I've written an app that uses an XML schema to record local authority assets such as roads, sewer and water, parks and cadastre et al as a plug in to a CAD appl

I've written an app that uses an XML schema to record local authority assets such as roads, sewer and water, parks and cadastre et al as a plug in to a CAD application. What is special about it is that it uses a vendor neutral file format to record important assets that can be imported into a GIS system for use in budgeting, maintenance, planning, asset depreciation etc. All data is validated by the schema so all stakeholders can be sure that the data passed around is usable and correct. What's really opened my eyes is that the state of BIM (building information modelling) is way out of touch with what is actually required to create re-usable data. XML, love it or hate it, is a simple text format and used with an XSD (XML schema definition) is a very powerful way to enforce data standards, sort of like type checking for a text file. Having said all that I think if you can develop apps that use something like XML, JSON, whatever as a data source and it's used along with a good schema there is plenty of opportunities for work. Not everything needs to be stored in a database :)