What is xml?

Short for eXtensible Markup Language. xml is a programming language that enables designers to create their own tags to indicate specific information. The House of Representatives, for example, has recently issued a list of xml tags to be used for Web forms on Member Web sites and other Web sites that send e-mail to congressional offices. The purpose of these forms is to enable correspondence management systems (CMS) and other software to easily identify and process types of information -- such as name, city, state, zip code, issue, etc. -- which will help make the software more efficient and more effective. These tags will help CMS vendors that do not currently offer the ability to process incoming e-mail provide this feature.