Re: Interoperability and Fragmentation

On Wed, Apr 16, 2003 at 08:05:44AM -0500, Cutler, Roger (RogerCutler) wrote:
> First, I think that there are some people, perhaps including myself, who
> had an expectation that if we defined a Web service architecture well
> enough that then one could guarantee, or at least hope, that any two Web
> services conformant to that architecture would interoperate.  I now
> think that this expectation was as misguided as would have been Humphey
> Bogart's (as Rick) had he come to Casablanca for the waters.

FWIW Roger, I don't think it's misguided at all.  It is certainly within
the realm of possibility that such an architecture can be built, because
it's been done before; just look at the huge success of email or the
Web, which are far too often taken for granted.  That success wasn't
accidental either, it was the result of great design by a handful of
brilliant people.

IMO, a W3C WG, or any concensus driven entity for that matter, is no
place to attempt that kind of work.  Architecture is just too damned
hard, and concensus is guaranteed to provide the wrong answer.

Also IMO, if Web services are to succeed, they will do so by letting
a thousand architectures bloom, or by reusing and extending an
existing one which already has bloomed (on the Internet).

Just my 2c.  I'm not trying to start anything, so followups to me and
www-archive please.

MB
-- 
Mark Baker.   Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA.        http://www.markbaker.ca
Web architecture consulting, technical reports, evaluation & analysis

Received on Wednesday, 16 April 2003 14:01:41 UTC