By Mike Ricciuti
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
November 8, 2001, 4:00 a.m. PT

In a few short years, a once obscure technology bearing the unremarkable name of Extensible Markup Language has gone from a dry-as-dust specification to the center of the newest Web revolution.

Like the title character in Woody Allen's movie "Zelig," whenever industry luminaries--Microsoft's Bill Gates, Oracle's Larry Ellison, Sun Microsystems' Scott McNealy--take the stage to tout their companies' Web services strategies, XML is right there. Although it predates the Web services stampede, the technology seems almost custom-made for development of the trend.

But as with many new technologies, initial enthusiasm and unrelenting hype have combined to blur an understanding of what XML is and where the technology fits in Web services development--which itself is just emerging and still being defined. Some issues being debated are XML file size, the handling of mixed media such as voice and video, and the safeguarding of data in a document created with the language.

"The main problem is the very buzz about XML as the solution for all needs," said John E. Simpson, an XML specialist who has been a programmer for more than 20 years.

Classified as a "page description language," it is something closer to Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)--the current lingua franca of the Web--than to true programming languages such as Java or Visual Basic. Just as HTML helped fuel the first great wave of the Web's popularity, XML is poised to spur a new world of Web-based services that promise to make technology more usable.

XML grew out of the publishing world as a way to describe the contents of documents exchanged over the Web. One of the language's key qualities is that it is readable by people, not just machines, making systems easy to debug.

The language provides terms used to define a Web document's tags--that is, the elements of the document that describe its various pieces--and the relationships between them. Developers at either end of a data exchange then agree to use a common set of tags. In this way, XML is uniquely flexible and versatile: It can be used to describe tennis balls or tires, employment contracts or engine parts.

That flexibility, however, can also present a problem. Because each XML transfer includes a large amount of information describing the data contained in it, file sizes can quickly mushroom.

Some companies have found XML files too big, especially when the transmission already carries large amounts of primary data. Humana, a regional health insurance company based in Louisville, Ky., uses XML to transmit some of its claims information to health care providers and other partners but relies on decades-old electronic data interchange systems for the bulk of its transfer needs.

Yet Brian LeClaire, a vice president of information technology at Humana, said XML is the best technology available for data transmissions, adding that it will improve as industry standards are adopted.

"XML is much more flexible," he said. "But it's not a well-standardized world yet, so when people talk about XML they are still trying to evolve standards around how data will be defined, and so on."

XML's creators at the World Wide Web Consortium don't see the language's propensity for weight gain as an obstacle. In fact, a document describing XML and posted to the W3C's Web site states that XML is "verbose, but that is not a problem. That was a conscious decision by the XML developers. The advantages of a text format are evident...and the disadvantages can usually be compensated."

Those advantages are apparently clear to Microsoft, which has in large part defined Web services through a high-pitched marketing campaign for its .Net strategy. XML is the technological linchpin of the .Net services plan.

"XML is the next revolution on the horizon," Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said at an industry conference earlier this year.

Sun, Oracle and IBM have also lauded XML and its central role in the Web services world, as have other major players. "XML has many really strong, positive characteristics, and that is why we have chosen it for more or less the foundation of everything we do," said Ray Ozzie, founder of Groove Networks and creator of Lotus Notes.

Going beyond Web pages
One of XML's key strengths is its application beyond Web pages. For example, the language can be used to exchange vital information for business transactions--such as shoe sizes, shipping crate numbers or the vintage of a case of wine--between different computing systems that would otherwise be unable to communicate.

In this way, XML is unparalleled for broadcasting data between servers and to Web pages as part of a Web services architecture. Many of the first uses of XML-based Web services are for unglamorous yet essential data-exchange applications.

In HTML, a markup language that defines elements of Web pages, a vocabulary used by all developers has been defined by standards organizations. The HTML terms used to describe a Web page based on a server in Prague are the same as those used in Detroit.

XML, by contrast, describes the language used to define documents. That is, it's used when no preset vocabulary exists.

"In XML, you are defining the data, the names you call the data, and the relationship of all data to one another," Humana's LeClaire said.

While Web services pioneers find ways to adapt XML, the W3C is tackling new parts of the language that could play a key role in advancing the trend, such as technologies involving multimedia and security. Last month, the organization posted a draft specification for VoiceXML 2.0, which is designed to bring synthesized speech, spoken and touch-tone commands, digitized audio, and computer-human conversations to the Web.

The W3C also is soliciting comment from programmers on how best to encrypt data transmitted using XML. A draft of a specification has been posted, and final debate is slated for this month.

As with all other evolving technologies, the progress of Web services will mean that other areas will be more fully defined either through standards or through accepted workarounds.

Dan Bricklin is confident that it will be only a matter of time before Web services take off. As the co-inventor of the first PC spreadsheet, VisiCalc, and one of those who helped start the personal computer revolution two decades ago, he has seen other major technologies go through similar growing pains.

