Transfer of this list to OASIS and future developments

[Peter Murray-Rust]

At 10:12 PM 12/15/99 +0000, Rzepa, Henry wrote:
[...]
>
>We are delighted to be able to announce that OASIS have most generously
>offered to host the list from January  1st, 2000. A press release announcing
>this has been made available on the  OASIS site;
>
I am delighted to add my delight to this message.  Henry and I set this
list up nearly three years ago and we have been overwhelmed with the way
that you have contributed.

I used to be very active as "moderator" of this list but for nearly a year
have taken a self-imposed vow of silence. [More than one person at XML
Europe was pleased to see I was still alive!]. That was only partly
deliberate but I have been extremely pleased to see that the list has
really moderated itself as far as content goes.  It has had the spin-off
that we feel no problem in loosing control because that has effectively
happened.

I may soon indulge myself slightly in posting a few forward- and backward-
looks at XML in the context of this list. I have already had the privilege
of being asked to talk at XML99 and I choose to highlight the role of this
list and announce its future. [You can see a very accurate report on
http://www.xml.com]. I have also handed in my text to the GCA (to whom I am
very grateful for making my visit possible) - it should appear in the
proceedings.

Probably few of you appreciate how much work Henry has had to put in.
Every week he gets e-mail bounces - many of which have to be replied to. He
also doesn't have admin control over the server on which the hypermail
sits, so that have been many things he simply couldn't do. And he has had
his share of spam, listsniffing, and viruses.

Henry and I have had a not very hidden agenda - to do our bit to help XML
succeed and in that way CML would have the support of a worldwide community
and set of tools. We are really delighted how universal XML is and it is
now possible to go back to the chemical community and show that markup
languages really offer a solution that no other approach does. You will
appreciate that now that CML is starting to take off we are concentrating
some of our activities there. We are delighted that there are several *.org
and *.gov who are taking it up (regulatory, patents, safety, informatics
etc.) and also know that it is being adopted in *.com. There is a growing
range of freeware/open tools for CML and there are at least two editors
written independently of our efforts. [Writing a good chemical editor is
extremely difficult and I will probably be asking for help on the generic
editor problem shortly.]

We shall not of course be leaving XML-DEV and will continue to read and
post. But we are going to try a new venture, very much in the spirit of the
virtual community built here. The way in which members have communally
contributed to discussion and construction has been priceless. I believe
that the creation of SAX was certainly a highlight in my life. 

We have created a virtual learning environment for XML - VirtualXML. This
is based on the values created on XML-DEV - mutual help, hard work,
attention to detail and respect for others. In this environment - which
will be created in XML as much as possible - we shall help newcomers to XML
to learn both the technology and the philosophy of XML. And we expect to
learn a great deal as well!

We shall be announcing more details in the next day or so.

	Peter Murray-Rust ["moderator" of XML-DEV]


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