XML 2005 Conference - Unconvential Thoughts

Kurt Cagle has written about the "XML 2005 Conference" in "Understanding XML" on November 21, 2005. To quote:-

Covering a show like the XML 2005 conference has been an intriguing experience in trying to capture the fleeting moments, worthwhile news and impressions while at the same trying to make sense of a technical movement that is simultaneously up to date and stretching back decades.

The story of XML is, for all the dry specifications and eye-crossing syntax, ultimately a very human story of people who recognized a need – the need to communicate, to express ourselves in an open manner that could carry through the ages not just in the dialect of humans but in the often finicky and precise language of computers – and who have spent much of their lives going through the difficult task of getting people to reach come to a consensus on the very nature of language itself.

This was not a conference about XML. This was a conference about content management systems, about services oriented architectures and blogging and electronic business standards, about databases and the Internet, about forms management and programming environments and security and linguistics and interface design and games. In short, it was a microcosm of the IT universe. Somewhere along the line, this odd, ugly little angle-bracket syntax of ours has quietly managed to wend its way into nearly every aspect of computer technology, to the extent that in many ways the challenge in attending this was trying to figure out which technology presentations was more important to you.

XML is not disappearing into the infrastructure as some pundits predicted. It has become the infrastructure, and everything else is disappearing into it. This is not to say that the work of the XML community is done – indeed, by all accounts, the potential of XML is such that we are only just beginning to see the first inklings of what this revolution will bring – only that we are moving out of the phase of building the foundational definitions. The curtain may be going down, but the show, as they say, will definitely go on.

The Feynman - Tufte Principle - Simple Design - Intense Content

Michael Shermer has written about "The Feynman - Tufte Principle" in Scientific American on April 2005. To quote:-

Tufte codified the design process into six principles:

1. documenting the sources and characteristics of the data;
   
2. insistently enforcing appropriate comparisons;
   
3. demonstrating mechanisms of cause and effect;
   
4. expressing those mechanisms quantitatively;
   
5. recognizing the enherently multivariate nature of analytic problems;
   
6. inspecting and evaluating alternative explantions;
   

In brief, "information displays should be documentary, comparative, causal, and explanatory, quanitified, multivariate, exploratory, skeptical."

...asked Tufte to summarize the goal of his work, he said, "Simple design, intense content."

Intelligent Risk Mapping and Assessment System (IRMAS)

Steven Deare, ZDNet Australia, has written about ITMAS on 10th Nov. 2005. To quote:-

Boeing subsidiary Hawker de Havilland is piloting locally-developed project management software which "learns" from past successes and failures to continually upgrade its ability to help managers assess risk.

Hawker de Havilland project managers are using the Web-based Intelligent Risk Mapping and Assessment System (IRMAS), developed by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), to assist with projects related to the new-generation Boeing 787 aircraft, branded the "Dreamliner".

IRMAS is believed to be the first risk management software to link the entire project management process from product or project design, development, manufacturing to delivery, according to a statement from the CSIRO.