Upcoming XQuery Events and a Look Back

There is some great activity coming up in the world of XQuery and here are a few of the events on my calendar:

1. XQuery and Mobile:  This Wednesday, Mark Logic will be hosting a webinar on how Mobile is opening up opportunities for publishers and how XML and XQuery can help you quickly take advantage of them.  The Webinar is called "Mobile Content: Follow the Money in 2010".  Sign up here to join this session on a very hot topic.
2. Semantics and XQuery:   Next week, March 23rd, I'll be speaking at the ASIDIC Spring event Beverly Jamison of the American Psychological Association about how enriching content helps their users do research.  The session is titled "Getting References Right - How Semantic Technology Helps Linking, Findability and Analysis" and is part of the ASIDIC Spring event called SMART CONTENT: Uncovering the Value and Benefits of Semantic Technology.  Sign up for it here. 
3. Mark Logic User conference:  some have called it the best XML conference and this year looks to be no different with a host of excellent sessions about using XML and XQuery to build information products.  Check out the program and sign up here to attend the world's largest gathering of XQuery experts.
4. Demo Jam at the User Conference:  In addition the regular sessions, I will hosting a Demo Jam at the user conference.  This will be Monday night at the opening cocktail hour and open to all conference attendees.  I have mentioned our internal Demo Jams before . . . and we're now opening it up to the MarkLogic Community.   The concept is simple - presenters have 5 minutes to show a demo (XML/XQuery/MarkLogic based) and we let the crowd vote, with cheers, on the winner.  Look for a sign up page on the User Conference site soon.

In addition to getting the word out about the events, I wanted to go back over some of my previous posts on some of the big themes that are at the heart of using XQuery to build information products:

1. Content Enrichment:  Everyone always wants better XML - and what better way to create it than to use XQuery.  This post takes a look at enriching some Shakepeare content and shows how some semantic markup can create new user features:  XQuery and Lazy Enrichment:  Keeping my Busy.
2. Search: nearly every information application has search and this post shows why MarkLogic Server and XQuery are the best platform to create search applications.  Search is an Application, XQuery is a Platform.
3. Transformation:  Once you get your content, transforming it into the proper format for another system or end user is the next step.   This post explores how you do that with XQuery:  (XQuery) Transformers! More than meets the eye!
4. Powering Rich Internet Applications: from Flex to AJAX to mobile, XQuery is the tool to power the next generation of information applications.  This post explores how a single tier app with XQuery can power an AJAX app:  XQuery: The Real X in AJAX.

These are just some of the big themes around using XQuery and its nice to see a string of events and webinars with real life applications showing what you can do with XQuery and a few big ideas.