The Role of XML in Open Hypermedia Systems

The World Wide Web Consortium [W3C] has recently issued XML 1.0 as a Recommendation [XML]. XML, the Extensible Markup Language, is a data format for structured document interchange on the Web. In this paper, we put forward the position that XML, together with (future) standards based on XML, will play an important role in the development of open hypermedia systems. Many of objectives of the XML community are similar to the objectives of the open hypermedia systems (OHS) community. This paper discusses these similarities, but also stresses the differences between the architecture and protocol-oriented approach which is typical for the OHS research community versus the document oriented approach of the XML community.