Metastructures 1999 Conference

Monday - Wednesday
August 16 - 18

See the Program!

The Graphic Communications Association (GCA) invites you to participate in the sixth annual Metastructures conference, which is one event in a set that includes the perennial XML Developers' Conference and various OASIS functions.

Metastructures 1999 is about the evolving abstractions that underlie modern information management solutions, how they enhance human productivity, and how they are being applied by expert information managers. Metastructures are syntactic/semantic constructs found in many kinds of information. Examples include hyperlinks, information component addresses, metadata for workflow, security, commerce, etc., constructs for scheduling and resource allocation, information architectures, architectural forms, namespaces, topic maps, schemata and schematic formalisms. The old distinctions between databases and documents are vanishing, and metastructures are becoming the primary underpinnings of information processing.

Now that there are several relevant standards, a number of which appear to be engaged in a process of convergence, the Metastructures conferences seek to provide a forum where information owners and managers can assess how the metastructures provided by emerging vendor-neutral standards fit together, and how metastructures are being applied in real content management solutions.

There continues to be considerable tension between information owners and users, on the one hand, and systems vendors, on the other. Their interests conflict, at least in terms of traditional software business models, and the current status of the conflict is most plainly visible as a contest between competing sets of metastructures, and competing ideas about how to support metastructures. Many software vendors are seeking ways to dominate whole regions of economically significant metastructures, while sophisticated information owners and users are moving forward with systems that support the fullest flexibility, generality, and control over their own business evolution. Metastructures 1999 is a very good place to meet the smart players and hear what they have to say. It's not a large conference, but it's a conference that offers much to people who prefer to think for themselves about the future of the information industry and their own roles in it.

The typical Metastructures conference participant is someone who advises the owners of information about how to cost-effectively manage, preserve, and exploit their assets. Information assets can be business reports, transaction records, legal databases, technical databases, training materials, assembly and repair instructions, memoranda (and all other forms of corporate memory), entertainment assets, reference materials, etc. The exploitation of such assets may involve the Web, but it doesn't have to.

Email: meta99@gca.org

Conference Chairs:
Carla Corkern, Co-chair, Metastructures 1999
c/o ISOGEN International Corporation
Suite 230
2200 N. Lamar
Dallas, Texas 75202 USA
voice +1 214 953 0004 x105
fax +1 214 953 3152

Steven R. Newcomb, Co-chair, Metastructures 1999
c/o TechnoTeacher, Inc.
3615 Tanner Lane
Richardson, Texas 75082 USA
voice +1 972 231 4098
fax +1 972 994 0087

(The XML Developers' Conference is the forum where XML application and systems developers share their dreams, experiences, and accomplishments with each other. Described as an "UnConference", this iconoclastic event is a must for those who need a clear, intimate view of the fast-moving field of XML applications. Presentations for the XML Developers' Conference will be solicited separately, at a later date, by its Chairman, Jon Bosak.)

See the Program!

The Metastructures Conference

The focus of this annual conference has always been the application of universally understood abstractions -- metastructures -- for creating and interchanging views of content. Now that there are several relevant standards, several of which appear to be engaged in a process of convergence, the Metastructures conferences seek to provide a forum where information managers can assess how the metastructures provided by emerging vendor-neutral standards fit together, and how metastructures are being applied in real content management solutions.

The XML Developers' Conference

This UnConference resists the bigger-is-better trend of recent years and maintains the concept of a single-track event featuring just the very best presentations from the cream of XML geekdom. In other words, this is a conference by developers, for developers. Expect presentations on deep subjects. If you come wearing a suit we won't actually turn you away, but we don't need your business so badly that we're willing to lower the level of discourse.

Why You Might Want to Attend Both Conferences

Those who choose to attend both conferences will get a full measure of the most advanced thinking on information management (including XML-based information management) followed by the most advanced thinking on implementation of the XML family of standards. Because of the generality and power that XML inherited from SGML, it's safe to say that all metastructures are relevant to XML, and that XML can be relevant to all metastructures. In other words, information managers participating in Metastructures 1999 should consider also attending the XML Developers' Conference, in order to see what's being developed, and to make their XML application needs known to the people who are in a position to do something about them. Similarly, XML applications developers should consider participating in the Metastructures conference to gain intelligence about user requirements and to borrow powerful ideas.

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