Tim wonders whether he should let the ’softies attending and speaking at the Applied XML Developer’s Conference have it or not. I say, give us both barrels, Tim!

Rory is giving away one seat to the Applied XML Developer’s Conference. He’s asking three questions before Friday and drawing from anyone that can answer all three. Question 1 and question 2 have already been posted.

There are still a hand full of seats left if you’re like to purchase one.

I can't get Sam to reply to my emails, so I'm hoping he'll see this post: Sam, can I get the status of your DevCon slides? They were due Monday. Thank you.

If you haven’t yet submitted your abstract to the Applied XML Developer’s Conferences, don’t wait much longer; I’m only accepting submissions ’til the end of June, 2004.

I’ve already gotten a ton of abstracts, including submissions from folks like Sam Rub, Tim Bray, Tim Ewald and Don Box, but that doesn’t mean that your talk won’t bubble up to the top; as much as I like to have the polished speakers, I like even more to have the folks from the trenches.

According to current thinking, the conference is likely to be 9/30 - 10/1 within an hour of the Portland Airport, although details are still being finalized.

Submit your abstract today!

Don suggested that I change the topic of DevCon5 to XAML or some other topic. So far, the DevCons have run the course of topics from ATL to Web Services and then to Applied XML/Web Services.

My primary concern when throwing a DevCon is that there is a sufficient user base of the technology that it’s more than a vendor show. Even the original ATL DevCon only had a few MS employees and one MS talk. The rest of it were practitioners and experts from outside the big house and that makes for a better conference, imo.

So, as much as I love Longhorn and Avalon specifically and see them at topics for future DevCons, the technology’s not ready yet. Most of the real Avalon experts are MS employees and while there are some notable exceptions, we’re just not at a critical mass of folks yet for a XAML DevCon.

Are you interested in presenting a 45-minute talk on some applied XML or Web Services topic? It doesn’t matter which platform or OS you’re targeting. It also doesn’t matter whether you’re an author or vendor or professional speaker or a developer in the trenches (in fact, I tend to be biased towards the latter). We’re after interesting and unique applications of XML and Web Services technology and if you’re doing good work in that area, then I need you to send me a session topic and 2-4 sentence abstract along with a little bit about yourself.

I’ll be taking submissions ’til the end of June, but don’t delay. Passion and a burning story to tell count twice as much as anything else.

And don’t be shy about spreading this announcement around! I’ve got good coverage in the .NET and Windows communities, but don’t know very many folks in the Java or Unix or hardcore XML worlds, so if you’re in that world, let those guys know! Thanks.

BTW, the conference itself is likely to be in Oregon during the 2nd or 3rd week of September, 2004, but we’re still working the details out. One of the fun things that we’re thinking about this year is to have the Dev.Conf. in Sunriver, Oregon, a resort and spa town in central Oregon where sun is plentiful and rain is scarce. There are no major airports there, so we’d provide bus transportation from Portland, OR for anyone that wanted it. It’d be a 3.5 hour road trip. What do folks think about that?

"Some XML applications don't require validation to function properly but others absolutely require it in one form or another to avoid disasters. Aaron Skonnard discusses when validation is a MUST, then presents different implementation techniques for tackling the problem."

"Some XML applications don't require validation to function properly but others absolutely require it in one form or another to avoid disasters. Aaron Skonnard discusses when validation is a MUST, then presents different implementation techniques for tackling the problem."