What I am missing from this article is what replaces XML for databases. An XML database is just a document store, and that idea has not died. You can s/XML/JSO

What I am missing from this article is what replaces XML for databases. An XML database is just a document store, and that idea has not died. You can s/XML/JSON/g and you'll see that the ideas and research is still very relevant today. XML databases are decidedly 'NoSQL'. MongoDB is a good example of a straight port of the document store idea to JSON. MongoDB would be a lot richer if it were to support XQuery in some form, rather than their awkward json querying system. I think there is a discrepancy between the academic world which likes the orderly nature of XML and the pragmatic programmers world who like the terseness of JSON.