Mission

freebXML is an initiative that aims to foster the development and adoption of ebXML and related technology through software and experience sharing.

Objectives

• to create a centralized site for the sharing of 'free' ebXML code and applications as well as development and deployment experience
• to promote ebXML as an e-commerce enabling technology

Organization

freebXML.org is sponsored by the Center for E-Commerce Infrastructure Development and the Department of Computer Science & Information Systems at the University of Hong Kong. Founding members include technical leaders from international technology firms, government organizations, standardization bodies and academic institutions.

What is XML?

XML, like HTML and JavaScript, is a language for building data on the Internet, intranets and other computer based solutions. Unlike JavaScript and HTML, XML is far more flexible for formatting and sharing data through those channels. Yet, XML isn't a one stop language. While it shares attributes with HTML and others, it wouldn't replace them. XML is designed for carrying data, while most languages like HTML are for designing and displaying data. XML will be used with HTML, but never the other way around.

XML stands for eXtensible Markup Language and in general, unlike HTML, it does not necessarily do anything. HTML and other languages are used to create things, like websites and apps. You would use XML to describe a process or product. That description would let a user transmit a program to the individual computer maker's websites. It would compile data and make a valid comparison in a consistent way.

XML is recommended by the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). Like HTML, XML will use markup symbols to describe the contents of a web page. Only while HTML's language will generate text, graphic images, video and other components of the page, XML breaks down content in terms of data being described. In HTML p in bracket would represent a new paragraph, which you would see on the page. With XML, could mean data that follows is a video or image.

That is actually one of the most distinctive and appealing qualities of XML. HMTL has a series of predetermined tags like p in bracket which have a single purpose. XML has no standard tags. The programmer can create tags like because the XML language comes with no predefined tags. XML allows the user to create and maintain their own tags and their own document structure, offering a tremendous amount of flexibility.

It's this very feature that makes XML extensible, because its markup symbols are self-defining and unlimited. It is a subset of the SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language), which is considered the foundation for generating document structure. Only XML is considered easier to implement. One of the platform's earliest applications was the Channel Definition Format (CDF). Here XML was part of a channel downloaded to a hard disk that allowed the automatic and periodic updating a website as that site's information changed. Another early application was ChartWare. ChartWare is a patient care company and utilized XML to describe medical charts that were shared by doctors across their network.

HTML can become cumbersome when attempting to display documents in anything like a mobile device or when translating content between languages (i.e., English to German). XML is easily adapted to a wide variety of contexts. XML can even be applied to situations where there may not be interaction with users (i.e., humans) such as Web Services, which utilizes XML to transmit requests and responses back and forth.

Another distinguishing trait between XML and HTML is the opening and closing of tags. HTML development can include missing end tags, can contain improper nesting and use various capitalizations. XML tags are distinctive. has to close with , not or . XML is used nowadays for many applications such as bid data extraction and analysis, climate change models, search engine optimization and conversion rate optimization by London SEO agencies as well as other companies locally and internationally.

XML has become an international data standard. It aims to separate structure, presentation and meaning from content. With a simple approach to document structure, it marks sections with descriptive markups, allowing the parsing of information in a variety of ways. XML has revolutionized how computers exchange data all over the world and has enabled faster computer speeds than was ever imagined before.

XML is used in so many applications it would be hard to name them all. Nowadays there is no question the ability to share data between industry partners increases productivity. By embracing XML Standards, companies small and big can develop messaging channels that are more potent. Such XML methodologies support the business needs among others of the automotive, power sports, waste management services, real estate and construction equipment retail industries. In the business realm, business data standards are critical, ensuring all trading partners can communicate efficiently, from real estate brokers in Chicago, to waste management operators in Oakland and currency traders in New York city.

Not only is household waste increasing in varying proportions according to the places of production (rural or urban areas, etc.), but it is also diversifying. Indeed, until now household waste had been defined by its non-hazardous nature. They should not be a nuisance as opposed to other so-called hazardous waste. However, it is clear that new waste is appearing, and that a certain number of household refuse rejected daily are toxic; they can no longer be treated as inert waste. As a result, the evolution of the risks linked to household waste, associated with the increase in their poorly identified flows, leads certain players to reconsider their points of view.

Technology innovations like XML are necessary to support our modern informational revolution. For example green energy and clean sustainable product production requires state of the art information technology to manage the large constant flow of data used to optimizes such systems. We do not want to increase the number of bin rental operations in order to remove all the junk generated by our current economic model, and it is time to think differently. XML can be part of this new model.

For many years now, both nationally and locally, waste management has been everyone's concern. Today, this competence represents a real political challenge for sustainable development. Each waste management policy must be built according to its territory, its characteristics and its specific challenges. It is the role of the local elected representatives to build this project associating the inhabitants but also by making the producers of consumer goods and businesses producing waste from economic activities more responsible. In order to achieve the same objectives, which are to treat and recover waste optimally, a chain of actors works in total synergy. Today thanks to better sorting procedures and collection organized by member communities, its efficient equipment and the development of multiple recycling channels, the nation has the resources and means necessary to guarantee good waste management and sustainable waste.

