XML for plug-and-play applications in service delivery

Personal independence and active societal participation up to a high age call for a good open-system architecture and plug-and-play applications preventing ‘vendor lock in’. The supportive software which uses the ICT hardware infrastructure is the subject of this contribution. TCP/IP forms the standard for exchanging data, however, for turning data into information a number of (vendor-based) protocols are currently available. XML, the eXtensible Markup Language, as formulated in 1998, may become the de facto standard due to its popularity and its management by a number of standards development organizations. Like any ordinary language, XML has grammar and domain vocabularies. Established domain vocabularies used for delivering care services include HL7 (clinical data and practices) and CCR (care data in real-time). In addition, semantic web applications are expressed in XML and the architecture of a plug-and-play environment has been formed in SOA (Service Oriented Architectures). Mass-individualized teleservices so urgently needed in our aging society, may be realized through extensive use of XML.