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Binary showdown: do we need Binary XML?

Article Excerpt
On September 24 the W3C set in motion a process that could radically change not only how XML is used and how XML-based applications are developed--but XML itself right down to its beloved (or detested) pointy-angle brackets. "The W3C Workshop on Binary Interchange of XML Information Items Sets" brought together 34 interested parties divided among binary revolutionaries, pointy-angle-bracket fundamentalists, and a number of fence-sitters to try to form a community consensus and to decide whether or not to move forward to a full W3C activity and a binary XML Recommendation.

The price of admission to the fracas was a position paper, solicited both from within the W3C membership and from without. The positions can be reduced to four basic degrees of support or opposition to the idea the time has come for a standard Binary XML format:

1. Urgently, compellingly, immediately required. Binary XML must be standardized with or without the W3C, but preferably with.

2. Binary XML is a clear necessity, but adequate study and time must be taken to ensure a robust standard meeting a plethora of needs.

3. Not too sure about this ... approach with great caution and don't undo the things that have made XML so successful. Interoperability is concern #1.

4. Not this stupid idea again! Moore's Law will solve this "problem" far faster than the W3C could.

Here is the breakdown of the how the workshop participants saw this fundamental question:

* Urgent 17 * Necessity 12 * Cautious 3 * Against 2

Workshop participants can be grouped into eight technology sectors. The positions taken showed clear segmentation across the various areas of interest as shown in Table 1.

The revolutionaries ready to storm the barricades come from the new applications for XML: wireless, digital broadcasting, and GIS. The independents (consultants, individual technologists, and none-of-the-above) showed only slightly less penchant for quick action. The more querulous old guard seems to consist of those with a greater investment in legacy XML: the technology powerhouses, database vendors, and those involved with imaging and document applications.

I dug up the annual revenue figures for the workshop participants and calculated a revenue-weighted score for the perceived urgency of standardizing binary XML. Revenue is usually a general gauge of stake in the current technology and, as one would expect, money comes down on the side of caution. Revenue-weighted mean score: 2.376

Sometimes it doesn't matter what the industry as a whole wants to do but only what the industry gorillas want. So I looked separately at the positions of those companies with $30 billion U.S. revenue...