including SGML, XML, HTML and CGM and others related to structured information processing.

XSLT.com
Tons of tutorials and downloads on XSL Transformations.