Alan Kotok

Alan Kotok is a Washington, DC-based reporter and writer on technology, business, and public policy, and editor of E-Business Standards Today, published by Data Interchange Standards Association (DISA), and of U.S. Techno-Politics on Suite101.com. He writes frequently for the information technology trade press, including Electronic Commerce World magazine, XML.com, and CMP TechWeb. He is the lead author of Print Communications and the Electronic Media Challenge (Jelmar Publishing Co, 1997). Kotok serves on the ebXML Marketing-Awareness-Education project team and the W3C advisory council. Kotok previously served as DISA's Director of Education, responsible for conferences, training, and information resources. He joined DISA in October 1999 as standards manager for the OpenTravel Alliance, helping this worldwide organization establish its first XML-based message specifications. Before joining DISA, Kotok served 10 years with Graphic Communications Association (GCA) as Director of Management Technologies and then as Vice President for Electronic Business. Before joining GCA, Kotok founded Overseas Technology, a high-tech export company, and served 15 years with the U.S. Information Agency on assignment in the U.S., Middle East, Africa, and Japan. Kotok has a B. A. in journalism from the University of Iowa and a Master of Science in communications from Boston University. He completed postgraduate work in Technology of Management at The American University in 1981¿82.

David R.R. Webber is Vice-President for Business Development for XML Global Technologies, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. He is a cofounder of the XML/edi Group and an acknowledged authority on XML. Webber lectures frequently in the U.S., Europe, and Asia, has more than 20 years' experience implementing business systems in a broad spectrum of industries, and is a U.S. patent holder for advanced EDI software technologies. Webber has published numerous articles and multimedia on requirements for developing XML/EDI business solutions, and is currently involved in an advisory role with a wide variety of industry initiatives developing XML business schemas. He is also participating with the RELAX Schema Working Group and is heavily involved in ebXML interoperability standards development. Most recently, Webber has been focusing on facilitating the development and deployment of semantic registry systems by government and industry organizations. He received his degree in physics with computing from the University of Kent, Canterbury, UK, in 1976.