[3] At that time, the concept of NeuroML was closely linked with the idea of developing a software architecture in which a base application loads a range of plug-in components to handle different aspects of a simulation problem.
Instead, developers of plug-ins for Neosim were free to invent their own structures and serialize them via the NDK, in the hope that some consensus would emerge around the most useful ones.
Based on the ideas in Goddard et al. (2001) and discussions with the Edinburgh group, Sharon Crook began a collaborative effort to develop a language for describing neuronal morphologies in XML called MorphML.
The schema was divided into levels (e.g. MorphML, ChannelML, and NetworkML) to allow different applications to support different part of the language.
NeuroML also participates in the International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility Program on Multiscale Modeling.