As an outside, but interested, observer I'm keen to contribute to this discussion in any way that seems useful. E.g. technical help with XML.
Judging by the recent discussion there is progress being made on this front. Is there any publically available documentation?
I'll also interject 2p/euro/cents at this point:
I believe I'd tackle this problem firstly from a modelling perspective: can we agree upon, and define a model for the data that we're capturing. It seems like there is a conceptual model inherent in the data currently captured by DELTA and other formats, that is separate to the details of its syntax.
Having agreed a particular model, a suitable syntax for expressing that model would be the logical next step. XML seems like a good fit for this, and, as I've noted elsewhere, can serialise graphs of information.
Cheers,
L.
-- Leigh Dodds, Research Group, Ingenta | "Pluralitas non est ponenda http://weblogs.userland.com/eclectic | sine necessitate" http://www.xml.com/pub/xmldeviant | -- William of Ockham