A new face for XQuery

So, I've just been announced as the DataDirect XQuery Technology Evangelist. What does this mean ? Well, my job is to drive this technology for Progress® DataDirect® to a successful launch later this year and be the public face of our strategy. You'll be hearing a whole lot more from me on this topic, and I'll be covering issues such as XQuery fundamentals, posting developer resources and also providing an insight into the industry.

From the press release, "XQuery Technology Evangelist Jonathan Bruce Joins DataDirect Technologies," Jan. 25, 2005:

DataDirect Technologies, the leading provider of components for connecting software to data, today announced the appointment of Jonathan Bruce to XQuery technology evangelist. A technical and specification architect with experience leading industry standards such as Java(TM), J2EE and SQL, Jonathan will be responsible for advancing the XQuery and XQJ standards and driving the adoption of DataDirect's new XQuery products.

Jonathan joins DataDirect from Sun Microsystems, Inc., where he served as the JDBC specification lead and architect for the Java Platform. While at Sun Microsystems, Jonathan led four Java Specification Request efforts and successfully patented technology that now forms an integral part of the latest J2SE and J2EE platforms. Jonathan's background also includes business development, sales support as well as inbound and outbound licensing consulting for the Java platform and database-dependent components of Sun's Java Enterprise System.

"Jonathan is a valuable addition to the DataDirect team," said Jerry King, vice president of XML products for DataDirect. "With proven experience in guiding standardization efforts and leading product development, quality assurance and reliance testing to deliver world-class products, he is certain to drive the adoption of DataDirect's XQuery technologies and support the company's ongoing success."

Jonathan will lead the company's strategic beta program and official release of DataDirect XQuery™ planned for later this year, in addition to DataDirect's comprehensive offering of standards-based data connectivity components. DataDirect XQuery is an embeddable software product based on the XQuery and XQJ standards that enables Java developers at independent software vendors and in corporate IT departments to access relational and XML data sources with a single XQuery query.

"DataDirect has a long history of being the first to market with the highest-performing data connectivity components, simplifying application development, and allowing market leading portability and performance in today's enterprise market," said Jonathan. "With an established leadership position in the industry and a recognized voice in XML standards development, DataDirect is ideally position for continued growth. I am excited to join the team and look forward to expanding DataDirect's presence in the XQuery market."

Jonathan is co-author of the book JDBC API Tutorial and Reference, Third Edition, and frequently speaks at industry conferences, contributes numerous articles, and frequently blogs on Java.net. He holds a bachelor's degree in computer engineering and a master's degree in mathematics from the University of Dublin's Trinity College in Ireland.