After a brief absence, it is good to see the XML Summer School is back again this September (20th-25th) at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford. This is “a unique event for everyone using, designing or implementing solutions using XML and related technologies.” I’ve been both a delegate and a speaker here over the years; back in 2005, with Nick Drummond we presented the Protégé and OWL tutorial which was good fun. So here is what I.M.H.O. makes the XML summer school worth a look:
- The speakers know their stuff and present it well, Lauren Wood (see blog), John Chelsom, Ron Summers, Bob DuCharme (see blog), Eve Maler (see xmlgrrl blog), Peter Flynn, Norman Walsh (see blog) and Paul Downey (see blog).
- The summer school is a manageable size, making it a more intimate way to learn for both beginners and experts, without getting lost in the impersonal chaos that can be typical of larger workshops and conferences.
- The “dreaming spires” of Oxford are a relaxing place to spend a week studying at a summer school: learning, coding, socialising, drinking and punting – not necessarily in that order!
Here endeth the sales pitch. Now, go and find out for yourself by signing up at the registration page and following on Twitter.
On the subject of XML technology, it seems appropriate to leave the last words in this post to Robin Johnson’s witty-but-nerdy parody of Y.M.C.A with an XML flavour:
X.S.L.T!
It’s fun to program in… X.S.L.T!
Every line in your code
Is an XML node [1]
And the program is one big tree!
References
- Michael Kay (2005) Comparing XSLT and XQuery in XTech 2005: XML, the Web and beyond.
O'Really? 
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