1.	This piece serves two audiences, so it may not seem like a DaveNet piece, it might seem more like a column for XML Magazine, because that's what it is.
2.	I'm going to digress. XML is a new magazine published by Jim Fawcette and edited by Steve Gillmor. I knew Jim when he was an editor at InfoWorld in the early 80s. Now he's a media magnate, because he figured something out that no one else did, that there are a lot of Visual Basic programmers, and no one knew how to (or wanted to) make magazines and conferences for them. Jim did that, and it worked. Now he's branching out and showing up in lots of powerful places. Now he starts new magazines and I write for him. I find that very interesting.
3.	Steve Gillmor, who promises not to edit me, is an interesting character too. He's Dan Gillmor's older brother. Talking with Steve I can hear Dan's accent in his voice. I said "Steve, you sound like Dan!" A bit of a groan. Ooops. I understand, I have a younger brother too.
4.	Anyway, to the XML Magazine readers, my name is Dave Winer. I run a Web tools and publishing company called UserLand. We make a publishing platform called Frontier, and an easy-to-use browser based Web application for editing sites called Manila. The software runs on Windows and Mac, Unix coming soon. Our goal is to turn the Web into a great group writing environment; we actually believe we've already done that.
5.	I've been a software developer for 25 years. I did stuff for Unix, CP/M, the Apple II, IBM PC, Mac and Windows. I've written outliners, an object database, script interpreter, development tools, a content framework, and now HTTP servers and clients. I am also a writer, having been a columnist at Wired, and have written for the Web since 1994.
6.	I co-designed SOAP, which is the protocol underneath the Microsoft Dot-Net platform. I like working with Microsoft. We also work with Mac and Windows developers and members of the open source community, but not the zealots, and only people with open minds. Now I'm going to tell you why I like XML.