Michael Champion

Michael Champion is a research and development specialist at Software AG, working out of Ann Arbor, Michigan. He graduated from the University of Michigan and did graduate study specializing in data analysis and computer simulation of international conflict. He has been a software developer in the USA for 20 years, working primarily in the area of middleware for client-server document and image management systems. He has been active in the World Wide Consortium's Document Object Model (DOM) Working Group for more than three years and was an editor of the core XML portion of the DOM Level 1 Recommendation. He is now co-chair of the Web Services Architecture Working Group. Champion joined Software AG in early 1999 and now works in the Technology Enablement group, focusing on technical business development activities, writing articles on XML technology, and building example integrations between XML applications and Software AG's database and enterprise integration products. He serves as co-chair of the W3C Web Services Architecture working group and continues to be active in the W3C DOM working group as well as the W3C XML Protocols working group.

Weblogs

Bicycles, Trucks, and web services specs: "Use the right tool for the job" is a cliche that is hard to dispute. Or so I used to think before this new round of the REST vs Web Services debate started up. I want to hear how to do hard things RESTfully, not hear once again about the pointlessness of doing easy things with WS-*.
Posted by mchampion on September 29, 2004 at 18:01 PST | Permalink | Discuss (0)

More WS-* specs, more questions about architectural viability: I think I finally understand why half the smart people I know are involved with specifying and implementing the WS-* specs, and the other half think it is a waste of time.
Posted by mchampion on September 19, 2004 at 13:35 PST | Permalink | Discuss (6)

WS-Simplicity?: Tim Bray sorts out the best practices from the best guesses among the web services "standards" and concludes with a plea for WS-Simplicity: "building applications with what’s here today and what works today: XML, HTTP, URIs, SOAP, WSDL, and that’s about it."
Posted by mchampion on April 27, 2004 at 11:11 PST | Permalink | Discuss (1)

Xml 2003 Reflections - Adam Bosworth Keynote: Some thoughts, and links to other discussions, inspired by a speech given by Adam Bosworth last week. Topics touched on include the KISS principle and its breakdown in the XML world, hopes that Father Darwin wil set things right, the challenges of effectively using low-powered mobile devices in an internet optimized for fat pipes, and spins off into a discussion of the ideas behind JXTASpaces as an alternative to the competing distributed object and REST approaches to this kind of application.
Posted by mchampion on December 19, 2003 at 06:58 PST | Permalink | Discuss (8)

XML 2003 reflections - day 1: Most would agree that we need more metadata on the Web for it to live up to its full potential. On the other hand, the historical difficulty of getting real people to put metadata in their content is believed by many to doom such efforts to failure. Jon Udell's insight, presented in a keynote at XML 2003, is that we can leverage the technology we have, salted by human vanity, to get usable metadata without technological breakthroughs or unrealistic demands on humans.
Posted by mchampion on December 11, 2003 at 11:50 PST | Permalink | Discuss (2)

Simplistic subsets: The 80/20 rule, both a blessing and a curse. When is it one, when the other?
Posted by mchampion on October 19, 2003 at 19:43 PST | Permalink | Discuss (3)

Reports of the "Demise of the XML Database" are dubious: There are good reasons to doubt that specialized XML DBMS products will follow OODBMS products down the road to oblivion.
Posted by mchampion on October 04, 2003 at 14:30 PST | Permalink | Discuss (6)

Standards, Stability, and Confusion: There are lots of power struggles, personality conflicts, and political shenanigans in the world of Web, XML, and even Java standards. How worried should you be?
Posted by mchampion on August 07, 2003 at 18:38 PST | Permalink | Discuss (2)

XML can define agreements, but can also help deal with chaos: XML makes it easier for those who want to agree on a data "standard" to nail down the technical details. On the other hand, when data is sent around or stored in XML, lots of work can be done without agreement or authority.
Posted by mchampion on July 07, 2003 at 07:05 PST | Permalink | Discuss (3)

SOA: One acronym to bind them all?: The acronym SOA for "Services Oriented Architecture" does seem to get tossed around a lot these days. Is this simply the buzzword du jour of the marketers and analysts, or is there something more profound going on here?
Posted by mchampion on June 24, 2003 at 19:31 PST | Permalink | Discuss (6)

When does SOAP add value over simple HTTP+XML?: When does SOAP add value over just plain HTTP+XML? When you really have to deal with reliable, secure, vendor-neutral, complex applications over multiple networks it definitely beats reinventing a lot of wheels. In simpler situations, your mileage may vary.
Posted by mchampion on June 13, 2003 at 11:04 PST | Permalink | Discuss (5)

Exploring Where XML and Java Meet: Introduction - This weblog will explore some of the alternatives available to Java developers who need to work with XML as documents rather than objects.
Posted by mchampion on June 10, 2003 at 16:07 PST | Permalink | Discuss (1)

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