Last week at the Colorado Software Summit, during my keynote I asked three questions of the attendees, who were a few hundred mostly senior developers, mostly from the Java ecosystem. (I’ve tucked a picture in the body of this piece.) Do you use XML Schema? Pretty well every hand went up. Do you think you understand XML Schema? One hand went up. Do you like XML Schema? A scattering of hands, maybe 20%. I asked the same three questions about WSDL; similar pattern, not quite as universal exposure, a few more thought they understood it. Just reporting.
A hint for taking audience pictures from the stage: disable the flash, put the camera on the podium, and set it for a 2-second delay so that you don’t shake it pressing the button. Let it take as long as it wants to get the exposure. And another: after you’ve done this, don’t forget and leave the camera on the podium when you go out for post-speech dinner. Many thanks to the efficient and honest people at Keystone resort who retrieved it and found it again for me the next morning.
