I've spent the majority of my career working for software vendors in one capacity or another; this has resulted in a natural aversion to trade shows. Most technical consultants who work for vendors will tell you that trade shows are one of the most difficult aspects of the job. Sales reps are off making phone calls and working deals and you're stuck in the booth handing out trinkets to a vast army of attendees. In the worst instances the company has you dressed up in some ridiculous costume dreamed up by a marketing department that doesn't have to wear it. Nowadays I go to these conferences as a full-fledged attendee on behalf of my clients, and it's a lot more fun. So it was with a light heart and a full agenda that I made my way to New York City for XML DevCon 2000.

Since I live just west of the city, the trip was a short drive away; however, May and June are heavy parade seasons there. Registration started at 11 a.m. on Sunday, but Fifth Avenue was blocked off for the Gay Pride parade that started at noon. I managed to squeak into the Hilton by 11:15 and had time to dump my bags and take a quick walk around the parade grounds before my first session. If you've never spent an afternoon in New York City attending a parade - any parade - you don't know what you're missing. It's a melange of people, food, sites, sounds and smells that can't be beat. I was forced to cut my time short to attend the Sunday training sessions.

Training Sessions
Much to my surprise the Sunday sessions were absolutely packed to the gills, and I mean to the gills. It amazes me that the XML community is so excited about the topic that they're willing to skip an afternoon of parades and sunshine in the Big Apple to listen to lectures on the ins and outs of XML.

The "XML for Programmers" session I sat through was in a room far too small and the conference organizers allowed in too many extra chairs. I suspect the fire marshal wouldn't have been pleased with the layout. In the future I'd recommend that attendees sign up for specific training sessions in advance, so we can avoid being packed into a boiling hot hotel room.

XML DevCon is headed for some growing pains, but for now it has a lot of clubby charm. I spent the previous week interviewing the iPlanet team from Sun at JavaOne; the difference in the overall feel of the two events was startling. While JavaOne is more of a rush-seats-at-a-Who-concert mob scene, XML DevCon was a little more relaxed and offered a more varied audience. I sat with programmers in one session, Web site designers in another, data exchange architects in a third and the list goes on. Ajit Sagar predicted in the DevCon Show issue of XML-Journal (Vol. 1, issue 3) that the expansion of XML into different spheres of business would likely cause chaos. I think his prediction is already proving to be true, but the chaos will be short-lived. XML is an extremely interesting technology and it's growing more complex at an alarming rate - I saw this reflected in XML DevCon 2000 itself. The mix of the audience is just one sign of the times, but several other factors are causing the chaos theory to bloom.

Although XML as a standard is developing rapidly, several critical standards still aren't in place, namely, XML namespaces and XML schema. These technologies will help curb the chaos by allowing XML documents to be validated against multiple sources. Without them, authors will make untold changes to a single DTD and the end result is likely to be problematic in the longer term. This was certainly a hot topic at the conference and is likely to remain a key topic for the foreseeable future.

Enterprise Information Portals
From an application perspective, the hot topic was enterprise information portals. Almost every company I spoke with is looking at using the portal concept to integrate all their Web-based applications and intranet sites into cohesive units. XML will ultimately be at the center of the portal game, since portals are a combination of application integration, dynamic page building and portable computing.

When the Internet phenomenon arrived in all its glory, many enterprise vendors were caught off-guard and forced to play catch-up with some of the nimbler technology start-up companies. Clearly they've learned their collective lesson from this harrowing experience and have jumped into the XML game with a vengeance. Not that they're any further along with actual XML products than they were with Internet-enabled technology when the Internet hit.

However, they're not about to be caught flat-footed when it comes to XML. As a result, every software vendor in the known universe has announced support for XML in some fashion. Given the state of XML itself, it's difficult for the average consumer to figure out how XML is manifested in any given product. The cynic in me would expect to see boxes of microwave popcorn adorning the shelves of my local supermarket emblazoned with the words "Now Made With XML" - as if this would result in better popcorn.

The vendor floorshow was relatively sparse in comparison to other events such as JavaOne - testimony that there's more hype than commercial XML solutions available. This isn't such a bad thing, but it's one that's sure to change as the market grows. On a relative basis the hype machines were pretty quiet and the floorshow was a more relaxed environment than at comparable events. (I have to admit that the Elvis impersonators were a hoot!)

Microsoft's keynote speech was particularly well attended. It remains to be seen how XML will be manifested within their product lines, but they clearly indicated that XML will be at the core of Microsoft.Net. Their pitch included a preview of a set of extended commercials that purported to show how the common man's world will be increasingly interconnected. As with most future-looking presentations, the technology ranged from the "available today" to the "we'll talk offline" variety, but I liked the concept. However, I was itching to point out to them that the actor they chose for the commercials was Seinfeld's "Kenny Banyan" - who I believe was referred to as a hack on the show (Ovaltine, Ovaltine...).

Future Sessions
Since XML will most likely be widely used by different audiences for different purposes, it'll be important to begin segregating the sessions in future XML events. Web-site designers, publishers and application integration developers will be using XML, but in different ways. While XML DevCon 2000 offered a mix of sessions targeted at different audiences, the topics and the audience were just too diverse. The task of blending different audiences and different levels of experience into a limited set of sessions is daunting. XML DevCon 2000 did an admirable job, but I'd expect to see a stronger split between the various audiences as time goes on.

As far as this year is concerned, the watershed event for me came on Tuesday at lunchtime. I was heading out the door for a little fresh air (New York's version of fresh air, that is) when I ran into Bryan Kennedy from Divine InterVentures. Bryan is one of the sharpest guys I know and his presence at XML DevCon 2000 means that XML is truly the "next big thing." Venture funding means the market is taking this XML thing seriously, and that's just as important as the XML standard in keeping chaos at bay.

Oh, and one more thing. It seemed as if every presentation began with the speaker telling us how much more complicated SGML is when compared to l'il ole XML. Is there some way for us to plea-bargain our collective ignorance of SGML down to time already served?