Two collaborators ought to be the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Government Printing Office. NIST is a logical choice because it participated in early definitions of the XML standard and is working on an XML and Document Object Model conformance testing suite. Has experience GPO is a good choice, too, because it deals with such a wide range of printed and electronic documents. Government Web sites that dynamically serve up content from various sources would do well to start tagging the data in their databases with existing XML tags. But browser capabilities are improving.
All indications are that the Web is poised for an explosion of XML use next year.
Like a bloodhound XML eventually will help agencies find data that is trapped in documents and impossible to index. It can retrieve anything, from a physical location to a stock number to personnel information. Shawn P. McCarthy designs products for a Web search engine provider. Inc. All rights reserved.