Yes, the extensible markup language (XML) and its related standards are
rapidly being taken up and will all be official very soon. Some of those
related standards include XLink and XPointer (for linking and related
activities) and the synchronized multimedia integration language (SMIL) for
synchronized events.

  Robin Cover has an outstanding index of XML material at <URL:
http://www.oasis-open.org/cover/xml.html>.

  There is also a, mostly outdated, ISO standard for describing hypermedia
called HyTime. The full title of that standard is _Information Technology -
Hypermedia/Time-based Structuring Language (HyTime)_ (ISO/IEC 10744:1992).
It is an international standard for describing hypermedia.  The original
standard (not including the Technical Corrigendum) was edited by Charles
F. Goldfarb (with assistance from Steven R. Newcomb). The standard was
published in Geneva by the International Organization for
Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission in 1992.

  Many pointers to HyTime information are available from the HyTime User's
Group homepage <URL:http://www.HyTime.org> and Robin Cover's HyTime webpage
<URL:http://www.sil.org/sgml/hytime.html>.  Both the comp.text.sgml and
alt.hypertext newsgroups host HyTime discussions.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

** Section 4: References to other electronic resources **

Subject: Q4.1) About hypertext/hypermedia

  There are far too many online resources about hypertext to list here so
only the most major ones are included here.  As with all sections of this
list, your suggestions for additions are welcome.

  * SIGWEB (the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest
     Group on Hypertext/Hypermedia) has a WWW homepage at
     <URL:http://www.acm.org/sigweb/>.  

  * The Open Directory Project <URL:http://dmoz.org/> lists hypertext
    in at least these four categories: Critical (literary) theory,
    Information overload, Fiction E-zines, and Ted Nelson's
    multi-dimensional data organizing system, Zig Zag.

  * LINKBase is a bibliographic reference system for hypertext-related
     publications at
     <URL:http://www.njit.edu/Professional_Society/SIGLINK.html>.

  * The Hypertext/-media Resources at the University of Konstanz are
     quite good:
     <URL:http://www.inf-wiss.uni-konstanz.de/Res/hypertext_e.html>.

  * Eastgate Systems's Selected Hypertext Resources on the Web is
     a compilation of resources on hypertext theory, hypertext fiction,
     and criticism, including many original essays and reviews. It is at 
     <URL:http://www.eastgate.com/Hypertext.html>.

  * BowerBird was a specialized search engine on hypertext topics.  The
     engine was created by Adrian Miles.  It used to be at <URL:
     http://bowerbird.rmit.edu.au:8080/> but has been indefinitely
     suspended.

  * Collections of previous alt.hypertext discussions are listed in
     question 1.3.