The emergence of an innovation and its development, its success or failure, depend on the context, if not contingent on this context; therefore, the success of a transposition in other territories is not at all obvious. Experience shows that attempts to transplant certain technologies or other solutions lead to many failures. In any case, the term appropriate technology deserves clarification; because there is the technique and the rest, which should not be neglected, when it is too often considered as a simple externality, economic, social or environmental.

In this regard, waste management services appear to be a particularly interesting theme insofar as it is precisely the disappropriation and rejection that underpin the status of waste. Waste does not refer only to zero or negative economic value, but to a complete, complex set (a system) of socio-cultural values. We must therefore deal with values, cultures, beliefs, consider the mind and even go back to the archeology of the mind. A link exists between waste, waste space and social waste. How to go from rejection to the project?

Waste has an ambivalent character: waste or resource? The answer varies depending on the context and the time, and what is waste for some can be a resource for others. According to an optimistic view, it is a resource waiting to be used; its persistence means that an innovation, perhaps within our grasp, has not yet taken place. We can report the existence of unused or misused resources: on the one hand material resources, linked to certain flows or assets (including environmental), on the other hand human resources, whether they are job seekers or other skills (eg retirees).

It is hard to believe XML already celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2016, but we also need to look at the future, as XML could be replaced by a more efficient coding format. Many organizations are now working on creating a consensus within different industries to maintain the robust standards we are currently enjoying from XML. For instance some realty companies manage large banks of real estate listings that needs to be constantly updated to reflect current information. This would not be possible without the flexibility offered by XML.

With the advent of digital networks and information highways whose foreshadows date back to the 1950s and 1960s, our modern societies did not yet perceive the magnitude of the current shift occuring. It is the measure of this acceleration that some computer scientists are trying to grasp with the hidden face of digital technology and the environmental impact of new technologies. In 2008 the American consulting and analysis company Gartner Inc, specialized in new technologies, revealed that the ICT sector was responsible for a quantity of greenhouse gases comparable to that produced by the aviation: 2% of global emissions.

Now, what to do next? Do we need to keep on increasing our landfills and waste management services? Or sacrifice the dogma of growth to save the planet? This is the conclusion certain specialists have. But the tech savvy alternative turns out to be much more attractive, it is to say that technology will do everything and that citizens will not have to worry about anything. And who would dare to oppose the infinite promises of ICT without running the risk of being singled out? As for the industrialists, they blame the curious consumer for a reversal of the situation, in a society which nevertheless makes consumer sovereignty one of the pillars of its definition of democracy. The environmental impacts of digital services are real and ICT has a number of perverse effects. To those who answer that environmental policies are designed using computers, the balance of power will inevitably appear twisted.

Watermarking allows the robust and discreet insertion of information into a document, such as the identity of its owner. Many marking techniques exist for multimedia documents such as image, sound or video. Currently, techniques are developed to mark up structured data. This new method includes a marking model for databases (relational or XML), where the insertion of information must preserve the quality of a certain number of requests declared beforehand. It can be shown that in general, databases cannot be marked, even against trivial requests. As was presented at a recent seminar in Lyon, this result is related to an important combinatorial notion, the dimension of Vapnik and Chervonenkis. There are several restrictions of database instances guaranteeing the insertion of a reasonable amount of information, while preserving the quality of any query defined in a given language. Instances whose graph has a bounded degree, preserving any query in a so-called local language. Examples of local languages are first-order logic or the very popular SQL language. Instances with a limited tree width, preserving any second order monadic request. This language is important because it serves as a theoretical basis for practical languages for querying XML documents. These restrictions are optimal.

Technological initiatives are emerging to help Americans solve the puzzle of different logos, different bins, and packaging to recycle or not. Only half of American people say they systematically sort their waste. Those who do not sort say that this is due either to the lack of clarity of the sorting system, or because of the lack of initiatives to encourage recycling. 554 kilos of waste are emitted on average each year by each American person, 814 kilos at the community level. Even if residents and businesses are improving every year, local authorities and waste management companies must use new technologies to accelerate this movement, encourage recycling and the circular economy.

No longer choose the wrong bin thanks to a mobile application! Last year, to transform the waste sorting system, the government of Florida adopted a series of measures, including the harmonization of the color of bins and the adoption of a single logo. But while waiting for the progressive implementation of these new color codes and logos, technological initiatives are emerging to help Americans solve the puzzle of the different logos, the different bins, and the packaging to be recycled or not. This is the case of an intelligent box capable of telling us instantly whether such and such a product goes to sorting or not. Waste manager St Augustine Dumpster Rental HQ has also provided residents of partner local authorities with an application that allows consumers to always deposit their waste in the right container. Simply scan the barcode of a product to find out if it is recyclable and how to sort it.