The idea was that by enabling documents to describe themselves, flow through networks, dissolve into fragments, and reassemble in new ways, the processes mediated by those documents — human memory, thought, and communication — could improve....“The relational database is designed to serve up rows and columns,” said BEA’s Adam Bosworth in his keynote talk. “But our [XML] model of the world is documents. It’s, ‘Tell me everything I want to know about this person or this clinical trial.’ And those things are not flat, they’re complex. Now we have the way to get not only the hospital records and prescriptions but also the doctor’s write-ups.”
The doctors and bankers will get that, just as the highway patrolmen already do. XML documents, flowing through XML plumbing, can now deliver very real and tangible benefits. For the publishing geeks who started it all, it’s a moment to savor.
[via Joho the Blog]
Posted by johndan at December 27, 2003 11:58 AM
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