Note 2001-08: see now the article by Eric Howland and David Niergarth in MLTP 2/2. Referenced in the online TOC for MLTP 2/2.

[Conclusion:] "This paper proposed an SGML-based approach to knowledge management in organizations and gave examples of applications. Traditional database and knowledge-based systems use a fine-grained structured information model for automatic processing but raw documents are not easily handled. Other approaches for knowledge management are found today; for instance data warehouses, workflow systems, and corporate document management portals (such as LIVELINK or DOCUMENTUM), bring the means for integrating the information resources of an organization and allow the users to perform complex searches. However no SGML-like fined-grained model of the information is provided in such systems. On the contrary, this approach shows the knowledge modeling facilities offered by a markup language such as SGML and XML, along with architecture organization for a value-added corporate memory system. The modeling approach is similar to research works on conceptual structures, however the architecture organization is the result of several years of experience in the development of advanced SGML document publishing system. Knowledge management requires a continual effort promoting both information sharing and timelessness of quality information resources. As a consequence, new roles should be defined for the daily management of the corporate memory system. Two types of knowledge management roles are conceivable: (1) a technical role for system management; and (2) a strategic role (on top of the technical role), for continual reinforcement of the content of the corporate memory and for motivation of the users..."

[Conclusion:] "A public information page at http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/xmlconf-pub.html has been created to relate the status of the committee's efforts. Links to versions of the test suite can be found through that page. Continued contributions to the OASIS Technical Committee will be considered for incorporation into the suite. Readers should consider joining OASIS to get involved in the process and work directly on the committee. Readers are encouraged to talk to vendors about the vendor's membership in OASIS and their commitment to conformance. The areas of conformance for the XML family of recommendations will continue to grow. The busy working groups described in the W3C XML Activity (http://www.w3.org/XML/Activity.html) will be producing new recommendations in which conformance testing will be an important issue. OASIS will continue to identify, develop and provide contributions related to interoperability and conformance of XML-related recommendations as it meets its mandates to its membership and the XML community at large. Your company's and your own participation in OASIS can help promote these goals.

"As the amount of information available on the WWW and elsewhere continues to grow at an almost exponential rate, it becomes increasingly difficult to locate the particular piece of information we need: precious time and resources are consumed navigating haystacks of information and those sought-after needles of information become ever more difficult to discover. Two recent standards are designed to provide ways of coping with this problem: ISO/IEC 13250, Information technology - SGML Applications - Topic maps [ISO, Topic Maps] and the Resource Description Framework (RDF) [W3C, RDF model and syntax], [W3C, RDF schema]. This article aims to provide a simple introduction to the basic concepts underlying the first of these, the topic map standard, and to discuss the relationship between topic maps and RDF. In the first section we introduce the topic map standard itself and describe its background, rationale and current status. The second section presents the topic map model along with its key concepts. This is followed by a discussion of some areas of applicability of the topic paradigm to the domain of encyclopaedia publishing. Finally we give a brief overview of RDF and discuss its relationship with topic maps."

[Conclusion:] "The new topic map standard provides a standardized way of modeling the structure of the knowledge contained in information resources in such a way as to enable new means of navigation and retrieval, and ultimately also new means of organization of that information. The applicability of topic maps extends to all spheres of information management, not least commercial reference works, and effectively 'bridges the gap' between knowledge representation and information management. Support for topic maps is currently being implemented in a number of information management tools, including STEP's document management and editorial system, SigmaLink."

"Unicode was born from frustration by software manufacturers with the fragmented, complicated, and contradictory character encodings in use around the world. The technical difficulties of dealing with different coded character sets meant that software had to be extensively localized before being released into different markets, which meant that the 'other language' versions of software could be significantly delayed and also be significantly different internally because of the character handling requirements. Not surprisingly, the same character handling changes were regrafted onto each new version of the base software before it could be released into other markets. Of course the character encoding is not the only aspect to be changed when localizing software, but it is a large component, and it is the aspect most likely to have a custom solution for each new language... The Unicode Standard defines a fixed-width 16-bit, uniform encoding scheme for written characters and text. The Unicode Standard, Version 2.0, is also code-for-code identical with ISO/IEC 10646-1:1993 (plus the first seven amendments), and Version 3.0 will be code-for-code identical with the forth-coming ISO/IEC 10646-1:2000. The Unicode Standard, however, does define more semantics for characters than does ISO/IEC 10646. The Unicode Technical Committee has a liaison membership with the ISO/IEC Working Group responsi-ble for computer character sets."

