DonXML Blog

I mentioned the BOF sessions last week, and then Brad and Shawn made similar posts, but I recently found out that there will be no audio visual equipment at the BOF sessions (as per Dave reply to my post on the INTEA forums).  IMHO, this pretty much eliminates a lot of the possible benefits of BOF sessions, the way they are setup now.  If there will be no access to a/v equipment, they really should change the session setup to a  panel discussion format, with one person acting as the MC, and let the audience question the panel.  This way you really don’t need a/v equipment, and it would also help foster community involvement.  A similar session to BOF was the Panel Discussion at XmlDevCon, and that went over great.  The way it is setup now, one person submits a proposal and an abstract, but that person can’t really do a presentation without a/v equipment (nor does it seem that a presentation is really what the BOF sessions are all about).  You need some way of including a list of panel members for each proposed session.

I just got an email from Apress announcing the launch of the “Apress Forums” which was created to help foster a community with their authors, contributors, and readers.  As someone who has worked as an Apress  tech reviewer, (on Kurt Cagle's SVG Programming book) they are actively trying to get me participate on the forums.  Since I’m a sucker for that type of stuff, and I really enjoyed working with Apress, you should see may name there quite often (at least for a while anyway).

I totally missed this forum on the INETA site, but if you have suggestions for the PDC BOF sessions, you may want to stop by and make it public.  Also, if you see a suggestion that you would want to go to, let them know.  The BOF sessions  gives us morts a chance to have a voice at the PDC.

I don’t know how many of you out there have been to Don Smith’s Dev4Net blog, but if you are into SQLXML, you should definitely stop by, it is written entirely in SQLXML 3.0, and he has made the source available. 

Steve Maine is trying to figure out a way to track who subscribes to his blog.  He wants something like Trackback or PingBack, but for RSS subscriptions.  He suggests one possible solution using XML-RPC. Check out his blog entry for more info.

I’ll continue the Your Career thread, but with a different twist.  First off, I’m going to the PDC, and as an indie consultant, I’m taking the time off (without pay), and paying my own way.  The major reasons I go to events like this are:

Dr. (colonel) Richard Colin Campbell Ames in The Cat Who Walks Through Walls by Robert Heinlein:

I’ll be at the PDC.  Since I’m an independent consultant I had to convince the world’s toughest boss (me), and the world’s toughest boss’ boss (my wife), of the cost benefit of going, but some how I managed to convince them.  All kidding aside, I was going to post a long drawn out post replying to a bunch of the not going posts, but I’ll save the world from dragging this thing on any longer.  I’ve known since last year that the PDC was going to be either the end of 2003 or the beginning of 2004, so I’ve budgeted for it.