In the opening plenary session of the XML Conference and Exposition 2001, IDEAlliance honored James Clark as the first recipient of the IDEAlliance XML Cup Award. The award was to be given to "an individual who has been active in the development of XML, its related standards, and tools that support the standards; the award represents meritorious achievement for years of service and dedication to the industry." James Clark also delivered the XML Conference 2001 opening keynote address on the topic "Five Challenges Facing the XML Community." An internationally renowned developer and pioneer in the evolution of XML standards and open-source software, Clark examined the short-term benefits of recent advances in XML, and the foremost challenges facing end-users today. Founder of Thai Open Source Software Center, Clark has been involved with XML and SGML for more than 10 years. He was technical lead of the XML Working Group during the creation of the XML 1.0 Recommendation, and editor of the XPath and XSLT Recommendations. Currently, he is chair of the OASIS RELAX NG Technical Committee and editor of the RELAX NG specification." Clark is pictured on the IDEAlliance web site receiving the XML Cup Award from Lauren Wood.

From the 2001-11-02 announcement of Marion L. Elledge (IDEAlliance): "First 'XML Cup' to be awarded at the XML Conference and Exposition 2001. The first 'XML Cup' will be awarded by IDEAlliance (formerly GCA), to an individual who has been active in the development of XML, its related standards, and tools that support the standards. The award represents meritorious achievement for years of service and dedication to the industry. The 'XML Cup' will be awarded during the opening plenary session on Tuesday, December 11, 2001."

From the announcement of November 8, 2001:

James Clark, internationally renowned developer and pioneer in the evolution of XML standards and open-source software, will address conferees this December at XML 2001, the world's leading XML conference and exposition.

Clark's keynote address will examine the short-term benefits of recent advances in XML, and the foremost challenges facing end-users today. End-users struggling to implement XML in their organizations will find a wealth of insights and new ideas.

Clark, founder of Thai Open Source Software Center, has been involved with XML and SGML for more than 10 years. He was technical lead of the XML Working Group during the creation of the XML 1.0 Recommendation, and editor of the XPath and XSLT Recommendations. He was also the primary author of the DSSSL (ISO 10179) standard. Currently, he is chair of the OASIS RELAX NG Task Committee and editor of the RELAX NG specification. The open-source software that Clark has written includes SGML parsers (sgmls and SP), a DSSSL implementation (Jade), XML parsers (expat and XP), an XPath/XSLT processor (XT) and a RELAX NG validator (Jing). Prior to his involvement with SGML and XML, he wrote the GNU groff typesetting system.