"What are the Unicode and ISO/IEC 10646 Coded Representations? -- The Unicode Standard and ISO/IEC 10646 share a bewildering variety of coded representations for the same characters. The following sections will help in deciphering the acronyms [. . .] Which is best for me? There is no single, simple answer to this question. The choice of encoding will depend in part upon your language and in part upon the tools that you are using. For example, if you are working in English, it is simplest to use UTF-8 since UTF-8 is a superset of ASCII, but if you are working in Japanese, it is preferable to use UTF-16, since using UTF-8 would result in larger files. However, if you working with Perl, the latest version of which handles Unicode characters as UTF-8 internally, it might be simplest to only use UTF-8 for input and output. Your choice may be determined by your choice of application, since even on 'little-endian' Intel processors, some applications save Unicode text as UTF-16BE. The good news is that recent versions of web browsers can handle both UTF-8 and UTF-16 text, as can your XML software..."

"The book is in four Parts, and assumes only a basic knowledge of HTML and the Web to begin with, such as any reasonably well up-to-date business user can be expected to have. McGrath takes you simply and clearly through the techniques XML is being used for to improve the functionality and reliability of business on the Web. The tone is light but careful and precise, and avoids the forced jokiness which some other publishers and authors believe is appropriate for business technology. Later in the book the reader needs a good grasp of computers, and a little programming experience is useful: Java, Perl, and Python are all represented. . . This book is for those who are taking e-commerce seriously, harnessing the data-moving power of the Internet to the descriptive power of XML. McGrath's own experience shows in his handling of a technical subject without making it unnecessarily complex: the level is well within the range of anyone who is comfortable with computing and the Internet. The management summary, for example, provides an excellent run-through of the principles without assuming more than a simple familiarity with the Web; yet the really technical bits remain accurate and reliable, unlike many books on HTML (although there are one or two mildly invalid HTML oddities, but they don't really count). . ."

"...the [author's] goal is not to provide exhaustive detail (which would soon be out-of-date), but to provide a roadmap to assist readers in understanding the SGML and XML tools well enough to analyze tools in more detail on their own. Flynn provides many well-placed references to other books and to web resources which can provide more detail. This book would be ideal for someone who does not know much about SGML/XML or associated tools, providing a very solid understanding from which to move forward. Frequent internal cross-references, along with a good deal of redundant information mean that ones does not have to read from cover to cover but can flip directly to information of particular interest. The well-structured divisions, sections and subsections also make this very easy. Together, these two features modestly manage to showcase the utility of using SGML by their very existence! Flynn of course used SGML tools to produce his book, and the astute reader can see the fruit of this labor everywhere, but especially in these features. Additionally, even the reader who wishes to read the whole book from cover to cover cannot dislike the repetition, as there is just enough to usefully reinforce concepts. These features all coalesce to produce a book that is useful both to the SGML newcomer and to the old hands (particularly scholars) who have long wished for a book which brings together information heretofore available only in hearsay and fragments. Newcomers will find the introduction to SGML concepts especially lucid: I have never read a more cogent and simple explanation of the differences between parameter, character, and general entities..."

"[The volume Practical Transformation Using XSLT and Xpath (XSL Transformations and the XML Path Language)] provides an introduction to the conceptual models, mechanisms, and detailed syntax for XSLT (Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations) and XPath (XML Path Language). XSLT is the portion of W3C's XSL recommendation designed to transform an XML document into another structure, such as a different XML document, an HTML document, a document composed of formatting objects, or a document in a proprietary markup system. This is tree transformation, with an XSL engine, under the direction of an XSLT stylesheet, transforming a well-formed XML document tree into a result tree in another form. XPath is the document component addressing portion of the XML recommendations family, which specifies how to address the nodes in these trees. This book, which assumes knowledge of XML but no prior knowledge of XPath or XSLT, provides extensive samples and diagrams illustrating XSLT architectures and describes the XSLT instructions and their use Since this book is published only in electronic form, Ken Holman's Practical Transformation provides what no printed volume could-nearly immediate updates whenever the XSL or XPath specifications change, as they have done 4 or 5 times in the last 6 months. The book is written as a series of slides (quite lengthy slides) rather than as textual paragraphs within chapters, since the work supports Crane Softwrights' XSL classes. This style is appropriate for instructional material and the slides stand alone without need for an instructor. An abbreviated version of the work (over 100 pages) is available for free download so that the work can be evaluated before purchase. The free download includes very useful indices to the XSLT Draft Recommendation...[summary of the twelve modules follows]"