TY - JOUR AB - Purpose–The purpose of this paper is to provide information about the extensible markup language (XML) – its history, function, legacy, and contribution to the world wide web and to the discipline of knowledge management. The knowledge worker will better understand how XML supports the codification aspect of the technology pillar of knowledge management.Design/methodology/approach–The author gives an overview of markup languages, which preceded XML, details XML syntax structure, and discusses techniques for processing XML data. Derivative markup languages which use XML's syntactical structure are listed, and an exercise explaining the process behind generating XML documents from spreadsheets is provided.Findings–XML has served as an integral part of the world wide web for over a decade, and enables internet applications to transform and exchange data in a very efficient manner. The codification of knowledge is germane to the KM process, and XML provides a very capable means for warehousing knowledge that can later be retrieved from knowledge repositories and relational databases. Additionally, XML‐like markup languages such as ebXML (electronic business for XML) help improve the effectiveness and efficiency of knowledge organizations.Originality/value–The paper hightlights how the management and valuation of knowledge assets are greatly facilitated by the functionality offered by XML, which enables a knowledge worker to store and retrieve knowledge artifacts in the form of structured data. VL - 38 IS - 3 SN - 0305-5728 DO - 10.1108/03055720810904853 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/03055720810904853 AU - Hedgebeth Darius PY - 2008 Y1 - 2008/01/01 TI - Managing structured data with the extensible markup language (XML) T2 - VINE PB - Emerald Group Publishing Limited SP - 348 EP - 356 Y2 - 2024/04/19 ER -