THE XML DATA FORUM
Conference Sessions
(NOTE: Some sessions have "Pre-Reading Materials."  Follow the links to check them out!)

Monday, November 4, 2002
5:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Night School

Concordance: Managing Mismatched Data from Multiple Sources

Denise  Draper
Chief Software Architect
Nimble Technology

When integrating data from multiple sources, one of the primary hurdles to overcome is how to match the data that refer to the same entity across different sources, when there is no 'natural key.'   A classic example is two systems that house customer data that have to be matched on customer name or address, but names and addresses are subtly different.  

This problem is solved with various kinds of 'merge/purge' techniques for creating warehouses or cleaning source data, but the problem is different when doing virtual data integration, when the underlying source data remains 'dirty' but cannot be changed.  We call this the 'concordance' problem.

In this talk, we will describe the issues involved in the concordance problem, and describe a solution based on creating an independent concordance database, which tracks the relationships between records in multiple sources.  The issues and steps involved in designing and constructing a concordance database will be described, as well as how the concordance database is then used.   

Tuesday, November 5, 2002
5:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Night School 

Introduction to RosettaNet

Robert  Oberwetter
Application Development Manager
Tokyo Electron America 

RosettaNet combines the disciplines of XML, Data Integration and Modeling into an integrated business process.  All three areas are critical to, and used by, RosettaNet.  This presentation describes:

Attendees will learn that there is more to application integration than just the integration activities.  Each integration has a business process which must be defined and modeled.

Wednesday, November 6, 2002
7:15 am - 8:15 a
SIG

Using XSLT for Cheap Data Transformation

Hal  Davis
Project Manager
Mellon Financial Services 

XSLT (eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformations) offers a standard, self-documenting format for transformations of XML data.  Indeed, XSLT has become a universal format for describing and implementing data transformations. It can be used to automatically generate metadata for XML documents and is also characterized by its relative simplicity (including the availability of low cost tools).  This presentation will describe XSLT, discuss its applications, compare XSLT to other data transformation alternatives, and demonstrate the simplicity of the to ols.

Wednesday, November 6, 2002
10:30 am - 11:30 am
Conference Session

Using Web Services for Integration Within and Outside the Enterprise

Leo  Kraunelis
Director
OASIS/XML.org

Web Services are reducing the cost of integration.  This presentation explains what web services are, and demonstrates their application through case studies and ROI examples. It also offers insight on market trends and to ols.

Wednesday, November 6, 2002
10:30 am - 11:30 am
Conference Session

Data Model Patterns, Generalizations and XML

Roland  Berg
Principal Consultant
ThinkSpark 

Patterns and generalizations have long been touted as the solution to managing unstable data environments.  The use of metadata-centered database designs creates a great deal of flexibility in the structures and allows the database to become evolutionary in content while maintaining structural consistency. 

XML and related technology is considered to be the solution to the problem of exchanging dynamic data across diverse systems. 

It is only natural that we should explore the implications of applying XML-based data interchange to patterned/generalized databases and vice-versa. This presentation is a discussion of the impact that each technological approach has on the other and an exploration of the alternatives available for representing a patterned/generalized database as an XML structure.

Specific issues addressed will include the interaction of the object-like nature of the highly generalized database with the hierarchical structure of XML and options for transporting the highly metadata-driven information via XML.

Attendees will learn:

Wednesday, November 6, 2002
11:40 am - 12:40 pm
Conference Session 

XML as Meta Data 

Matthew  Williams
Senior Data Analyst
Worldspan

Drawing from personal experience as a data analyst and an on-going effort to embrace and standardize on XML practices within Worldspan, the speaker will address XML issues as they relate to current data administration practices.  Currently most of the information surrounding XML has been from a programming/application perspective, and little attention has been given to XML as metadata.  From a DA or DBA perspective XML is metadata, and as such needs to be incorporated into the database design process.  This necessitates that programmers/application developers, DAs and DBAs work closely with each other to harness the power of XML without jeopardizing data integrity within the organization. This presentation will address different facets of this issue including: 

Wednesday, November 6, 2002
1:45 pm - 2:45 pm
Conference Session

Analytical API Update: XML for Analysis & JOLAP

Seth  Grimes
Principal Consultant
Alta Plana Corporation

BI vendors led by Microsoft, Hyperion, and SAS Institute last year released version 1.0 of the XML for Analysis (XML/A) specification, "an open-standards-based messaging interface" designed to "promote the standardization of the data access interaction between a client application and business intelligence systems and other applications over the Web and in distributing environments." 

Meanwhile, the nascent JOLAP specification provides a similar API for the J2EE [Java] Web services environment, one that "supports the creation and maintenance of OLAP data and metadata, in a vendor-independent manner.

An overview of the XML/A and JOLAP specifications

Attendees will learn  

Pre-Reading Materials

Wednesday, November 6, 2002
1:45 pm - 2:45 pm
Panel

The Semantic Web

Brett  Champlin
Process Center of Expertise
Allstate Insurance Company   

William  Ruh
Senior Vice President of Professional Service
Software AG, Inc

Dave  McComb
President
Semantic Arts

The Semantic Web is a much anticipated (and yet often misunderstood) concept.  Fundamentally, the Semantic Web is a vision of the future in which documents and data contain descriptive metadata which allows them to be easily understood by computers.  Like so many nascent ideas in technology, the potential payoffs are huge, but the implementation questions remain unanswered.  Nonetheless, it deserves a much closer look.

In this session we’ll evaluate the business implications of the Semantic Web, and how much time and effort your organization should devote to further research.

