The SGML Users' Group continues to grow with 600 international members in 25 countries. There are also currently 27 chapters and special interest groups.
SGML (ISO 8879) has, in the past year, moved more into the mainstream with word processing vendors, such as WordPerfect and Microsoft deploying products that support the use of SGML. The acronym 'SGML' has begun showing up in trade publication articles without needing to be explained.
Web conferences are beginning to focus more on the content management of information on the Web and are turning to SGML as a tool for that control. One of the largest areas of interest is the use of 'Intranets'. These firewalled, corporate-specific internets are the fast growing use of internet technology. However, because of the complexity and importance of the documents being used on intranets, corporations are implementing them using both HTML and other SGML DTDs. There are now a range of products for using SGML on both the Internet and corporate intranets.
The user community welcomed the publication of DSSSL (ISO/IEC 10179) as an ISO standard. Vendors are already prototyping implementations of DSSSL.
HyTime (ISO/IEC 10744) continues to grow in popularity. It has its own international conference, which is now in its third year.
There are a number of new books on the market focusing on SGML from a range of publishers. SGML Open, the consortium of suppliers of SGML products and services, now boasts over 50 sponsor members achieving a 25% growth in the past year, including mainstream suppliers such as Microsoft and IBM, in addition to the niche market providers.
The series of SGML conferences continues to grow. SGML '95 saw registrations grow to 850, with over 1000 attending the associated SGML trade show in the Boston convention centre. SGML Europe '95 had 400 attendees and SGML Europe '96 expects 500 in this, its 15th year. The second year of SGML Asia also saw an increase in attendance over the preceding year. This year it will move to Australia from Singapore.
The SGML Users' Group is pleased to have the opportunity to work with SC18 by promoting the adoption of SC18 standards and contributing to their development.
We look forward to continued co-operation in the future.
Pamela L. Gennusa, President
Dr. Charles F. Goldfarb, Head of Delegation
Contact Robin Cover with corrections and updates, or to submit contributions to the ISUG online document database.
