Dear Nature Networkers

As producers and consumers of web technology, I thought the following event might be of interest:

The XML Summer School returns this year at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford from 20th-25th September 2009. As always, it’s packed with high quality technical XML training for every level of expertise, from the Hands-on Introduction through to special classes devoted to XQuery and XSLT , Semantic Technologies , Open Source Applications , Web 2.0 , Web Services and Identity . The Summer School is also a rare opportunity to experience what life is like as a student in one of the world’s oldest university cities while enjoying an extensive range of social events that are a part of the unique summer school experience.

The Extensible Markup Language (XML) has been around for just over ten years, quickly and quietly finding its niche in many different areas of science and technology. It has been used in everything from modelling biochemical networks in systems biology (SBML), electronic health records, scientific publishing (obviously), the provision of the PubMed service (which talks XML ) and many other areas. As a crude measure of its importance in biomedical science, PubMed currently has no fewer than 800 peer-reviewed publications on XML . It’s hard to imagine life without it. So whether you’re a complete novice looking to learn more or a seasoned veteran wanting to improve your knowledge, register your place (and find out more) by visiting xmlsummerschool.com .

I hope to see some of you Nature Networkers there!