This paper reports on the outcome of the W3C Workshop on Binary Interchange of XML Information Item Sets. A prerequisite to attend the workshop was submitting a position paper. A total of 36 position papers were accepted. In the papers, organizations and individual contributors stated their position regarding potential W3C involvement in the standardization of a binary XML format and also shared their experiences using various binary XML solutions that are currently available.

We will not report on the position that each organization or individual took with respect to the need for a W3C-blessed binary XML format. Instead, we will concentrate on the technical aspects of the discussions by (i) elaborating on a list of requirements for an ideal binary XML format and (ii) outlining a taxonomy for the different solutions presented in the position papers.