Dr. Makoto Murata

A Japanese computer scientist, in 1997, he participated in the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) XML Working Group. Jon Bosak, James Clark and Tim Bray were also members of the group. The Working Group designed XML1.0, a markup language specification and a subset of SGML. XML1.0 became a W3C Recommendation in February 1998. He and James Clark of London, England designed RELAX NG, an XML schema language. He is the convener of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 34 WG 4, responsible for Office Open XML maintenance. He and collaborators authored XML Japanese Profile, the issues of using Japanese characters in XML documents. XML Japanese Profile became a JIS (Japanese Industrial Standard) Technical Report. XML Japanese Profile was translated into English and published as a W3C Technical Report. He is one of the authors of IETF RFC 2376 XML Media Types. The RFC specifies XML media types for use in exchanging XML data via network (text/xml and application/xml). RFC 2376 was revised as RFC 3023. He and James Clark, along with some other people had critical attitudes toward XML Schema. XML Schema is a modern XML schema language designed by W3C XML Schema Working Group. W3C intended XML Schema to supersede traditional DTD (Document Type Definition). XML Schema supports so many features that its specification is large and complex. He, James Clark and those who criticized XML Schema, pointed out the following: 1. It is difficult to implement all features of XML Schema; 2. It is difficult for engineers to read and write XML Schema definitions; and 3. It does not permit nondeterministic content models. He and collaborators designed another modern schema language, RELAX (Regular Language description for XML), more simple and mathematically consistent. They published RELAX specification in 2000. RELAX was approved as JIS and ISO/IEC standards. At roughly the same time, James Clark also designed another schema language, TREX (Tree Regular Expressions for XML). He and James Clark designed a new schema language RELAX NG based on TREX and RELAX Core. RELAX NG syntax is the expansion of TREX. RELAX NG was approved by OASIS in December 2001. RELAX NG was also approved as Part 2 of ISO/IEC 19757: Document Schema Definition Languages (DSDL). In April 2010, he made a presentation at JEPA on 14-itemized requirements as extended Japanese-language-related specifications to be incorporated into EPUB. When East Co., Ltd. started working on the project of EPUB enhancement for Japanese Text Layout, sponsored by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of the Japanese Government, Murata assumed the project?s technical responsibilities, and by jointly working with Tatsuo Kobayashi, et al., he called for other browser developers/owners, to take in the enhanced EPUB, or support Japanese Text Layout, including vertical writing, line breaking rules and emphasis dots. He is a coordinator of Enhanced Global Language Support (EGLS) for the US-based International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), developer and promoter of EPUB. In 1982, he received his Bachelor's degree from the Faculty of Science, Kyoto University. In 1985, he joined Fuji Xerox. From 1993 to 1995, he researched structured documents at Xerox Webster Research Center. As of 1997, he worked at Fuji Xerox Information Systems on lease from Fuji Xerox. In 2000, he left Fuji Xerox. Since 2000, he has researched at International University of Japan. From 2000 to May 2008, he also researched at IBM Tokyo Research Laboratory. Since September 2008, he has been a Fellow of the Center for Global Communications (GLOCOM), the International University of Japan. In July 2006, he obtained the Doctor?s degree in Engineering from Graduate School of Systems and Information Engineering of the University of Tsukuba. In November 2009, he assumed the position of Technical Lead at Japan Electronic Publishing Association (JEPA) and has since been leading the EPUB Research Team of JEPA. Since 2010, he has been a Vice Chairman of IVS Technology Promotion Council. He co-authored ?XML and Java: Developing Web Applications, Second Edition?, with Hiroshi Maruyama, Kent Tamura, Naohiko Uramoto, Andy Clark, Yuichi Nakamura, Ryo Neyama, Kazuya Kosaka and Satoshi Hada, Addison-Wesley Professional, May 2002, ISBN 0-201-77004-0. Additionally, he authored papers on structured document.