RE: Draft definition of WS

I would like to strike the sentence that starts "Indeed".  As a person
who really thinks that there exists a reasonable general definition of
the term Web services, and that there is in fact a reasonable consensus
in the world at large, I think that this statement is false and
misleading -- and I don't see what it adds.  Other than that, somewhat
to my surprise I like this definition quite a bit except for the loconic
and fundamentally ambiguous parenthetical "WSDL".  Since it is pretty
ambiguous, however, I guess it's hard to object to it.  Exactly what
would I be objecting to?  Pretty clever of you.

Stylistically, the first sentence of the definition has WAY too many
commas and clauses.  How about, then, 

There are many things that might reasonably be called "Web services" in
the world at large.  However, for the purpose of this architecture, and
without prejudice toward other definitions, we will use the following
definition:

A Web service is a software system designed to support
machine-to-machine interaction over a network.  It is identified by a
URI and has public interfaces described in a machine-processable format
(WSDL). Other systems may interact with the Web service in a manner
prescribed by its description, typically using XML-based messages
conveyed using HTTP, SOAP and other Web-related standards.

This is intended to be only a matter of smoothing out the language and
clarifying linguistically, without changing the meaning at all (other
than cutting out the "number of definitions" speculation).   

-----Original Message-----
From: David Booth [mailto:dbooth@w3.org] 
Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2003 5:17 PM
To: www-ws-arch@w3.org
Subject: Draft definition of WS



We have results from the straw poll we just did on the definition of
"Web 
service" and the scope of our architecture[1].

1. Tieing the definition and scope.
The first question asked whether we should tie our definition of "Web 
service" to the scope of our architecture.  (I.e., should we attempt to 
define the term "Web service" in a way that reflects the scope of our 
architecture, rather than more broadly?)

The results of the poll indicated that the WG is pretty evenly split on 
this question.   In a (desperate?) attempt at achieving agreement, I 
propose the following compromise: (1) that we define the term "Web
service" 
in a way that attempts to reflect the scope of our architecture; BUT (2)

that we acknowledge that the term means many things to many people, and 
that other documents may use the term more broadly.

2. Proposed wording for WS definition.
With the above in mind, and based on the results from the rest of the
poll, 
here is my proposed wording for inclusion in section 1.5 of our
document, 
which introduces the concept of "Web service" and defines the term.

[[
There are many things that might reasonably be called "Web services" in
the 
world at large.  Indeed, there may be as many definitions of the term as

there are products!  However, for the purpose of this architecture, and 
without prejudice toward other definitions that may differ, we will use
the 
following definition.

A Web service is a software system, designed to support
machine-to-machine 
interaction over a network, that is identified by a URI, and whose
public 
interfaces are described in a machine-processable format (WSDL). Other 
systems may interact with the Web service in a manner prescribed by its 
description, typically using XML-based messages conveyed using HTTP,
SOAP, 
and other Web-related standards.
]]

Comments?

References
1. http://www.w3.org/2002/09/wbs/34341/WSAScope/results


-- 
David Booth
W3C Fellow / Hewlett-Packard
Telephone: +1.617.253.1273

Received on Thursday, 24 July 2003 18:47:17 UTC