The first version of XML was published in february of 1998, I think the chance you're thinking of was somewhere around early 2000s - I'd think 2004 was still possible, at any rate before the apparent failure of SOAP and XSD. By 2006 it was becoming clear it wasn't gonna happen.

JSON is a better data language, but a lot of that can be laid at the feet of XSD and the big squandering of momentum it represented.