No one has posted in here so I figured I would.
What is XML?
XML is a markup language for documents containing structured information.
Structured information contains both content (words, pictures, etc.) and some indication of what role that content plays (for example, content in a section heading has a different meaning from content in a footnote, which means something different than content in a figure caption or content in a database table, etc.). Almost all documents have some structure.
A markup language is a mechanism to identify structures in a document. The XML specification defines a standard way to add markup to documents.
From: http://www.xml.com/pub/a/98/10/guide0.html?page=2#AEN58
Tutorial: http://www.w3schools.com/xml/