A Personal Version of XML, Courtesy of Netomat
As the adoption of extensible markup language (XML) spreads to corporate networks, helping computers speak to each other more efficiently over the Web, what about XML for humans?

After all, the financial world has its own dialect of XML, called XBRL (Extensible Business Reporting Language). Tech services vendors have all their flavors of XML as part of the language frameworks for a coming era of Web Services among corporate networks.

Microsoft has its .NET version of XML -- even the public relations industry is developing its own dialect, XPRL (extensible public relations language) -- all of which serve the same purpose: to help machines communicate data more effectively with other machines, with more meaning.

But where is the version of XML that lets people communicate more effectively with people?

Netomat, a start-up company about to make its public debut at PC Forum starting March 23rd -- Esther Dyson's annual confab of technology visionaries -- may have that answer.

Indeed, the company, launched by a mix of artists, philosophers and early players in the growth of XML, could be on the verge of becoming -- dare we say it -- the "next big thing." If only because it's a creation that is not easily summed up.

"It's probably best described as a service," says Alan Gershenfeld, a founder and co-CEO of Netomat, which was founded in 2001.

"We make it easy to combine multimedia formats: text, images, voice sound, free form drawing, unlimited personal rich media," said Gershenfeld, a former executive of entertainment software company Activision.

And it's XML and Java based, which makes the multi-media authoring tool compatible with both PCs and Macs, with various browsers and various e-mail clients.

For a monthly subsciption fee, the Netomat user, consumer or corporate, gets a hosted authoring and messaging application, 30 megabytes of space on Netomat's servers, and the use of the company's communication infrastructure. It lets you manipulate text, images, video, audio -- any digital media -- and with the push of a button you can send the whole creation off in an e-mail, or in today's publishing parlance, update your blog.

Call it a blogging, publishing tool on steroids.

Indeed, the company, launched by a mix of artists, philosophers and early players in the growth of XML, could be on the verge of becoming -- dare we say it -- the "next big thing." If only because it's a creation that is not easily summed up.

"It's probably best described as a service," says Alan Gershenfeld, a founder and co-CEO of Netomat, which was founded in 2001.

"We make it easy to combine multimedia formats: text, images, voice sound, free form drawing, unlimited personal rich media," said Gershenfeld, a former executive of entertainment software company Activision.

And it's XML and Java based, which makes the multi-media authoring tool compatible with both PCs and Macs, with various browsers and various e-mail clients.

For a monthly subsciption fee, the Netomat user, consumer or corporate, gets a hosted authoring and messaging application, 30 megabytes of space on Netomat's servers, and the use of the company's communication infrastructure. It lets you manipulate text, images, video, audio -- any digital media -- and with the push of a button you can send the whole creation off in an e-mail, or in today's publishing parlance, update your blog.

Call it a blogging, publishing tool on steroids.

http://www.netomat.com/
http://www.edventure.com/pcforum/index.cfm
http://www.w3.org/XML
http://inews.webopedia.com/SHARED/search_action.asp?Term=XML&Template_Name=inews.webopedia.com
http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/2168881