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Jean Paoli started by echoing Jon Udell’s opening keynote. Udell said we are at the point where the language used by people to communicate is the same language used by computers. He says InfoPath heralds “a new era for XML on the desktop.”

Everyday XML documents are broken up into four parts: the document, the end user, the back end, and the process (workflow).

North Carolina state patrol troopers are using XML forms on mobile units and submit information directly to a mainframe in a pilot program. Troopers and administrators had been using more than 500 forms, lots of manual work, etc. So they move to InfoPath, with units for the end users, on their existing IBM mainframe with Web Services, write an app in “a couple of months”, and got more efficient.

GOL Linhas Aeras, an airline in Brazil, uses an XML spreadsheet representing the Flight Timeline Board. Everyone from the front office to the catering folks use the board for analysis and logistics. Analysts used data that was 3 days old after it was all gathered and scrubbed. They use an Excel 2003 template that now generates current data, over an XML-based reservation system. (From my hazy memory of the systems at Expedia, having an XML-based CRS would be a godsend. The major ones, like Sabre, are (or were until recently) still on ancient mainframe systems.)

Continuing Legal Education Society of British Columbia marks up its documents in XML and has a repository to link to documents and statutes. They used Word 2003 with their own schema, and a CMS, and converted manuals, etc., from print to online.

Merck, a small pharmaceutical concern, is doing a pilot on clinical trials. They have reporting requirements of 24- to 48-hour turnaround in late-stage trials when incidents arise. They use an InfoPath form with their own schema, and their existing databases.

Office 2003 XML Reference Schema “Open, royalty-free license program”. WordprocessingML, SpreadsheetML, etc., published, including documentation, in the open (though if I remember right, InfoPath isn’t available in all versions of Office, no?)

Various arguments in one slide for end-user XML, such as interop, ubiquity, semantics, tool availability, and standardized schemata.

Paoli advocates “everyday XML documents” which are lightweight structure, and which he says “are running the world.”

Someone asked if there’s an Office OS X version with similar functionality. He said he couldn’t answer.

He compared InfoPath again to Notepad, saying it’s low-level enough to do simple reads and writes, and layered enough to include APIs and so forth, including XML Digital Signatures as a security layer.

When asked, “Are DTDs dead?” he responds: “I never use the word ‘dead’.” It just happens that XML Schema makes their lives easier.