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<small>about XML . <a href="Activity">XML Activity Statement</a></small> </p>
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<h1>Extensible Markup Language (XML)</h1>
<div style="float: right; width: 30%; border: 1px dotted #aaa; padding: 1em;"><p>Recent: <a href="http://www.balisage.net/">Balisage Conference</a> [<a href="#events">details</a>]</p></div>
<ol>
  <li><a href="#intro">Introduction</a></li>
  <li><a href="#wgs">Working Groups</a></li>
  <li><a href="#events">Events</a></li>
  <li><a href="#resources">Other Resources</a></li>
  <li><a href="#contact">Contact</a></li>
</ol>

<p>Nearby: <a href="Core/#Publications">XML Specifications</a> and <a
href="Core/Translations">Translations</a> of them.</p>

<h2><a name="intro">Introduction</a></h2>

<p>Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a simple, very flexible text format
derived from SGML (ISO 8879). Originally designed to meet the challenges of
large-scale electronic publishing, XML is also playing an increasingly
important role in the exchange of a wide variety of data on the Web and
elsewhere.</p>

<p>This page describes the work being done at W3C within the XML Activity,
and how it is structured. Work at W3C takes place in <i>Working Groups</i>.
The Working Groups within the XML Activity are listed below, together with
links to their individual web pages.</p>

<p>You can find and download formal technical specifications here, because we
publish them. This is <em>not</em> a place to find tutorials, products,
courses, books or other XML-related information. There are some links below
that may help you find such resources.</p>

<p>You will find links to W3C Recommendations, Proposed Recommendations,
Working Drafts, conformance test suites and other documents on the pages for
each Working Group. Each document also contains email addresses you can use
to send comments or questions, for example if you have been writing software
to implement them and have found problems or errors.</p>

<p>Please do <em>not</em> send us email asking us to help you learn a
language or specification; there are plenty of resources online, and the
people editing and developing the specifications are very busy. We
<em>are</em> interested in technical comments and errata.</p>

<p>If your organization would like to join the W3C, or if you would like to
participate formally in a working group (and have the necessary resources to
attend meetings), you can read more <a href="/Consortium/">about the
Consortium</a>.</p>

<h2><a name="wgs">Working Groups</a></h2>

<p>There is more detail about each of these Working Groups in the <a
href="Activity">Activity Statement</a> and also on the individual Working
Group public web pages.</p>

<p>Most Working Groups have both a public web page and another more private
one that is only accessible to W3C Members. The private page has telephone
numbers, schedules for meetings and conference calls, links to internal
editing drafts, and other administrative information.</p>
<!--* removed the following note because I can't find the page any
        * more; I think the nearest is
	* http://cgi.w3.org/MemberAccess/
	*
	* <p>If you find you can't get to the private pages
	*    but believe you should
	*    be able to do so, you can
	*    <a href="/MemberAccess/">apply for access</a>.</p>
	*
	* Liam
	*-->

<h3><a name="xml-cg">XML Coordination Group</a></h3>

<p>The membership of this group is the Chairs of the individual Working
Groups. Its role is to provide a forum for coordination between the Working
Groups of the XML Activity, and between the XML Activity and other parts of
W3C, and between the XML Activity and other organizations.</p>

<p>This group does not produce specifications, so does not have a public page
of its own. You can read the <a href="/2003/09/xmlap/xml-cg-charter">XML CG
Charter</a>, and there is more information about the XML CG in the <a
href="Activity">Activity Statement</a>. There is is also a <a
href="Group/">member-only page</a>.</p>

<h3><a name="core-wg">XML Core Working Group</a></h3>

<p>The mission of the XML Core Working Group is to develop and maintain the
specifications for XML itself and closely related specifications such as
Namespaces in XML, the XML Information Set, and XInclude.</p>

<p>You can read the <a href="Core/">XML Core Working Group Public Page</a>
and the <a href="/2005/02/xml-core-wg-charter.html">XML Core Working Group
Charter</a>, and there is also a <a href="Group/Core">member-only
page</a>.</p>

<h3>XSLT Working Group</h3>

<p>The <a name="xsl-wg">XSLT Working Group</a> is responsible for
XSL Transformations (XSLT) and a number of supporting specifications.</p>

<p>You can read the <a href="/Style/XSL/">XSLT Working Group Public Page</a>
which links to their <a href="/2003/09/xmlap/xsl-wg-charter.html">Charter</a>
and to their <a href="/Style/XSL/Group/">member-only page</a>.</p>

<h3>XPPL Working Group</h3>
<p>The <a name="xppl-wg">XML Print and Page Layout Working Group</a>
is responsible for the XSL-FO formatting language.</p>

<p>You can read the <a href="XPPL/">XML Print and Page Layout Public Page</a>
and the <a href="/2010/10/xslfo-charter">XML Print and Page Layout
Charter</a>, and there is also a <a href="Group/XPPL">member-only
page</a>.</p>

