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David Gulbransen has been employed as an information systems professional for over 8 years. He began his career with the Indiana University Departmental Support Lab as an analyst/manager, overseeing a consulting group responsible for advising University departments on technology deployment. After an appointment as the Computing Support Specialist for the School of Fine Arts, David left for a position as the Manager of Information Systems at Dimension X, a Java tools development company. While there, he grew the information systems environment from a small UNIX based shop, to a shared UNIX-NT environment serving customers as diverse as Fox Television, MCA Records, Intel, and Sun Microsystems. Upon the purchase of Dimension X in 1997 by Microsoft, David founded Vervet Logic, a software development company building XML and web tools for new media development. Some of his books include "Creating Web Applets with Java", "The Netscape Server Survival Guide", and "Special Edition Using Dynamic HTML". David holds a BA in Computer Science and Theatre from Indiana University.
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David: I was approached to write a book while I was working for University Computing Services at Indiana University by an Editor at Sams. In the days of the very early commercialization of the Internet, the publishers were looking for experienced Internet users, and those were mostly found in academia. So my first experience was contributing a few chapters to "Tips and Tricks of the Internet Gurus".
David: My current title is "The Complete Idiot's Guide to XML" for Macmillan Computer Publishing. The title is designed to be an introductory guide to the Extensible Markup Language for beginners or for managers. The goal of the book is to take some of the mystery out of XML, and to make it simple and accessible to the average computer user.
David: There are a number of ways to stay current. The most important resources are contacts within the industry. Attending conferences, trade shows, and keeping up correspondence with former colleagues helps keeps me up on what technologies other people are watching as well, and is helpful in identifying technology trends. Of course, the Internet itself is an important resource, sites such as Infoworld Electric, News.com, and Slashdot help me keep up on technology issues as well.
David: My ReviewNet test concentrates on the basics of the Extensible Markup Language. The test covers the entire range of XML features found in the XML 1.0 Recommendation from the W3C. These are the skills that would need to be mastered in order to design and implement XML solutions.
David: The biggest piece of advice would be to ignore all of the hype concerning XML and just look at the technology. At the core, XML is a very, very simple technology that benefits from that simplicity. XML is not the panacea some might make it out to be, but it is a very strong technology because of the flexibility designed into the language. It is that very simplicity that often confuses beginning users of XML, as they've seen so much about what XML can do that they want to jump ahead before mastering the basics. So the biggest piece of advice I would give is slow down, clear your mind of marketing and media hype, and visit the W3C site to get down to the root of the technology.
David: The XML test is designed to make sure that applicants have a solid understanding of XML, based on the XML Recommendation. With a mastery of the basics of XML, qualified applicants should possess the knowledge necessary to fill a number of different XML related positions. Because XML is such a flexible technology, mastery of the fundamentals is very critical to future successes with XML based solutions.
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