Pre-Reading Materials

Wednesday, November 6, 2002
3:15 pm - 4:15 pm
Conference Session 

XML Tools: XML Views

Bradley  Wright
Vice President, Product Development
MetaMatrix, Inc

Mark Milodragovich
Senior Information Engineer
Nimble Technology, Inc.

Integration is clearly one of the core benefits of XML deployment, and can take various forms.  In this session we examine two aspects of XML data integration.

The first, sometimes called XML Views (or virtual XML documents) dynamically mediates and integrates data from heterogenous data sources.  The speaker will present a high level survey of vendor claims/announcements of XML Views to help attendees sort through confusing terminology. 

In the second part we will discuss the integration of legacy systems into XML standard schemas.  This presentation will show how the OMG Meta Object Facility (MOF) extends UML modeling to apply to modeling diverse information sources, including XML schemas to create Platform Independent Models (PIMs).  The speaker will show how the schema can be represented as a virtual model and then mapped to Non-XML physical sources, as well as XML sources.  He will then show how the virtual models are applied to the integration of the diverse information sources.

Thursday, November 7, 2002
7:15 am - 8:15 am
SIG

XML Tools: Native XML Databases

Alex Cheng
Director of Engineering
Ipedo

Native XML databases offer a number of advantages over traditional relational databases.  This session will explain the similarities and differences between the two, in terms of how they store data, the query language and application interfaces used, and the methods for managing schema.  It will also demonstrate the functionality of this new product class. 

Thursday, November 7, 2002
8:30 am - 9:30 am
Conference Session 

Managing XML Assets

Kathryn  Breininger
Internet Librarian
The Boeing Company 

Darren  Wrigley
Director of Repository Services
ASG

As XML becomes more widely used, the need for efficient management of XML-related assets becomes critical.  This presentation describes, in two parts, how repository and registry technology are being used to manage XML assets – such as DTDs and schemas --- providing discovery of, access to, and sharing of these assets.  The first part of the presentation describes the range of technologies used to access and control the information assets, with a particular emphasis on the role of the repository.  Attendees will learn about XML-related facilities and standards for transportation, access, and communication of XML metadata, and their place in an integrated management strategy.  

The second part of the presentation examines a successful current implementation of an enterprise repository and registry at Boeing.  The Central Registration Authority and Locator (CENTRAL) at Boeing is designed to store and retrieve reusable XML assets. The CENTRAL Registry contains metadata and locations for XML assets and makes these assets available to the entire Boeing enterprise as reusable objects.  The speaker, Kathryn Breininger, will discuss the scope of the project and the events that led up to the development of the CENTRAL Registry, including the design of the system, and the functions and roles of the users. She will provide an overview of content management and configuration control issues, and how these have been resolved.  She will also discuss how the Registry enables data integration across the enterprise.  Finally, she will the evolution of CENTRAL in terms of its architecture, services, and functions to be provided in future phases, and will discuss how CENTRAL ties in with activities in ebXML, and how existing standards are implemented in the system.  

Thursday, November 5, 2002
9:45 am - 10:45 am 

XML Tools: XQUERY 

Denise  Draper
Chief Software Architect
Nimble Technology

Alex Cheng
Director of Engineering
Ipedo

XQuery is the new query language being designed by the W3C to query XML data.  This talk will introduce the main XQuery language features, in particular comparing them to SQL and existing XML access methods such as XPath.  We will demonstrate how XQuery can be used to create a simple web application.  

Pre-Reading Materials

Thursday, November 7, 2002
11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Conference Session 

Managing Schema Chaos for XML

Dan  Chang & Lucian Popa
Research Staff
IBM 

The growing need to integrate disparate systems or to allow them to exchange  data has caused significant attention to and excitement about the use of XML as a "canonical data format" for such systems, especially on the Web. XML by itself, however, is necessary but not sufficient. What is needed further are common XML vocabularies or schemas.  

Unfortunately, the likelihood that all disparate systems will agree to a set of common XML schemas is slim. The reality is that all sorts of "common" XML schemas that overlap or conflict with each other have been and will continue to be developed. We call this reality schema chaos and we have developed a solution framework, Xcalibur, for managing schema chaos. The key component  of Xcalibur is a novel framework for mapping heterogeneous XML schemas. Our approach works in three phases. In the first phase, system supplied and/or user defined high-level mappings are checked for compatibility and expressed as a set of inter-schema correspondences.  The second phase transforms these correspondences into a set of logical mappings based on the semantics of the source schemas and the target schema. The third phase translates these logical mappings into XQueries over the source schemas that produce data conforming to the structure and constraints of the target schema, and preserving the semantics of the source schemas and mappings.  

Information integration and application integration are among the most  critical challenges facing corporate IT staffs. XML is a promising technology for delivering the needed solution. However, without proper schema management, XML will only create a different chaos: the schema chaos. This presentation discusses a novel solution framework for managing schema chaos for XML.

Thursday, November 7, 2002
11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Conference Session 

XML in Unstructured Data Environments

Robert  Ainsbury
General Manager US Operations
Xyleme 

The features of XML that allow it to make “unstructured” data environments more manageable are one of its greatest assets.  Exciting new applications in the areas of content management, document publishing, multimedia, search and intellectual asset management will all be facilitated by the power of embedded, XML-enabled, computer-understandable “meaning.”  Essentially, it will turn unstructured data into near-structured data.  Order out of chaos.

The News and Press industries have been one of the fastest to adopt XML for this purpose; with widely accepted standards (such as NewsML) and utilization by virtually all the leading organizations worldwide. Many of the challenges and opportunities pioneered in news and publishing are now surfacing in other industries.  Using this industry as an example, this lively session will offer no-nonsense insights about what to do, and what not to do, when wrestling with large-scale XML adoption.

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