Tim Bray

Extensible markup language

XML is the lingua franca of the wireless Web. Its strength is in its generality: XML can describe virtually any kind of structured data. Once described, the data can be presented in other formats. Moreover, XML is already being used for a host of server-server communication applications, which make it possible for different data servers to easily exchange information. The trend toward a common format for representing data will doubtlessly present new opportunities for both Web and wireless Web clients.

Measuring the Web

Abstract “When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind; it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely in your thoughts advanced to the state of science.” — Lord Kelvin This paper presents some difficult qualitative questions concerning the Web, and attempts to provide some partial quantitative answers to them. It uses the numbers in these answers to drive some 3-D visualizations of localities in the Web.