<h3>The Efficient XML Interchange Working Group</h3>

<p>The <a name="exi-wg">Efficient XML Interchange Working
Group</a> is responsible for developing ways to exchange XML documents in
ways that are as efficient as is practical without compromising the
interoperability of XML itself. It also continues the work of the <a
href="#binary-wg">XML Binary Characterization Working Group</a>. This Working
Group is <em>not</em> about producing a closed, proprietary or obfuscated
&ldquo;binary XML &rdquo;&mdash;The W3C is all about increasing
interoperability!</p>

<p>You can read the <a href="EXI">Efficient XML Interchange Working Group
Public Page</a> and their <a
href="/2005/09/exi-charter-final.html">Charter</a>; there is also a <a
href="Group/EXI">member-only page</a> for technical discussion and
administration.</p>

<h3><a name="processing-wg">XML Processing Model Working
Group</a></h3>

<p>The XML Processing Model Working Group is working on defining a scripting
language for XML: that is, a way to specify what operations should be
performed on an XML document and in what order.</p>

<p>You can read the <a href="Processing/">XML Processing Model Working Group
Public Page</a> and their <a
href="/2005/10/xml-processing-model-wg-charter.html">Charter</a>; there is
also a <a href="Group/Processing">member-only page</a> for administration
purposes.</p>

<h3><a name="linking-wg">XML Linking Working Group</a></h3>

<p>The charter of the XML Linking Working Group has expired, and the group is
not currently active. When still active, it was working on hypertext links
for XML. This includes the XML Linking Language (XLink) and the XML Pointer
Language (XPointer).</p>

<p>You can read the deprecated <a href="Linking">XML Linking Working Group
Public Page</a>. There is also a <a href="Group/Linking">member-only
page</a>.</p>

<h3><a name="query-wg">XML Query Working Group</a></h3>

<p>The XML Query Working Group is working on the XML Query Language, a way to
provide flexible query facilities to extract data from real and virtual XML
documents on the Web. This includes publication of XQuery and also XPath, in
conjunction with the <a href="/Style/XSL/">XSLT Working Group</a> (part of the
<a href="/Style/">Style Activity</a>).</p>

<p>You can read the <a href="Query">XML Query Working Group Public Page</a>
and the <a href="/2003/09/xmlap/xml-query-wg-charter.html">XML Query Working
Group Charter</a>, and there is also a <a href="Group/Query">member-only
page</a>.</p>

<h3><a name="schema-wg">XML Schema Working Group</a></h3>

<p>W3C XML Schemas provide mechanisms to define and describe the structure,
content, and to some extent semantics of XML documents.</p>

<p>You can read the <a href="Schema">XML Schema Group Public Page</a> and the
<a href="/2003/09/xmlap/xml-schema-wg-charter.html">XML Schema Working Group
Charter</a>, and there is also a <a href="Group/Schemas">member-only
page</a>.</p>

<h2><a name="events">Upcoming events</a></h2>

<p><a href="http://www.xmlprague.cz/2011/index.html">XML Prague</a>,
the leading XML-specific conference in Europe,
was in 2011, in... er, yes, in Prague.</p>

<p>The leading conference relating to theoretical topics on markup,
as well as on practical applications of XML, is of course
<a href="http://www.balisage.net/">Balisage</a>, in Montreal;
this year (2011) the Balisage markup conference also has an associated
<a href="http://www.balisage.net/interchange/">XML Document Interchange</a>.
There is a registration discount for W3C Members.</p>

<h2><a name="resources">Other Resources</a></h2>

<p>There are so many resources related to XML that we can't possibly list
them all here. This is a <em>good</em> thing, because it means XML is a
success! In addition to a <a name="oldevents"
href="hist2002">history of the development of XML at W3C</a>, there is an
extensive index at the <a href="http://xml.coverpages.org/">Cover Pages</a>,
maintained by Robin Cover. The individual Working Group public web pages may
have links to specific resources. There are Usenet newsgroups (e.g. <a
href="news://comp.text.xml">comp.text.xml</a>) and public mailing lists (e.g.
<a href="http://lists.xml.org/archives/xml-dev/">xml-dev</a>).</p>


<p>You could also try a search engine such as <a
href="http://www.google.com/">Google</a> for:</p>
<ul>
  <li><a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=XML+markup+Conferences">XML
    conferences</a></li>
  <li><a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=XML+books">books</a></li>
  <li><a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=XML+training+courses">training
    courses</a></li>
  <li><a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=XML+online+tutorials">online
    tutorials</a></li>
  <li><a
    href="http://www.google.com/search?q=XML+bibliography">bibliographies</a></li>
  <li><a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=XML+parser">parsers (both
    proprietary and open source)</a></li>
  <li><a
  href="http://www.google.com/search?q=XML+magazines">magazines</a></li>
  <li>and even <a
    href="http://www.google.com/search?q=%22XML+movie%22">movies</a></li>
</ul>

<p>This page is also available in <a
href="http://www.xml-pl.com">Polish</a> (<span
xml:lang="pl" lang="pl">polski</span>) </p>

<h2><a name="contact">Contact</a></h2>
<address>
  <a href="http://www.holoweb.net/~liam/">Liam Quin</a>, <a
  href="/People/Quin/">XML Activity Lead</a>
</address>

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<h2>Note</h2>

<p>The XML specification, and other information specific to the XML Core
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<p>There is also a separate page for <a
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