HumanMarkup Language “seeks to embed human characteristics within data, through XML.” It’s an interesting and ambitious concept. I’m trying to imagine what it would be like if I could mark a phrase in my weblog as being sarcastic, and have a reader’s browser indicate it as such. My writing style would certainly be different, perhaps not for the better, if the intended mood could be sent over the wire in addition to the words. A better example of an application for an emotional markup would be avatars, like the newsreader Ananova who already interprets XML in order to convey the proper emotional look for a news story. A scary example is a website with a laugh track. Perhaps this concept will help cross cultural boundaries. But the reality is, even if I find something funny and mark it as such, not everyone will. So it’s a communication device that says “this is what I think”, not “this is how you should think.” Which is, perhaps, always the proper way to communicate. (from a New Scientist item)