Patrick Logan just gave his presentation on "XML Applications," and it was really cool.

First of all, the app he showed us was written in Jython. I have an inner-geek who enjoys the idea of Jython, and he spoke directly to it.

The application itself was so flexible that I had a hard time figuring out just what exactly it is that it was supposed to do. It seemed to make information management, in general, very easy. Being able to describe a schema (or "model" in Patrick's app), a general user can model different types of information, and then associate different models with each other.

For example, he created a "Person" model which, as one might expect, models a person. He did this with a simple forms-based entry system in his app.

Then, he created a "Task" object which was a sort of "To do" item.

The models were, as mentioned, sort of like schemas. They could be thought of as templates.

After creating a model, a user can then create an instance of that model.

So, he made a Person object from his Person model. I think he named it "Sue," but I don't remember. It was something like that.

Then, he created a task object from the "Task" model. He was then able to drag the task object directly onto the Sue object, thereby associating that particular task with Sue.

It was pretty cool, and so flexible that it was almost intimidating.

Essentially, he was talking about an architecture that would allow for users to be creative in organizing their data without having any strong technical knowledge.

Sounds like a great addition to the world of document management, particularly web-based CMSs.