Program and service staff generally do not possess in-depth technical knowledge, nor should they be expected to possess this knowledge. However, this lack may hamper a clear understanding of how an unfamiliar technology such as XML can provide benefits, thus making an evaluation or acceptance of it difficult to achieve. They may not even be aware that a problem exists since workflows are isolated in organizational silos. As one Testbed participant from a program area remarked, “I frankly wasn’t sure what XML was ... I didn’t have a complete understanding of the difficulties that our technical people face in terms of putting changes out on the Web.”

The pace of technology advances often exceeds our ability to keep up, which presents a two-fold problem. First, there can be a reluctance to adopt anything new or different for fear that it’s just a passing trend with no long-term benefit. Second, it feels safer to stick with what the technical staff already know. “Does everyone fear that XML is the latest flavor of the month—absolutely,” is how one technical staff member put it. Fortunately, XML has two advantages in this regard. One, since it’s not really a technology, but rather a text-based specification for formatting content, it can be learned relatively easily. Two, since XML is a non-proprietary, open standard, it is not expected to pass away or be superseded by future software versions. As that same technical staff member concluded regarding the flavor-of-the-month, “From everything that I know, it’s the contrary. XML is how everyone should be moving forward.”