Working with XML

Francis Cave has more than 20 years' experience of the use of markup languages in publishing. A former publishing technology consultant at Pira International, he has presented courses on SGML and XML for The Publishing Training Centre for almost ten years. Francis now divides his time between the development of XML-based e-commerce standards and advising publishers on how to use XML effectively. He provides technical support to Book Industry Communication and EDItEUR on the development of the ONIX and EDItX families of XML-based standards for communication in the book and serials supply chains. He is chairman of BSI Technical Committee IST/41 and of XML UK, a not-for-profit organisation that promotes the use of XML.

Alex Brown first became interested in structured markup when analysing literary texts for his doctorate in the 1980s, after which he worked as a developer on cross-platform multimedia publishing projects. In 1997 Alex was one of the founding directors of Griffin Brown Digital Publishing Ltd, a company providing XML-based services and products. He is responsible for leading the company's XML consulting and implementation. His work includes advising clients on XML/IT strategy and practice, mentoring clients' staff, writing DTDs and Schemas, and designing and developing XML software systems. In 2002, Alex joined the BSI Technical Committee IST/41, where he contributes to ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34 in its formation of the DSDL ISO standard, among other things. Alex writes and speaks regularly on structured markup technologies and their application to information management.