Data sharing, collaboration, and integration are dominant topics in today’s IT world. Organizations need to share data within their own organization and across organizations throughout the world. In addition, the shelf life of data is an increasing concern, especially as technology advances and formats once thought to be universal are now obsolete. As Tim Bray, co-inventor of XML and director of Web technologies at Sun Microsystems, stated at the XML Testbed Symposium, “XML is the best tool for creating a file format to ensure that things written today will have an excellent chance of being available for centuries to come.”

The costs of developing and maintaining interfaces and middleware to communicate data across different formats can be prohibitive and shortsighted. It is far more advisable to use data formats that are open, standard, easily communicable and persist over time. XML is first and foremost an open, standards-based, data formatting specification. By its very nature, it is designed to enable the sharing of information because it is not tied to any device, technology, or proprietary software. By using XML—especially by adopting industry-wide standards within XML such as DocBook, EAD, and other data definition schemas used by the Testbed teams—organizations are building the elements of a shared information structure.

And the issue extends beyond data sharingto data ownership and accessibility. As Tim Bray also stressed at the symposium, XML provides organizations with the greatest assurance of content “longevity, reusability, internationalization, and vendor-independence.” In regard to ongoing access and archiving of that content, which is not captive to specific software or hardware requirements, XML offers the best solution.