Weekly Review: XML Brings Power to the People

The way people talk about XML Web services is reminiscent of the early days of the personal computer. Some say that, just like the PC, Web services promise to deliver to users capabilities they previously could only dream of. But others — just like naysayers when the PC first arrived — express doubt about whether users are equipped to handle such unprecedented power.

XML for Everyone
One of the most ardent enthusiasts for the former view is a key XML architect at Microsoft, one of the original co-creators of XML. Jean Paoli wants to put XML into the hands of the masses — ordinary, everyday users who would never in a million years think of creating raw XML, but who will be able to do so through the medium of familiar desktop tools such as Excel and Word, once the next release of Microsoft Office ships.

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"For the first time in the history of computing, the people who actually run the day-to-day operations of a business will be able to, in effect, write their own software." Give us your feedback in the ASPnews Discussion Forum

"Our added value is bringing XML to the end user, to democratize this XML file that they don't know how to deal with," Paoli told Internetnews in an interview earlier this month (see Q&A: Microsoft XML Architect Jean Paoli).

The interview finishes up with a discussion of InfoPath, the new form-creation application that will ship with professional and enterprise versions of Office 11. In the same way that organizations have always been able to set up corporate document templates in Word, so Office will have special XML templates called schema that can be set up at a company-wide or departmental level. InfoPath then allows individual users to design forms to view, update or add new information to the structured XML files without having to understand or even know about the underlying schema.

"We really wanted to put the XML authoring in the hands of the end user, the mass market," explains Paoli. "The user interface is in terms of menus and clicks and is very familiar to the end user, while still following the schema. The end user just knows that he is clicking on a few things and sees a form being created."

Empowering users to design their own forms gives business users the capability to design and create their own automated processes on the spot, without having to wait in line for a developer resource. For the first time in the history of computing, the people who actually run the day-to-day operations of a business will be able to, in effect, write their own software.

But only in some organizations. In spite of Paoli's enthusiastic rhetoric, others at Microsoft have decided that the masses are quite ready for InfoPath in its current form. Only larger enterprises, or those who stump up for the full professional version of Office, will get InfoPath. Buyers of office bundles targetted at smaller businesses and individuals will have to buy it separately if they want to take advantage of its features.

Give It Away? Microsoft Can't Win Either Way
For some, this decision goes against the grain of what Paoli and his peers have been trying to achieve. Unless XML is ubiquitous, it won't deliver the promised benefits, and therefore they say it would be better if InfoPath were free, just like the Internet Explorer browser. That it should be Microsoft that has made this decision seems doubly ironic, considering how much the company benefitted from the PC and the way that it democratized access to computing in the first place. (But then the company can't win, since if it decided to give away InfoPath the same critics would accuse it of trying to undermine competitors).

Some caution may be justified, however. Every organization will still need someone skilled enough to define the underlying XML schema that enable InfoPath to work its magic. Those skills currently remain the province of a rare breed of specialists. If untutored users start trying to define their own schemas, who knows what monstrosities they might create, which is hardly a robust platform on which to start developing homegrown applications using InfoPath's form-building capabilities.

Another view, however, might point out that much the same reservations were expressed in the early days of Mac- and PC-based desktop publishing, and later Web site publishing. While some of the results were utter calamities, they were a necessary part of the experimentation and learning process that accompanies the emergence of any new activity. In time, people learn the necessary skills, best practice gets established. It all gets written up in books and new software releases, and it all ends up as part of mainstream culture.

Who Will Bring XML to the Masses?
One thing is certain. Once users get wind of the potential benefits, there's little chance of holding them back. They may not understand the technology, but they do know their own jobs much better than anybody, even the experts. If they can bend a new technology to achieve what they need to do more effectively or with less effort, then they'll seize that opportunity. That's what happened with the PC, and there's every chance the same will happen with XML, just as soon the first user-friendly tools get out there in the market. Microsoft has a chance to be there first with InfoPath, but if it chooses not to be, there are plenty of would-be rivals who are more than eager to take its place.

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