Keys for XML
 ============
 
 Keys are an essential part of database design, yet they have received
 relatively little attention in connection with XML. The proposals in
 XML-Schema fail to take account of certain common practices and may
 raise some thorny and unnecessary theoretical issues. Moreover, I
 believe that keys are sufficiently important that key specification
 should be considered independently of any larger proposal for imposing
 structure on XML documents.  In this talk, which will constitute a
 serious lapse from the high technical standards of recent DB group
 talks, I will try to cover the following:
 
    (1) Some sort of philosophical background of why keys are used and
        how they are constructed.
 
    (2) What might constitute a minimal proposal for XML keys.
 
    (3) Keys in XML-Schema.
 
    (4) What we can do with keys; their role in archival data.
 
 Whatever substance there is in this talk is the result of discussions
 with Susan, Byron, Wenfei, Hartmut and Wang-Chiew.
 
 Because of the unusual intellectual level required of the audience,
 mind-altering drugs will be provided.