The following invitation was sent to the individuals who subsequently became team leaders:
At XML 2001, we plan to present a schema language comparison panel. Our goal is to provide attendees with some idea of the relative strengths and weaknesses of the schema languages that are currently available. At present, we plan to compare SGML/XML DTDs, W3C XML Schemas, RELAX NG, and Schematron. We would like you to lead a group of experts for <schemalanguage>. Once we have found leaders for all the groups, we will announce the panel on XML-DEV. Leaders are free to invite anyone they wish to join their group. Each group will have three tasks: 1. Invent or adapt a document type of their own choosing, provide a description of that doctype, and provide at least two valid instances. The goal is to allow each group to show off the best features of its language. All groups will be given copies of all the submitted doctypes. 2. Provide a schema for a document type of the analysts choosing. The group will be given a complete description of the document type and a small set of valid and invalid instances. The goal is to allow the analysts to compare apples-to-apples as much as possible. 3. Provide a schema for a small variation of the previous schema, as described by the analysts. The goal is to show how the various languages handle extension and modularity. Each group must provide a schema for all three work items. They may provide schemas for as many of the other groups doctypes as they wish. All groups will be given copies of all the submissions. [Deadline, Nov 15] The analysts for this panel will be Norman Walsh and John Cowan. They will examine each submission, consider how well it matches the definition and the document instances, and prepare a report containing their observations. At the conference, there will be an evening of panel discussion (precise details to be arranged, of course). The analysts will present their report, give the groups a chance to comment on the report, and give the audience a chance to ask questions. The report will be circulated to the groups before the panel discussion. Please let us know by August 24th whether you will be able to be a group leader. If not, would you please suggest someone else who might be interested, and also let me know whether you are interested in participating in the group. We're open to suggestions for improvements, of course!