An Old New Thing
July 7, 2004
Like every baccalaureate speaker in history, today I feel compelled to say a few words about endings and beginnings. As Edd Dumbill announced last week, he has turned over the editorial reins of this fine publication to me. I am immensely gratified and honored to succeed Edd, who is to my way of thinking one of the finest working technical journalists around.
In addition to assuming the duties of managing editor, I'll continue my monthly column, Hacking the Library. But saying "yes" to this opportunity meant saying "no more" to writing a weekly column, the XML-Deviant. That spot, however, will now be filled by Edd, who's latest installment, Eternal Refactoring, I'm happy to publish this week. I've enjoyed working with Edd in a variety of roles since joining XML.com as a copy editor in August 2000. I've also had the great pleasure and good fortune to work with XML.com's stable of monthly columnists, a group I would match with any other in the industry.
During Edd's editorial tenure, the XML industry invented itself and several peripheral industries and then raced through a period of very rapid technical standardization, often with mixed results. That period has been drawing to a close for some time now; we at XML.com are determined to change with the times.
This publication will continue to be the first destination of choice for technically rigorous coverage of new XML and web standards. But we're also going to focus more of our attention on the dizzying array of applications being built with the XML family of technologies -- web services and apps, the Semantic Web, weblogs and syndication systems, as well as desktop or personal applications. And, as ever, we'll continue to stick our authorial noses into controversies and the technical debates of our times.
I want to thank the inestimable Edd Dumbill and the fine people at O'Reilly Media for this new opportunity, as well as for four years of professional collegiality and mutual respect. And thanks to you, the vigilant, enthusiastic reader, without whose support none of this is possible. I can't do my job without hearing from you regularly.
-- Kendall Grant Clark