Specific topics discussed vary over time, but the main themes of the conference consistently include:

• markup languages, most visibly XML and SGML and proposals to extend or replace them, but also including other ways of structuring information
• tools for processing marked-up documents
• tools and practices for converting documents and other information from one format to another
• systems and tools for managing changes in documents over time and space
• experience reports from users and implementers
• programming languages for writing tools for processing marked up data
• issues relating to the theory of documents and markup
• specific technologies related to any or all of the above: XML parsers, XSLT, XQuery, XPath, XForms, Invisible XML, XML editors, ...

We bring together people from a broad cross-section of those concerned with markup, from users who want to preserve their investment in information and make better use of their information, through to technical staff who design and manage complex information workflows, and to philosophers pondering the nature of documents and the meaning of the speech acts embedded in markup. Talks tend to be unabashedly technical.

If you work with markup or marked up data and want to learn from others who also do so, Balisage is for you.

People involved with Balisage

The people making Balisage include markup theoreticians and practitioners, data modelers, designers, architects, and both aficionados and deep thinkers. We work as software developers, system architects, academics, integrators, librarians, data miners, lexicographers, archivists, document managers, standards developers, programmers, and publishers.

Conference Committee

Chair

B. Tommie Usdin, Mulberry Technologies

Co-Chairs

Deborah A. Lapeyre, Mulberry Technologies

James David Mason

Norman Walsh, Saxonica

Advisory Board

Syd Bauman, Northeastern University · Jeff Beck, National Library of Medicine · David J Birnbaum, University of Pittsburgh · Jon Bosak · Robin Cover, OASIS · Steve DeRose, Independent Consultant · Bob DuCharme, CCRi · Patrick Durusau · Eric Freese, TopQuadrant · Eduardo Gutentag · G. Ken Holman, Crane Softwrights · Sam Hunting · Michael Kay, Saxonica · David A. Lee, Nexstra, Inc · Chris Lilley, World Wide Web Consortium · Yves Marcoux, Université de Montréal · Sean McGrath, Propylon · Mary McRae, Orbis Technologies · Steven R. Newcomb, Coolheads Consulting · Wendell Piez, Piez Consulting Services · Ari Nordström, Creative Words · Liam Quin, Delightful Computing · Allen H. Renear, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign · Jeni Tennison, Jeni Tennison Consulting · Henry S. Thompson, University of Edinburgh · Fabio Vitali, University of Bologna · Lauren Wood