A posting from Kimbro Staken (Chief Technology Officer, dbXML Group L.L.C.) announces the formation of a new mailing list for general discussions about XML database technologies. The mailing list is hosted by the XML:DB XML Database initiative. The list is designed as a "vendor neutral open forum and discussion of any topic related to XML database technology and standards is acceptable and encouraged." The forum is not intended for marketing, although announcements are acceptable if the list guidelines are followed. The new list had some 60 subscribers as of February 26, 2001, and is publicly archived.

"XML:DB is an industry initiative formed by SMB GmbH, the dbXML Group L.L.C and the OpenHealth Care Group. XML:DB is also supported by a growing list of organizations with interest in XML and XML databases. XML:DB provides a community for collaborative development of specifications for XML databases and data manipulation technologies. Along with each specification an open source reference implementation will be developed to validate the ideas put forth in the specification and to more rapidly drive acceptance of the specification in real products."

XML:DB rationale: "Databases tailored for the storage of XML data represent an exciting new opportunity for improvement in the storage and manipulation of data and metadata. For a large set of applications an XML database will often far surpass traditional data storage mechanisms in convenience, ease of development and performance. The following list contains a number of applications that are ideally suited for XML databases: Corporate information portals; Membership databases; Product catalogs; Parts databases; Patient information tracking; Business to business document exchange. Since XML databases are a new technology there has been up to this point no concerted effort to develop standards specifically for the market. This lack of standards inevitably increases the learning curve for employees, prevents product interoperability and ultimately slows the adoption of the products in the market place. To address these issues a decision was made to start the XML:DB initiative. It is our hope that through the efforts of XML:DB that standards can be brought to the XML database industry and that XML databases make it into the standard toolset used by IT departments worldwide."