October 1999 

Extensible Markup Language (XML)

A Persistent Universal Encoding Scheme

E-commerce (the sale of goods and services on the Internet) has been, as predicted by many, embraced at an explosive rate. Arguably one of the most prolific companies to use e-commerce (their entire business model is based on it) is Amazon.com. Beginning with the online sale of books, Amazon.com has recently expanded its scope to include auctions, electronics and toys. We are seeing online offerings of all types of goods and services, from groceries to automobiles and motorcycles. Some real estate agencies now provide pictorial tours through homes offered for sale. Although we can't finalize the sale of some items (particularly "titled" property), we are getting closer — home and automobile loans are being negotiated and approved online, eliminating the need for traditional visits to lending institutions. Similarly, many of us conduct our banking completely online via the Internet.

While the use of on-line services for our consumer and financial needs is growing at a significant pace, it is hindered by the inability of most computer applications to communicate easily with each other. Sure, communications "bridges" have been and are being created that allow the Amazons and Homegrocers to "talk" to credit-card approval agencies and, ultimately, to financial institutions. Each of these bridges, however, is generally a "cobbled together as needed" bridge that services only a small subset of businesses that have this need. Think of the problem in terms of delivery of an order document that moves from one entity to another. The creator of the document (the "purchaser" of the good or service) wants to order a chrome-plated framus. He fills out a framus order form and sends it to the framus dealer, who accepts orders only by first-class mail. The dealer accepts the order and places a drop-ship order with the framus manufacturer, who accepts orders only in blue 8 x 11-inch envelopes. The manufacturer runs a credit check on the creator by sending a copy of the order to the credit-card company specified on the order. The credit-card company accepts only faxed credit requests. Once the credit is approved, the manufacturer is notified and the credit-card company sends an advice to the creator's bank, which accepts advices only on its own form. At each step in the transaction, some specific "need" by a party requires a "change" in the handling of the document to satisfy its internal requirements. The optimal solution is, obviously, for all parties to agree on a standardized format of the "order" and a standardized method of communicating the order to each other. It is this standardization that is provided by Extensible Markup Language (XML).

XML has its roots in both Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) and HyperText Markup Language (HTML, the language used to create web pages). Leveraging off SGML's ability to create specialized document types and HTML's ability to communicate easily over the Internet, XML's use of constructs from both languages creates a vehicle whereby information can be easily created, manipulated, stored, transferred and displayed over the Internet. Recalling our earlier discussions of the need for persistent media for the storage of data, XML provides a standardized method for describing what it is that is being stored so that it can be understood long after its creation (and, quite probably, long after the software that created it is used or even available). Simply put, XML requires and provides a document descriptor that enables non-creating software to read and understand the content of the stored document. These descriptors (called Data Type Definitions, or DTDs) provide a structure definition to the information that is not available for documents created by word processors and text editors. It is this structure that ensures persistency.

An XML-enabled document, containing a predictable structure, is readily processable by software. The significant aspects of an "order" created in the example above do not require human review to ascertain the purchaser, manufacturer, dealer, creditor or bank, or part numbers of goods being purchased. Further, information typed once does not require re-typing into other software applications, thereby reducing the chances of transcription error. Rather, pre-defined DTDs that are commonly available to all the parties to an "order" allow each party to garner the information it needs to handle the portion of the transaction that affects it. A common set of DTDs, then, could be used for conveying and processing orders of most goods and services in portable, cross-platform environments, all based on commonly accepted standards. Additionally, transaction parties are not required to create custom programs to communicate electronically with each other, since common tools are being developed for "off-the-shelf" use. Neither is XML "new" and subject to evolutionary disruptions common to new technologies. Established as an International Standards Organization standard in 1986, many of the shortcomings inherent in new technologies have been overcome in XML's maturation of 13 years. What is new is the now cost-effective vehicle for XML's implementation afforded by the household availability of digital communications provided by the Internet.

Certainly, e-commerce is changing the way we do business, both as providers and consumers. And just as certainly, the legal disputes that arise in consumer and business affairs as a matter of course will arise in the use of this new medium. Whether we represent plaintiffs or defendants in these disputes, we must become more knowledgeable about the technologies utilized in this commerce in order to effect competent representation.

But the need to know about this emerging technology isn't limited to the knowledge of how it's used in e-commerce. Just as a framus manufacturer or repair-service provider will be forced into the use of this technology as a matter of economic survival, we, as legal service providers, are subject to the same pressures. The escalating costs and inefficiencies of handling high volumes of large documents (our "goods in trade") are demanding that we develop alternatives to the historical and traditional processes of creating paper documents and delivering them to a courthouse for filing (a labor-intensive process), where they are received by a clerk and logged (again, labor-intensive), and then filed by hand, hopefully in the correct file. Simultaneously, a copy is sent to opposing counsel (either by hand delivery, or through the mail, where it is handled by multiple hands), received by hand, and routed and filed to the appropriate person by hand. Not only is this process labor-intensive, it is time-intensive as well.

Now envision: you create a document on a computer using a "smart" (e.g., XML-savvy) word processor. When completed, you click the "Save as XML and Send" button that parses the document and "wraps" XML tags around the relevant discreet aspects of the document by referencing the File-In-County-Superior-Court DTD, and then applies your digital signature to the document. The document is instantly whisked via the Internet to the County Court Clerk's computer, which then "reads" (or assigns) the case number, records the receipt, stores it in the electronic case file, routes a copy to the judge's e-mail box, and then sends an electronically conformed copy to opposing counsel's e-mail box. The process takes a grand total of five minutes. No human is required to handle the "document" for purposes of delivery and/or "filing." Opposing counsel can add the pleading to the electronic case "file," where it is automatically indexed for future key-word search (which has significant upside, particularly in large, complex litigation cases). Cited cases can be automatically and electronically Shepardized (again saving labor costs and, more significantly, time). Woe be unto the attorney who still insists on "hard copies" of documents, or is unable to receive electronic "soft copies." His day is quickly passing.

While this may sound a little fanciful, it isn't. Serious efforts are currently underway in the King County courts, mirroring similar efforts throughout the country. The sheer volume of documents in increasing numbers of cases demands these changes, giving the slow-turning wheels of justice a much-needed shot of grease.

http://www.xml.org/ 

http://www.xml.com/ 

http://www.w3.org/XML/ 

http://www.xml-zone.com/ 

For a look at what not to do with foodstuffs, see:

http://www.sci.tamucc.edu/~pmichaud/toast/ 

http://www.sci.tamucc.edu/~pmichaud/grape/

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