XML, Query Languages, and Databases

XML has dramatically changed the way we exchange and store data, and a new crop of standards promises to change the way we query data. On today's Internet, most data is queried and stored using relational databases, exchanged as XML, and displayed as HTML.

For those who need to use XML and databases together, the last five years have been chaotic, creative, interesting, and often frustrating. Every major database vendor has added XML support, but each vendor takes a very different approach, and sometimes changes that approach dramatically from one version to the next. Today, the vendors seem to be lining up behind XQuery and the SQL/XML mappings - is this just the latest wave of marketing hype, or has the industry now found its way?

Questions from the audience will be the main focus. At the start of the town hall, each panelist will be invited to speak for five minutes, addressing one or more of the following questions:

o What problems do we currently encounter when working with XML and databases? What do the current technologies do well, and what do they do badly? In the next few years, how will we use XML and database data together?

o What role will XQuery and SQL/XML play in querying and processing data? Will XQuery live up to its hype? Does SQL/XML deserve more visibility? Are these competing or complementary standards?

o Will the current crop of proprietary vendor extensions for XML be replaced by the standards in the coming years? Do the standards provide the needed functionality in a convenient way?

o Is XML a good data model for databases? Is it unwise to store important data in a format that is not based on a mathematical model, and a format without well established modeling methodologies?

o Will native XML databases play an important role? Are there specific kinds of applications that tend to favor storage as XML versus storage as relational data?

This town hall meeting will bring together industry leaders who represent distinctly different points of view. These include members of the XQuery Working Group and members of INCITS H2.3 who are involved in developing SQL/XML, as well as developers experienced with the current crop of database extensions for XML.