News Release: W3C Publishes New Editions of Core XML Standards

Today, the World Wide Web Consortium released new editions of four core XML
specifications: the fourth edition of Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 and
second editions of Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.1, Namespaces in XML 1.0
and Namespaces in XML 1.1. These core XML specifications are the foundation
for the steady increase in W3C-defined technologies for querying,
transforming, displaying, encrypting, and optimizing XML. W3C thanks the XML
Core Working Group for their continued stewardship of these essential Web
standards. For more information, please contact Ian Jacobs, +1 718 260-9447,
<ij@w3.org> or the W3C Communications Team representative in your region.

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W3C Publishes New Editions of Core XML Standards
Improvements clarify, complete foundation of XML family

Web resources:

  This press release:
 http://www.w3.org/2006/07/xml-pressrelease
    (available in English and Swedish)

  The XML home page:
    http://www.w3.org/XML/

  Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Fourth Edition)
    http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/REC-xml-20060816

  Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.1 (Second Edition)
    http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/REC-xml11-20060816

  Namespaces in XML 1.0 (Second Edition)
    http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/REC-xml-names-20060816

  Namespaces in XML 1.1 (Second Edition)
    http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/REC-xml-names11-20060816

http://www.w3.org/ -- 16 August 2006 -- W3C would like to thank the XML Core
Working Group for their service to the community in caring for the XML 1.0/1.1
and Namespaces in XML 1.0/1.1 specifications. Today, W3C publishes new
editions of these standards for data exchange that include corrections for all
known errata and clarifications where there was some potential for
misunderstanding. The strong foundation provided by the stability of these
core XML specifications underlies the steady increase in W3C-defined
technologies for querying, transforming, displaying, encrypting, and
optimizing XML.

XML Everywhere

XML is used to exchange information in many domains and scenarios. VoiceXML,
MathML, SVG, RSS, Web3D, RDF/XML, XMP, XUL, SOAP, Ajax, and Jabber/XMPP are
just a few XML-based technologies. Popular productivity suites such as
Microsoft Office and OpenOffice use XML. XML is cited by an increasing number
of specifications, including ISO specifications.

Why has XML been so successful? To start, it is a structured text format that
is easily processed by computers, but also by humans, who can "view the
source" and take inspiration from it or debug it with readily available tools.
XML thus simplifies the tasks of creating and maintaining software. As a
platform-independent open standard that supports efficient parsing, XML was
quickly supported in libraries for popular programming languages (including
Java, C#, Python, Perl, and C) and subsequently in free and open source
applications. W3C appreciates the active discussion forums about XML such as
xml-dev, which have helped improve and propagate the standards. The global
adoption of XML was further enabled by its support for internationalization;
XML 1.1 extends and simplifies XML 1.0's support for users from around the
world. The XML family of technologies (including XSLT, XML Schema, SAX,
Document Object Model (DOM), and XML Signature/ Encryption) constitute a
complete and economical toolkit for data management, contributing further to
its success.

W3C's Commitment to the Future of XML

W3C is strongly committed to the future of XML. By the end of 2006, W3C
expects to publish W3C Recommendations for XML Query 1.0 and XSLT 2.0. W3C is
revising XML Schema, heavily used in SOAP-based Web services, and planning
additions to XML Query beyond the 1.0 version. The XML Processing Model
Working Group will soon publish the first draft of an XML language for
specifying sequences of operations on XML documents, such as transformation,
validation, inclusion and decryption, based on existing XML pipeline products
and free and open source designs.

Generic compression techniques can be applied to XML documents, but a number
of XML-specific technologies for improving the efficiency of XML storage,
transmission and processing have been developed. W3C has chartered a Working
Group on Efficient XML Interchange to expand the outreach of XML into further
domains that require even greater performance and additional capabilities such
as streaming.

About the World Wide Web Consortium [W3C]

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international consortium where
Member organizations, a full-time staff, and the public work together to
develop Web standards. W3C primarily pursues its mission through the creation
of Web standards and guidelines designed to ensure long-term growth for the
Web. Over 400 organizations are Members of the Consortium. W3C is jointly run
by the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (MIT CSAIL)
in the USA, the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics
(ERCIM) headquartered in France and Keio University in Japan,and has
additional Offices worldwide. For more information see http://www.w3.org/

Contact Americas, Australia --
    Janet Daly, <janet@w3.org>,
    +1.617.253.5884 or +1.617.253.2613
Contact Europe, Africa and the Middle East --
    Marie-Claire Forgue, <mcf@w3.org>,
    +33.492.38.75.94
Contact Asia --
    Yasuyuki Hirakawa <chibao@w3.org>,
    +81.466.49.1170