Around 60 XML experts, many of whom have invested much time and effort in the development of XML specifications, gathered to discuss the future of XML standardization in an evening meeting at XML DevCon Fall 2000, San Jose.

Representatives from OASIS, W3C, DISA and those with experience of ISO and the Java Community Process all spoke. One of the main focuses of the meeting was on meeting the needs of those who want to use XML but are forced by law or contract to use ISO standards.

However, little enthusiasm was expressed by the majority of participants for pursuing an ISO XML standard. The preferred route seemed to be to enforce adherence to W3C recommendations through extensive conformance testing.

Referring to the meeting in his Tuesday keynote, Tim Bray expressed his admiration and pride in the folk who had developed so much of XML because they believed in it. However, he was less certain about the way XML standards were going. Admitting reservations about the XML Schema specification, he suggested that XML standards development might be well served by following some of the techniques embodied in the "Extreme Programming" software development philosophy.

• Full report on community meeting at XML.com
• Ongoing coverage on XML.com