RON SCHMELZER- (lead author) ties all the XML chapters and topics together for us just as he does with his organization ZapThink. Founder and senior analyst of ZapThink, Ron is a well-known expert in the field of XML and XML-based standards and initiatives. He has been featured in and written for periodicals, and has spoken at numerous industry conferences including XML One, Comdex, and Internet World on the topic of XML. TRAVIS VANDERSYPEN- Programmer with EPS Software corporation. Five years development experience in XML, UML, XSLT, Fox Pro, HTML etc. Travis writes articles and speaks at multiple conferences on Microsoft.NET related topics. JASON BLOOMBERG- Ashton Services. eBusiness industry expert and proven thought leader with over 6 years of technical hands-on and management experience with Internet/Web technology, and over 9 years of IT consulting experience. Program Director of on-line retail research for IDC Research, East Coast director of Technology for WaveBend. SAM HUNTING- is truly an expert in XML/SGML DTDs, XTM (XML Topic Maps), and XML Schemas. He has crafted every phase of XML development, from client interviews, through developing requirements and specifications, to programming schemas, writing their technical documentation, and user interface development for XML tools. MADHU SIDDALINGAIAH- Madhu Siddalingaiah is a Physicist specializing in emerging technologies like Java and the Web. Over the past 10 years, Madhu has worked with world leaders in high technology fields which include satellite instrumentation, communications receivers, and 3D graphics. His former employers include NASA Goddard, Naval Research Laboratory, Watkins- Johnson (now part of BAE Systems), and Fairchild Space & Defense (now an Orbital division). CHAD DARBY- the founder of J9 Consulting, a Java consulting firm. He has experience developing n-tier web applications for Fortune 500 companies and the Department of Defense. Chad has published articles in Java Report, Java Developer's Journal, and Web Techniques. He has also been an invited speaker at conferences including SD West 99, XML DevCon 2000, and JavaCon 2000. He has co-authored several Java related titles for WROX. MIKE QUALLS- Web Master for Minokc.com. Advanced ASP and Visual Basic Web Developer. DAVID HOULDING- an Infrastructure Architect with eight years of design and development experience and a strong academic background. Experience with modeling, design and development of infrastructure for secure distributed object systems using web, wireless & voice access technologies.