3/16/05

Attendees to Learn What XML Experts Consider the Best Strategy for Preserving and Protecting Critical Business Content in Electronic Documents

Contacts:
Evan Weisel
Welz & Weisel Communications
703-323-6006
evan@w2comm.com
Jeffrey Arcuri
Lighthouse Seminars
781-821-6634
jarcuri@lighthouseseminars.com

Cambridge, MA, March 16, 2005. The Gilbane Report and Lighthouse Seminars today announced that the Gilbane Conference on Content Management, taking place April 11-13 at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, will present a keynote debate titled: “What is the Right XML Strategy for Information Interchange?” Participating in this debate are Tim Bray, Director of Web Technologies for Sun, Jean Paoli, Senior Director, XML Architecture at Microsoft, and Jon Udell, Lead Analyst at InfoWorld. The keynote takes place on April 11th at 3:45 p.m.

The keynote debate description: Until recently it was difficult and costly to preserve your content in an “open” industry standard format so that it wasn’t, in effect, held hostage by being in a software vendor’s proprietary format and their own product and business goals. Integration of office documents into enterprise applications was a risky proposition for the same reason. With the widespread adoption of XML, and in particular Microsoft’s support for XML in their Office suite, it seems like enterprises should finally be able to own their own information, share it with whom they want, and integrate office documents into critical enterprise applications. But is it really that simple?

At one level this can be framed as a debate between Microsoft and Sun/OpenOffice.org – and that is a choice organizations will have to make, but it is more complicated than that. In spite of the fact that OpenOffice and Microsoft Office both provide comprehensive XML support, there are still subtle differences that need careful consideration. Is one more “open” than the other? What are the practical implications of each approach? What are the relevant technical, legal, policy, and resource considerations? This is a significant issue: governments in Europe and in the U.S. (e.g., Massachusetts) are making policy/ purchasing decisions about “open” document formats as well as about open source code. This panel will look at all sides of the debate, peel away the political and marketing hype, and provide you with a clear understanding of the real issues so you can make your own well-informed decisions.

“Although XML has been around for years, this remains an underestimated and misunderstood issue,” said Frank Gilbane, Conference Chair, “Developers, IT managers, and business managers will all learn from Tim, Jean, and Jon, who have emerged as the chief industry spokespeople because of their deep knowledge of this issue from both an application and technical perspective, as well as a facility for eloquence and refreshing straightforwardness.”

This event brings together 750 thought leaders and practitioners to provide attendees with actionable advice, techniques, best practices, and case studies to help understand and successfully implement content technologies critical to their businesses.

The Gilbane Conference on Content Management is unique in that the majority of its conference sessions are delivered by industry analysts and researchers to offer attendees a neutral and balanced market perspective related to content technologies and trends. The program is organized into five technology-specific areas: Content Management, Enterprise Search & Knowledge Management, Content Technology Works (case studies), Document & Records Management & Compliance, and Enterprise Information Integration.

Full event details can be found at: https://gilbane.com/San_Francisco_05.html

About Bluebill Advisors, The Gilbane Report 
Bluebill Advisors, Inc. serves the content management community with publications, conferences and consulting services. The Gilbane Report administers the Content Technology Works(TM) program disseminating best practices with partners Software AG (TECdax:SOW), Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ:SUNW), Artesia Technologies, Atomz, Astoria Software, ClearStory Systems (OTCBB:INCC), Context Media, Convera (NASDAQ:CNVR), IBM (NYSE:IBM), Mark Logic, Open Text (NASDAQ:OTEX), Trados, Vasont, and Vignette (NASDAQ:VIGN). www.gilbane.com

About Lighthouse Seminars
Lighthouse Seminars’ events cover information technologies and “content technologies” in particular. These include content management of all types, digital asset management, document management, web content management, enterprise portals, enterprise search, web and multi-channel publishing, electronic forms, authoring, content and information integration, information architecture, and e-catalogs. http://www.lighthouseseminars.com