This session describes how to use JDOM to read and write XML documents easily and efficiently from your Java programs, while automatically maintaining well-formedness and checking validity. JDOM is a Java API for processing XML documents that's both simple and convenient. At a high level, it's similar to the DOM, but since JDOM was designed specifically for Java rather than for multiple languages, it feels much more natural and "right" to Java programmers. Jason Hunter speaks openly about the process of putting JDOM through Sun's Java Community Process (JCP) as a Java Specification Request (JSR). He describes how that has shaped JDOM, and set a new open standard for the Java platform.