The complete program for "Balisage: The Markup Conference 2009", including late-breaking news, has just been posted. See:

• Detailed program
• Schedule at a Glance

Balisage 2009 is the place to come to think about XML, and about markup. The Balisage program varies from the practical to the theoretical, with a little heresy mixed in:

Worldcon 2009, Anticipation, will be in Montreal from August 6 to 10, 2009. Right before Balisage.

Stretch your mind at Anticipation for a week, then come to Balisage and stretch in a different direction. The Balisage crowd may, on average, be a bit less colorful than participants in the Anticipation Masquerade, but I wouldn't be totally surprised to see a little color mixed in with the usual geek costumes at Balisage 2009.

Come for one, enjoy them both.

Check out the really large (titanic, in fact),
you-can-walk-around-in-and-descend-the-grand-staircase,
really really cool (they include an iceberg!)
Titanic Artifact Expo that will be in Montréal at
the same time as the conference.
http://www.expotitanic.ca/homeen.php

PROGRAM NOW AVAILABLE
International Symposium on Processing XML Efficiently:
Overcoming Limits on Space, Time, or Bandwidth
Monday August 10, 2009
Hotel Europa, Montréal, Canada

Chair: Michael Kay, Saxonica

• Symposium description
• Detailed Program

Help make Balisage 2009 the conference you think it should be. Submit a paper on a markup-related topic that is under-represented at Balisage 2009. Do we need papers on Topic Maps? Converting data to XML? Your favorite (or least favorite) tag set?

The peer-reviewed part of the Balisage 2009 program has been scheduled. As usual, we have reserved a few slots on the program for presentation of "late-breaking" material. Proposals for late-breaking presentations are due on June 19th. For details see:

Call for Late-breaking News:
http://www.balisage.net/latebreaking-call.html

The organizing committee has released the program for "Balisage 2009: The Markup Conference" to be held in Montreal from 11 to 14 August, 2009.

The program can be found in two forms:
* Schedule at a Glance
* Detailed program

It looks like we'll be pretty doggone stimulated (PDS) at Balisage 2009 this August in Montreal. At this moment the program committee, on which I serve, is winding up its annual marathon meeting. We've completed the challenging task of selecting from what we believe to be the best of the largest and most worthy group of paper proposals we've ever received.

Let me share some of the themes that I, personally, am looking forward to learning more about and discussing with the latest crop of principals. This year, as usual, we'll be hearing from people who are insouciantly facing up to some of the toughest challenges in the markup arena:

We are pleased to announce the Balisage Series on Markup Technologies. The series will publish the proceedings of Balisage and related conferences and symposia. We hope to add other related materials in the future.

The first two volumes of the Balisage Series on Markup Technologies are now available:

• Vol. 1 Balisage: The Markup Conference 2008 Proceedings
• Vol. 2 International Symposium on Versioning XML Vocabularies and Systems

Balisage will make a limited number of student support awards (in the form of significantly discounted registration fees) to students in the areas of XML, markup technologies and related disciplines including Computer Science, Library and Information Science, and Digital Humanities.

See the Student page for details on the opportunity.

Please print the Announcement Flier and post it on student bulletin boards or other places where students are likely to see it.

XML Prague and Balisage are now sister XML Conferences. The two broad-based technical XML Conferences of 2009 have similar philosophies (e.g., they are technical not marketing venues) and expect mutual benefit by making each community aware of the other.