The eXtended Markup Language, XML, was originally proposed as a more powerful and flexible replacement for HTML; it was to be a more powerful document description language that included semantic markup rather than formatting markup. However, many people quickly realized that XML was appropriate for another use -- as a common format for sharing structured and semistructured data. (Semistructured data is irregular and contains schema information encoded with the data, as XML tags and data are encoded together.)
As a result of XML's utility, there has been an explosion of interest in this area -- storing, formatting, modeling, querying, transforming, and modifying it.
Our areas of focus include integration of XML, tools for quickly and easily processing XML, and theoretical issues related to XML querying.