The first 2 sessions of the day have been enlightening. Everything from the presentation by Richard Ballard, the Chief Scientist at Knowledge Foundations, on semantic networks and innovations in network publishing. Pretty heavy stuff! Dr. Ballard discussed the differences between information held in the 'genes' of an environment (on the same level as the Windows OS) programmed, logical, unlearning and non-changing, vs. the information/knowledge held in the brain. The brain can learn, change, adapt, as should our knowledge networks of the future.

The following presentation titled "Speaking in Tongues: A Modern Guide to Understanding Today's Web Languages", was a supreme overview of the migration from HTML to XHTML to XML with a primer on how CSS drives the whole bus. The takeaway for me was that I am still leading in the HTML 4.0 mindset, and we need to be developing (and I need to be leading) in a XHTML 1.1 w/ CSS and XML mindset. I found it interesting that the XHTML standard allows for NO presentation elements - only structure - in the document code. ALL presentational elements are handled by the Style Sheets (CSS). This is a significant departure from when I learned to code (and taught) HTML back in 1996/97/98.

All in all, this is a supreme conference so far. The level at which the speakers and other professionals are operating is mind-blowing. These are people that are truly obsessed with the craft! I can't wait to take this stuff back to the office.