Soumitra Sengupta, Product Unit Manager, WebData XML Team, Microsoft Corporation, USA
Plugging into the Pervasive XML Infrastructure
Soumitra Sengupta will speak about the logical steps in XML infrastructure; where we are, and where we're heading.
Bio: Soumitra Sengupta is a Product Unit Manager in the SQL Server organization at Microsoft, responsible for the WebData XML team that implements the core XML technologies. Previously he was co-founder and CTO of B-Bop Associates, which produced a native XML interface on top of relational DBMS.p>
Steven G. Harris, Vice President, Java Platform Group, Server Technologies, Oracle
XML and Web Services: A Blueprint for Next Generation Applications
This presentation will discuss the challenges that organizations must overcome in dealing with the complexity of modern application architectures and show how XML and Web Services play a pivotal role in the modern application blueprint.
Bio: Mr. Harris has degrees from George Washington University and UC Berkeley. After more than 10 years in scientific and engineering computing and consulting areas, he spent three years working on document management and systems integration. In 1993, he co-founded a software startup providing an object-oriented database product to Smalltalk developers (a precursor to Java). He sold the company to ParcPlace-Digitalk and served as VP of Engineering of that publicly-held company. He joined Oracle in 1997 to manage development of the Java virtual machine for the Oracle8i release. Since then, his role has expanded to include the entire J2EE platform in the Oracle Application Server product. This includes EJB, Servlets, JSPs, JDBC drivers, SQLJ, TopLink, and web services support in both the application server and database.
Jim Hendler, Professor, University of Maryland & Director of Semantic Web and Agent Technology, Maryland Information and Network Dynamics Laboratory
From Atoms to OWLs the new ecology of the Semantic Web
Over the past couple of years, Semantic Web deployment has really started rolling. Successes have included adoption of RDF by major corporations and the development of new ontology-based technologies of use for many enterprise and web applications. Despite this, controversy still seems to abound with respect to both the relationship of the Semantic Web to XML, and the use of these technologies. This talk will explain what the Semantic Web is all about and, perhaps more importantly, attempt to dispel two pervasive myths -- that XML and the Semantic Web are incompatible, and that XML is able to do all that the Semantic Web promises without reinventing the semantic extensions inherent in RDF and OWL.
Bio: Jim Hendler is a Professor at the University of Maryland and the Director of Semantic Web and Agent Technology at the Maryland Information and Network Dynamics Laboratory. He has joint appointments in the Department of Computer Science, the Institute for Advanced Computer Studies and is an affiliate of the Institute for Systems Research. He has authored about 200 technical papers in the areas of artificial intelligence, Semantic Web, agent-based computing and high performance processing. Hendler was the recipient of a 1995 Fulbright Foundation Fellowship, is a former member of the US Air Force Science Advisory Board, and is a Fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence. He is also the former Chief Scientist of the Information Systems Office at the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), was awarded a US Air Force Exceptional Civilian Service Medal in 2002, and is a member of the World Wide Web Consortium's Semantic Web Coordination Group. He is the Editor in Chief of IEEE Intelligent Systems and is on the Board of Reviewing Editors for Science
David Megginson, Principal, Megginson Technologies Ltd.
Everyone's using XML, but does anyone care?
XML-based applications like blog syndication and recomposable web sites are changing the way we use the web and the way we live our lives. Why isn't it easy, then to answer the question "does XML matter"?
Bio: David Megginson, principal of Megginson Technologies, has been active within the SGML and, later, XML communities since 1991. He led the original initiative that created SAX, the Simple API for XML, which is now the most widely used streaming API for XML and has been implemented in products by IBM, Oracle, Apache, and Sun, along with many others.
David's work includes consulting and development for many companies and organizations, a large number of Open Source software packages, and two books: Structuring XML Documents (1998) and Imperfect XML (2004).
David formerly chaired the XML Information Set Working Group at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and served as a member of the W3C's XML Working Group and XML Coordination Group.
In Spring 2000, David was proud to receive the Java Technology Achievement Award For Outstanding Individual Contribution to the Java Community from Sun Microsystems and JavaPro magazine.
Outside of XML, David is an instrument-rated private pilot.
Robert Picciano, Vice President, Data Management, IBM Corporation
The future of XML Information Management
This presentation will discuss how XML is changing the definition of 'Information Management' and the challenges associated with this change. XML provides endless opportunities when it comes to solving complex data issues companies face today from data integration to implementation of Service Oriented Architectures(SOA). Companies that choose to exploit the advantages of XML will undoubtly gain an edge over their competitors but will also be required to solve the challenges around how to best manage and service XML data without compromising data security and integrity.
Bio: Bob Picciano is Vice President of Database Servers for IBM’s Information Management Division. In this unique and broad capacity, Mr. Picciano is the responsible business line executive for IBM’s highly successful database portfolio of software products; including the DB2 Family, Informix IDS, Cloudscape, RedBrick, and Informix XPS. Mr. Picciano oversees the product line and technology landscape to ensure that IBM maintains its position of leadership; as well as oversees the associated marketing, sales, services and technical support aspects aligned with database software. Mr. Picciano reports directly to Janet Perna, IBM’s Information Management General Manager and Senior Executive. He is also a member of IBM’s Senior Leadership Team, providing guidance to the corporation and across IBM.
As IBM’s Vice President of Database Technology, Mr. Picciano led the worldwide development and maintenance of IBM’s award winning DB2 UDB on all Linux, Windows and Unix platforms. DB2 UDB is the foundation of e-business applications and is used by over 3,000,000 customers worldwide to leverage information. Mr. Picciano was the Senior Information Management Executive for IBM Canada and performed his worldwide DB2 duties while on international assignment leading the team from IBM’s Toronto Software Development Laboratory in Markham Canada.
Mr. Picciano earned his B.S. degree in Computer Science from Northeastern University in 1987. He first entered IBM as a programmer in Bethesda, Maryland, developing advanced workstation based SGML editor products.