IDEAlliance Announces Full Programme for XTech 2005; Premier European XML Industry Event Expands Focus to ''XML, the Web and Beyond''.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- Co-Hosted by the Mozilla Foundation, W3C, and OASIS, Presenters Include BBC, IBM, Justsystem, Microsoft, Oracle, Sun

IDEAlliance, a leading industry association dedicated to fostering XML and other information technology standards, today announced the full programme for XTech (formerly XML Europe) being held 24-27 May, 2005, at the Amsterdam RAI Centre, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

XTech 2005 is the premier European conference for developers and managers working with XML and Web technologies, bringing together the worlds of Web development, open source, semantic Web, and open standards. Formerly known as XML Europe, XTech has widened its scope to "XML, the Web and Beyond," incorporating neighboring technology topics from the Web and business.

"This year's attendees will have access to experts at the cutting edge of XML and web technology," says Edd Dumbill, XTech 2005 conference chair. "In addition to XML, XTech 2005 will cover the latest in Rich Internet Application platforms, blogging, the semantic web, and more."

The keynote speakers at XTech 2005 will be Paula Le Dieu, Co-Director, Creative Archive, BBC; Jean Paoli, Senior Director of XML Architecture, Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT); and Mike Shaver, Mozilla Foundation.

Other well-known presenters include:

--Rob Relyea, Lead Program Manager, Microsoft

--Kevin Kelly, Senior Software Engineer, IBM (NYSE:IBM)

--Jon Trowbridge, Hacker, Novell, Inc. (Nasdaq:NOVL)

--Daniel Vogelheim, Software Engineer, Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq:SUNW)

--Anguel Novoselsky, Principal Member of Technical Staff, Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq:ORCL)

--Jeff Bennett, Principal Systems Designer, Justsystem Corporation, Japan

"This conference is a true international forum for XML and numerous related technologies," says Kazunori Ukigawa, president, Justsystem Corporation, XTech 2005 Diamond Sponsor. "With this year's expanded programme, XTech 2005 is an event that no forward-looking organization can afford to miss."

"We're looking forward to sharing some of Mozilla's exciting strategies and technologies at XTech," says Mitchell Baker, president of the Mozilla Foundation, which is co-hosting the event. "XTech 2005 will provide a great forum for a diverse and influential group to come together, discuss and collaborate on driving toward standards for the next-generation of web technology."

Educational tracks for XTech 2005 are:

--Core Technologies -- The Core Technologies track is the traditional home ground of developer-focused technical talks at XTech. Presentations focus on XML standards, new XML applications, techniques for processing XML, and other markup topics.

--Applications -- The applications track covers the use of XML, Web and knowledge technologies, with talks aimed at both technical and managerial attendees. Topics include deployment stories, open source implementations, new vocabularies and integration.

--Browser Technology -- Presentations in this track will be largely aimed at developers, but also will include higher-level overviews of the technologies covered. Topics will include Mozilla, Safari, Opera, IE, XForms, SVG, CSS, XHTML, compound document formats, WHATWG, and mobile browser technology.

--Open Data -- This track will contain talks at all levels, from business and policy to implementation, covering the possibilities, problems and practicalities of a Web of open data. Topics will include Business models and deployment issues for public-facing Web services, RSS, geocoding, FOAF, annotation, OAI, open access, blogging and personal content, and semantic Web.

For information on presentations, sponsorships, exhibiting and other marketing opportunities, visit http://www.xtech-conference.org. Current sponsors include Adobe, Antenna House, Astoria, AuthorIT, Blast Radius, DataDirect Technologies, Fast Search & Transfer(TM), Inc., Justsystem Corporation, O'Reilly, Percussion Software, Quark, Quasar Technology, Syncro Soft, and Vamosa.

For general information and to register to attend, visit http://www.xtech-conference.org/2005/registration.asp.

XTech 2005 is being held in conjunction with the Gilbane Conference on Content Management, giving attendees of both events unprecedented educational and networking opportunities. For more information, visit http://home.lighthouseseminars.com/lighthouse/Amsterdam2005/gcsf.html.

About IDEAlliance

IDEAlliance (International Digital Enterprise Alliance) is a not-for-profit membership organization. Its mission is to advance user-driven, cross-industry solutions for all publishing and content-related processes by developing standards, fostering business alliances, and identifying best practices. Founded in 1966 as the Graphic Communications Association, IDEAlliance has been a leader in information technology -- developing Document Markup Metalanguage (GENCODE), sponsoring the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), and fostering eXtensible Markup Language (XML). IDEAlliance builds on these languages to create specifications that enhance efficiency and speed information in all aspects of publishing and content-related processes. Learn more about IDEAlliance at www.idealliance.org.