Microformats in Context There has been a lot of discussion in
XML circles as to how far the extensibility revolution promised
by XML can take (or has taken) us. Is XML really a tool for
creating specialized languages so that information can be
expressed in the most natural formats practical? Or is it just a
way to reduce the burden on those who write code to consume web
content (be strict in what you accept so that you can be liberal
with your time spent fly-fishing). Are schema technologies a way
to manage the flexibility that XML brings to the table, or just
another weapon to put down users ("You don't validate. Go
away")? Of course, the way I've posed these questions reveals my
bias. I think that XML should be a tool for expressiveness and
controlled diversity on the Web. I disagree strongly with the
notion, recently expressed in a few quarters, that there are
only a few viable XML formats, and that people should stop
creating more. At the center of this controversy is the new Web
2.0 hotness: microformats