Introduction

Bill de hÓra's post reminded me that I have not posted my own
introduction.

I am Frank Boumphrey, and I, together with Aaron Swartz, represent the
HTML Writers Guild (www.hwg.org). Aaron Swartz is our alternate, but
as I'm sure you all realize, he is the 'brains' in our organization.

However that being said, I have been involved one way or another , in
resource description for the last 30 years. I am a former Professor of
Surgery, and I set up one of the first systems to exchange research
information across the internet. (For the International Society for
the Study of the Lumbar Spine). It soon became apparent that the
_major_ problem for exchanging research information was how to
describe or index our information. We never solved that problem, but
RDF and particularly Dublin Core does do that.

The other hat that I wear is that of the president of the HTML Writers
guild. We are a 125,000 member strong, not-for-profit, International
organization of  Web page Writers, and of course we are members of
both Oasis and the W3C. Aaron Swartz is one of our members. At present
most of our members are not aware of the 'Semantic Web', but if the
semantic Web is to mean any thing in practical terms it is important
that those in the trenches, i.e. our members, become aware of it, and
also adopt it.

My primary reason for participation in this group is to make sure that
'the semantic web' is understandable to all the 'grunts' in the
trenches, i.e. our members.

I am also the W3C AC representative for the HWG.  I am a late member
of the XHTML working group. I am also an editor of the XHTML
modularization rec. and of  the main XHTML rec.

I look forward to meeting you all at the next F2F, and I must say that
I am _very_ impressed by  your obvious expertise, and by your grasp of
the relevant issues. For this reason I will probably be a very silent
participant, and will just applaud in the background. :>)

Frank

Frank  Boumphrey M.D. Ph.D.
President, HTML Writers Guild
Author:
 Beginning XHTML
 XML Unleashed
 XML for Dummies
 Professional Style sheets
 XML applications
  www.hypermedic.com
http://gutenberg.hwg.org

Received on Friday, 11 May 2001 01:09:53 UTC