I really like the point about the relationship between paper use, document preparation systems and authentication.
Clearly we use these systems because their printed output is superior. We need this media primarily because we still rely on hand written signatures to provide authentication of provider/recipient. With the advent of digital signatures this is no longer necessary. (If you check out some recent news, Congress has made some headway in this arena.) Once digital signatures become commonplace, the digital format, and by inference an "internet friendly" format will replace this paper-centric system.
I would further say that this is already happening. I read some recent news about the financial services industry cooperating on an XML dtd. Do you think they are going to document prep systems for this? You bet! Evantually they are not going to bother with M$ Word(y).
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I really like the point about the relationship between paper use, document preparation systems and authentication.
Clearly we use these systems because their printed output is superior. We need this media primarily because we still rely on hand written signatures to provide authentication of provider/recipient. With the advent of digital signatures this is no longer necessary. (If you check out some recent news, Congress has made some headway in this arena.) Once digital signatures become commonplace, the digital format, and by inference an "internet friendly" format will replace this paper-centric system.
I would further say that this is already happening. I read some recent news about the financial services industry cooperating on an XML dtd. Do you think they are going to document prep systems for this? You bet! Evantually they are not going to bother with M$ Word(y).