Some notes from day two of the XTech conference.
A more mixed selection of talks for me yesterday:
But the two talks that really dominated yesterday and had the halls a-buzzin' were Steven Pemberton's on the design principles and new features of XHTML2, and Ian Hickson's review of the work of the WHATWG to propose extensions to HTML4 and the DOM.
I've previously been concerned about the direction of XHTML2 as it seemed to be getting further and further away from the daily issues in web development.
Pemberton described the design goals behind XHTML2 which were to: use generic XML features where-ever possible; focus less presentation and more on structure, usability; accessibility; better I18N; better device independence; forms improvements; reduce need for scripting; and (most interesting to me) better semantics.
Pemberton observed that one of the difficulties in achieving movement on (X)HTML is in getting buy-in and consensus from all the differing communities that each believe XHTML is their standard. He then went on to summarise the pragmatic decisions they'd made in attempts to address the needs of each community.
I won't summarise the details of all the new features, but the new support for metadata is very interesting. Micro-formats look like they'll get a boost from XHTML, but with a standard (and clearly defined) interpretation of XHTML (via GRDDL) as RDF, these should now be fully integrated with the semantic web. Pemberton joked that with XHTML2 we don't need RSS anymore.
Pemberton's session proceeded Hickson's and the room remained packed for both, although it got lively (in both the room and the IRC channel) during Hickson's presentation which focussed primarily on the number of new HTML extensions ("HTML 5") that the WHATG are proposing.
I was sympathetic to the general aims (making web development saner), but found myself inevitably drawn more to the structured approach of the HTML working group than the ad hoc HTML extensions that the WHATWG are specifying. I'm concerned with the profusion of new elements being added; I saw the shades of "marguee" and "blink" lurking in the corner of the room. Hickson was quick to point out that unlike previous extensions theirs were being openly specified and had backing from several big browser vendors: Apple, Opera and Mozilla. All of which are shortly shipping support for some/all of the features.
The main area of discomfort, and the focus of more than one corridor debate in the afternoon, was the relationship between the WHATWG and the W3C. Both sides (a number of W3C luminaries were in the audience) refused to be drawn on the topic. The W3C team comment on the Web Forms 2.0 submission contains some telling comments: "[we] strongly recommend that future work in this area should be in collaboration with the HTML and XForms Working Groups"
See the Q&A that I summarised in the Wiki for a flavour of the audience's questions.
Oh, and in case you're wondering, we ate Japanese but didn't
find time for nun bowling.
Some notes on the first day of the XTech 2005 conference.
The opening keynotes of the conferences were from Paula Le Dieu of Creative Commons International and Mike Shaver, Project Co-ordinator for the Mozilla Foundation.
In his opening remarks as conference chair, Edd Dumbill, explained that the keynotes underpinned his goal to broaden this years conference to incorporate some new topics. For those that haven't been following along so far, the conference includes an entirely new track this year -- Open Data -- and is co-hostedby the Mozilla Foundation.
I've always found the Xtech (nee XML Europe) keynotes to be excellent, and this years were no exception. Le Dieu's was a refreshing change. She discussed the work of the BBC to embrace a creative commons licence under which it would licence its archives for its audience to "rip, mix and share". The presentation was lively, incorporating 3 separate video clips which neatly reinforced Le Dieu's points on how open licensing of content enables artistic innovation. See the conference wiki for some additional pointers.
Mike Shaver's keynote provided an interesting perspective reinforcing the value of leveraging the web as it exists today rather than reinventing it piece by piece. Small, rather than big bangs were Shaver's preference. AJAX and the canvas element both being examples of these. One wonders whether there was a guarded message in the talk, considering that the conference includes presentations on the related work of both the WHATWG (HTML4 extensions) and the W3C (XHTML2)
I spent the remainder of the day in the Open Data track, including presenting my own paper on Connecting Social Content Services with FOAF, RDF and REST.
The track was lively and incorporated some of the most thought-provoking and innovative work that I've seen for ages. Ranging from an introduction to the Science Commons through to activities of "civic hackers" like Tom Loosemore (TheyWorkForYou.com) and Gavin Bell (talkeuro.com)
The afternoon schedule took on a slightly more technically oriented focus with my own presentation, followed by that of Ian Forrester of BBC World Service. Forrester's presentation was very well received. He presented on RSS Syndication for a worldwide audience and discussed the issues behind producing RSS feeds for 43 different languages. The generally poor support in RSS readers for displaying mulit-lingual content being a particular content.
Apparently RSS support in some countries is almost none-existent because of these issues. Forrester exhorted developers to try to meet content producers, such as the BBC, half-way so that the issues could be resolved.
One thing that struck me about the Open Data track was how several of the talks, including that of Loosemore, Bell (and my own) started with definitions. Respectively these were for: open data, social documents, and social content services. I felt that we were each grasping for terms to help describe facets of a new application area; one that is raising issues in many different arenas: technical, business and legal. The ability to clearly and simply licence data for reuse was a recurring theme throughout todays talks.
This year is the first conference that I've attended that has included free wireless access, as well both a wiki and an IRC channel for use by conference delegates. I've felt that the IRC channel (#xtech) in particular has added an interesting dimension to many presentations.
Ending with the obligatory beers, convivial chat, and a splendid caribbean meal, I can honestly say that I've thorougly enjoyed my first day at XTech and am looking forward to enjoying the breadth of talks available tomorrow.
Oh yes, one last thing. Despite the typo, no small horses were harmed in the making of my presentation!
I'm flying out to Amsterdam tomorrow for XTech. Like last year I'm staying in the Quentin England near Leidesplein, and have extended my trip to include a long weekend afterwards. So it'll be a nice mix of geekiness followed by some fun, food and drinks with the missus and a whole posse of friends who are converging on Amsterdam this weekend. Should be fun!
As I'm giving my presentation on Wednesday afternoon, I should be able to relax for the rest of the week. Am hoping to catch up with the usual suspects, and hopefully meet face to face with a few more folk for the first time.
XTech has an excellent line-up this year. Edd and the team have done an really good job. I'm going to find it hard to narrow down my options. I suspect I'll be spending quite a lot of my time in the Open Data track, which interests me in particular.
I see there's a big BBC presence at this conference too. They seem to have been really pulling out the stops lately. Wonder when the rest of the world will catch on to the fact that their charter has been extended to include World Domination?
As there will be wireless access at the conference I hope to blog a number of sessions and upload some photos to flickr as well. Planet XTech is the place to watch the coverage appear.
See you all there!
