There’s a general air of gathering expectation around the house; Lauren chairs the big annual XML conference and this weekend is the closing date for paper submissions. She keeps vanishing behind the nearest computer to check the inbox, and coming back with a smile. Then the assembly-line takes over: reviewer assignments, reviewer chivvying, paper selection, and then it’s getting into logistics time. If you’ve never been to one of these, you should go; you can get deeper into the deep XML issues in a couple hours in the hotel bar than in a week of seminars anywhere else. And if you’re doing something red-hot and exciting with XML that the world needs to hear about, it’s (barely) not too late to put virtual pen to virtual paper.
