Jeni's Musings

I posted before about the joys of the XML Summer School: the learning, the punting, the drinking! Now the Semantic Technologies track has been fleshed out to include:

• Bob DuCharme giving an overview on the semantic web
• Leigh Dodds talking about publishing linked data
• Andy Seabourne talking about SPARQL
• Duncan Hall talking about creating ontologies

It’s not really XML, I suppose, but it’s certainly a bunch of interesting and timely topics. I particularly hope that we’ll get some public sector people in the room so that we can discuss some of the challenges and opportunities in that area.

Registration has just opened for this year’s XML Summer School, held in Oxford on 20-25th September. I’m teaching a couple of sessions and helping with a workshop on the “XSLT, XSL-FO and XQuery” track along with Bob DuCharme, Michael Kay and Priscilla Walmsley. It’s one of my favourite events, for three reasons:

• I get to listen to experts talk about particular technologies in depth. The sessions are particularly good because they’re provided by people who don’t just spend all their time training, but actually practice what they’re talking about, and therefore positively relish the kinds of discussions that normal trainers might shy away from.
• I get to meet a whole bunch of people who are using XML in different areas: publishing, healthcare, government, you name it. In that way it’s like a conference: many of the most useful conversations happen during the breaks or at the bar.
• I get to go punting, visit Oxford’s best pubs and dress up for a formal dinner — more social engagements in a single week than I usually have in a year!

I know a lot of beginners go to the XML Summer School for the introduction course, but to me the real value is for people who are actually using XML on a day to day basis and want to keep on top of the latest tools and technologies that will actually help them do their jobs. I learn something new every year.

Anyway, I wanted to blog about it because there’s a discount on registration up until 30th June. Grab ‘em while you can!