"A lot of what we are building today we are building for the first time," Bricklin said. "And we don't fully understand it." 

News.com's Sandeep Junnarkar contributed to this report.

 

BEA's strategy: Get inside to get ahead Who's afraid of BEA's sting? Microsoft's HailStorm unleashed XML as the great peacemaker Microsoft, VeriSign team on e-commerce security XML: New way to do business IBM, Microsoft, Ariba team on e-commerce standard Microsoft plays catch-up with Web services push Microsoft reveals plans for Web-based software services

Bucking trend, Chicago e-boss buys companies amid tech slump

By D.C. Denison, Globe Staff, 11/1/2001

oe Forgione, the president and chief executive of Eprise, the Framingham-based content management firm, was expecting an entourage on the morning last summer when Andrew ''Flip'' Filipowski, Chicago's colorful Internet zealot, flew in to discuss the possible purchase of Eprise, which was struggling with a depressed stock price and a sluggish economy.

When Forgione went out to greet his guests, however, he was surprised to find only one person in the lobby: a burly man with a salt and pepper beard, a long ponytail, and a stud earring; he was wearing a Hawaiian shirt.

''He was very no-nonsense, very direct,'' Forgione recalled recently. ''I told him our story; he told me his story. It didn't take long to figure out that our companies could be a good fit.''

Within six weeks, the two were ready to make an announcement: Filipowski's company, Divine Inc., would buy Eprise in exchange for $43 million in Divine stock.

It is a scenario that has repeated itself, with minor variations, three times in the Boston area over the past four months. In July, Divine agreed to purchase Westwood-based RoweCom, a knowledge management company, for $14 million in stock. A month later Open Market, the Burlington e-business software company, announced that it too had agreed to be purchased by Divine Inc. for $54 million in stock. Both companies, like Eprise, were having trouble dealing with a deepening technology slump.

At a time when many technology companies are hunkering down defensively, Filipowski, 51, is heading in the opposite direction: aggressively gobbling up troubled companies at bargain-basement prices - 29, so far - and merging them into his vision of the Internet-based conglomerate of the future.

''What Divine is trying to do is become the company of a new era, the `extended enterprise era,''' he said over breakfast at the Burlington Marriott last week. ''We think that opportunity is huge.''

If Divine's ambition sounds grand, that is part of Filipowski's strategy.

''Flip doesn't do anything on a small scale,'' said Ron May, editor of The May Report, a Chicago high-tech e-mail newsletter. ''I've heard Flip quote Daniel Burnham, the Chicago architect, to the effect that little plans `have no magic to stir men's blood.' He believes in the power of thinking big.''

Filipowski's approach has worked before. He built his previous company, a software infrastructure company called Platinum Technology International, by cobbling together no less than 70 acquisitions. In 1999, he sold Platinum to Computer Associates for $3.5 billion, a deal that earned Filipowski $290 million.

''That wasn't just a home run,'' said Eprise's Forgione. ''That was a grand slam.''

Now Filipowski is back at the plate, swinging for the fences with a very similar strategy: buy up struggling Internet companies at fire-sale prices and unite them around a single vision.

In this case, Filipowski's bet is that there is an emerging opportunity to sell software to the world's largest businesses that will enable them to extend their operating systems to include sales teams, customers, vendors, and partners. This is the idea that Filipowski refers to as ''the extended enterprise.''

Over the last year, Filipowski has been assembling his mega-company piece by piece, buying distressed companies with Internet- and infrastructure-related technologies and integrating them into Divine. In addition to the three Boston-area companies, for example, he recently bought eshare, which makes customer interaction management solutions; Intira, an infrastructure provider; Fracta Networks, which manages personal content; Databites, which makes real time Web and wireless tools; and Synchrony Communications, which manages customer interactions.

Filipowski also has a cluster of companies left over from an earlier strategy, which was hatched in 1999 at the height of the Internet boom. At the time, Filipowski's company was called Divine InterVentures, and its approach was very similar to CMGI's ''incubator'' idea: Fund a portfolio of Internet-based start-ups and take them to profitable IPOs.

During that heady era, Filipowski was a high-profile presence in Chicago, promoting his company, his investments, and an aggressive high-tech vision for Chicago, which he characterized as a sleepy Midwest city that needed ''a good swift kick in the ass.''

His swagger, and his Platinum track record, won Filipowski some powerful backers. He raised more than $250 million for Divine InterVentures, with significant contributions from Microsoft ($75 million), Dell ($100 million), and Compaq ($50 million).

Political allies such as Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley helped him get millions of dollars of tax breaks for a proposed Chicago high-tech center.

With the collapse of Internet stocks in the spring of 2000, Filipowski's ''incubator'' plan began to crumble. He was able to launch a planned IPO for Divine InterVentures only after firing his original bankers and reducing the original offering price from $13 to $9. The stock has declined steadily ever since. Yesterday, it closed at 45 cents.

