Hello and welcome to the first issue of the Newsletter produced by our new Editor, Eamonn Neylon. I hope you find the addition of new articles useful and informative, and that you have had a chance to check out the new ISUG public website (http://www.isgmlug.org/). Your feedback is most welcome.
Since our last Newsletter, we have had our 1997 AGM. This was held in Barcelona, coinciding with SGML Europe '97. It was good to see many of you again and meet other members for the first time. The reports distributed at this meeting are available within this issue. SGML Europe '97 was considered successful by a number of criteria: largest attendance to date, with over 500 delegates; very positive critique sheets; and a healthy buzz throughout the meeting.
XML's impact was felt on this conference, with many attendees citing that the XML sessions were the most useful. XML is considered to be one of the most important developments in the SGML community to date. From the degree of acceptance by the Web community, it looks like it will be a major factor in the coming years. XML will make up a considerable portion of the content of upcoming conferences and, therefore, the GCA has decided to rename its SGML series of conferences to recognize this important profile. The GCA has renamed its North American conference to SGML/XML'97. It will be taking place the week beginning 8 December in Washington DC. Next year's European conference will be called SGML/XML '98-Europe and will take place the week beginning 17 May in Paris. The same name change will also apply to the conferences held in the Pacific Rim.
In addition to providing support and information to our members, the International SGML Users' Group has an advocacy mission. We fulfil this part of our mission in a number of ways, but most often by providing funding for various activities. I am pleased to announce that the Executive Council has approved a donation of £500 sterling to the Yuri Rubinsky Insight Foundation (YRIF). The following is the text of a message I received from Mike Paciello, Executive Director of the YRIF.
On behalf of the Yuri Rubinsky Insight Foundation, I would like to personally thank you, the Executive Council, and all the members of the International SGML Users' Group for this generous and very kind donation.
As you know, the Foundation continues in it's effort to pursue Yuri's mission of ensuring that all persons, regardless of their abilities, have access to information. The Foundation was instrumental in organizing the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) along with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). We believe this to be an important first step towards the Foundation's mission of "stimulating research and development of information access technologies".Over the course of the next few months, the Foundation will be seeking funds for several new initiatives, particularly around education and awareness. This kind donation from ISUG will help us accomplish that goal, Please be sure to thank all of the ISUG members.
Pam Gennusa
ISUG President
Contact Robin Cover with corrections and updates, or to submit contributions to the ISUG online document database.