In January 2001, however, Filipowski abruptly announced a new vision, a shortened name (Divine Inc.) and a strategy of integrating distressed Internet companies. Although the company still has a war chest of close to $230 million in cash, Filipowski has financed his Internet shopping spree by making his purchases with Divine stock. A year after the relaunch, Divine claims to have 29 entities under its umbrella. Filipowski has indicated that he's still planning to add a few more pieces to the jigsaw puzzle.

At breakfast, as Filipowski discussed his strategy, it became apparent that it's about more than just people and technology: It's also about customers. RoweCom has 10,000 customers; Open Market has 300; Eprise has 150.

''There are very few Fortune 500, or Global 5000, companies that we would go into today where the answer will be, `We can't talk to you because you're a new vendor.''' he said. ''Too late. We already are a vendor. You are already dealing with us, so why not buy more from us, in this new exciting space where you really need to be doing something.''

Filipowski was also open about the possibility of that he might ultimately sell Divine to a bigger player like IBM - a rerun of his successful Platinum experience.

''We could stay independent for a big period of time,'' he said. ''But it's also possible that one of the major, significant players who is late ... may look to us as an acquisition candidate.''

In the meantime, Filipowski has to make sure that Divine turns out to be greater than the sum of its parts. Analysts are divided on his chances for success.

Nick Wilkoff, a TechRanking analyst with Forrester Research in Cambridge, is skeptical.

''It will be difficult for Divine to streamline and merge all their pieces,'' he said. ''Companies are looking to consolidate vendors, but I wonder if Divine is trying to do too much. Because beyond all the integration issues, they are going to be competing in a very competitive market at a time when companies are definitely cutting back on their e-business spending.''

Patricia Seybold, a Boston-based e-business consultant, is more bullish on Divine's strategy.

''I think Filipowski has identified something that could be a lucrative area,'' she said. ''It's like, `What comes after Lotus Notes?' More importantly, he's got what it takes to pull it off: the chutzpah and reasonably deep pockets.''

Asked how he rates the chances for his Internet-era conglomerate, Filipowski himself is surprisingly candid.

''Some things will be out of our control,'' he said after considering the question. ''If the economy has only gone down 10 percent, and there's a 90 percent free fall ahead of us to the real bottom - I don't have a magic answer to that. ... That could be very detrimental to the success of a Divine.''

''It's been positive for us so far,'' he said of the current economic downturn, ''but it could kill us too.''

D.C. Denison can be reached by e-mail at denison@globe.com.

This story ran on page C1 of the Boston Globe on 11/1/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.

A newly funded start-up is taking the wraps off its plans to improve on the hotly contested area of Web-based software, a technology now the focus of plans by Microsoft and other industry heavyweights.

Founded by an engineering veteran of Apple Computer and Excite@Home, Laszlo Systems this week secured $1 million in seed financing from General Catalyst and Sofinnova Ventures, which the start-up will use to beef up its development team to complete work on its software.

Laszlo is entering a crowded market for Web-based applications. Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer said he is "staking the company" on its .Net initiative for providing applications and services over the Web. Sun Microsystems and IBM are also heavily invested in Web services schemes, and legions of start-ups have bet the farm on plans to provide applications over the Web.

While any number of these applications already exist on the Web today, Laszlo is hoping to capitalize on the conventional wisdom that they pale next to their desktop predecessors.

"Everyone has been saying for a long time that the future is in networked applications," said David Temkin, founder and chief executive of the start-up. "But how do you deliver great networked applications? At @Home we never really answered that question. The answers out there then and the ones out there now are lacking. This is an answer to that question."

Laszlo, which abandoned an initial attempt to build its application with Macromedia's Flash technology, is keeping mum on the specifics of its new approach. But Temkin said it was server software the company would license to companies hosting applications, whether consumer-oriented portals or businesses offering applications to their employees. Temkin also said the technology was applicable to business-to-business applications as well.

But industry analysts expressed skepticism that a start-up the size of Laszlo could eke out a place for itself among the titans now vying for eminence in the field, at least initially.

"They have a very long road to go down," said Matthew Berk, analyst with Jupiter Media Metrix.

Temkin, 35, managed the consumer software development group at Excite@Home. Before that, he was a manager for Apple's failed Newton handheld computer. He was also editor and publisher of the magazine In Formation, which took a jaundiced view of the high-tech world.

Though the Newton failed in the marketplace and Excite@Home is lingering at death's door, Temkin said his experience with those two efforts did not hurt him with investors.

"This is a horrible funding environment, and we were subjected to more due diligence than I imagine Excite was when @Home acquired it," Temkin said. "We have a very well thought-out plan with a very well-defined market need, and if that wasn't the case we wouldn't have gotten our funding."

Laszlo's software will be complementary to Microsoft's .Net initiative and Sun Microsystems' Java programming language, Temkin said.

Incorporated late last year, Laszlo employs eight people and plans to release its software in 2002