SOA & WS:   The Impact of  SOA and Web Services On Wide-Area Networks

Web services-based service-oriented architecture (SOA) is an evolved form of distributed computing that can trace its roots to earlier architectures such as CORBA and JINI.

WS with voice:    SandCherry Talks Up SOA Web Services for Voice

SandCherry has designed its software so that IT organizations can use a single SOA implementation for self-service applications for both Web and voice. Voice self-service includes Interactive Voice Response (IVR), the company says.

WS & MS:    A Tangled Web of Services

Gates and co.'s new direction in offering Microsoft's products as Web services is being met with more confusion than mandate by the industry, writes Doug Barney in this article appearing in Redmondmag.com

WS tool:   The Four "Quantum States" of AJAX

AJAX stands for Asynchronous communication, JavaScript, and XML. The Wall Street Journal ( “Google Bets on AJAX,” The Wall Street Journal, March 15, 2005.) wrote that AJAX represents “a big step toward the Holy Grail of having the kinds of speed and responsiveness in Web-based programs that’s usually associated only with desktop software.”

Web 2.0:    Web 2.0 The Global SOA

Software as a Service (SAAS) and Web as Platform are only two of the larger mantras of Web 2.0 that most of the major software vendors have begun to embrace recently. Yet not only is Web 2.0 still very misunderstood, it's actually part of an even larger way of thinking about software in a fully service-oriented manner.

WS & SOA:   Software AG to Develop SOA and Web Services For Google

Software AG has announced that Composite Application Integrator (CAI), the company’s design and runtime environment for combining Web services into rich composite Internet applications, now supports Google maps. CAI is the first AJAX-based product to include a Google maps control.

Webs past and future:    Sir Tim and the Gift That Keeps On Giving

In 1990, the world received the first Web browser for Christmas. Santa, in the form of Sir Tim Berners-Lee, was very good to us indeed.

SW search:  The future of online search

" I think the hardest thing in the world is how to ask the right question, it is not how to find the answer it is how to ask the right question,"  says John Batelle, co-founder of Wired Magazine.

WS & SOA:  The IBM Rational Approach to SOA and Web Services

An SOA is an IT framework that combines individual business functions and processes, called services, to implement sophisticated business applications and processes.

WS business:   As Telco’s Become Service-Centric, They Need to Think BPM

Business process management (BPM) is a fast growing management practice that many industries have embraced. IDC predicts the BPM market will grow 20 percent every year through 2010, and Gartner has identified 140 companies claiming to be BPM players—the top 10 of which own 55 percent of the market.

SW future:  Welcome to the Future of the Web

Sometimes the best way to understand the big picture is to take a look at the smaller brush strokes that make it what it is. Here's a big trend: decentralization of control. It's a move toward web users having more power to control their own online experiences. And some of the brush strokes: wikis, blogs, podcasts, RSS and mash-ups. If you haven't heard of some of these yet, you'll probably hear of them soon.

W3C blogger:   Berners-Lee starts his own blog

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, has begun to write his own blog. The news has caused a ripple around the blogging community with hundreds of comments posted on the first message. You can read Berners-Lee's blog here.

SOA paradigm:    Turning reuse into reality

WS directory:    Microsoft, IBM, SAP To Discontinue UDDI Web Services Registry Effort

WS standard tools:    IBM Boosts Web Services Distributed Management Standard

SW indexing:   Semantic Web, Here We Come

WS & SOA:     Myths And Realities of Web Services

SW & GRID:   Understanding Grid semantics for virtual collaboration

instant SOA :  Tibco Offers A Way To Deploy Quick, 'Tactical' SOAs

WS & search:   Alexa Turns Web Services and Search Inside Out with Web Search Platform Beta

SW awareness:   Jump-Starting Semantic Web Efforts

SOA basics:   Building Flexible Business Processes Using BPEL and Rules

SOA talk:   Talking Web Services with Software AG

WS Quiz:   Are You Ready for Web Services?

Think you're ready? Take this quiz and find out for sure.

SWS :  Research Into Greater Interoperability

"SAP Research is tackling this set of key issues in a number of major research projects conducted within its global research network. For instance, the DIP (Data, Information, and Process Integration with Semantic Web Services)  research project is looking at ways of combining web services and semantic web technologies with the objective of automatically creating web services within the Internet environment. "

WS future:  Brokering Web Services... The Next Big Thing?

Web services were created around the notion that it's easier to discover and leverage somebody else's service rather than write your own from scratch. Also, it is much easier to create applications made up of many services, thereby allowing change to occur at a pace faster than anything we've seen in the industry thus far. 

SOA uptake:   SAP Maps Out SOA Plans

Despite an overabundance of buzzwords and tired acronyms around service-oriented architecture, there's a definite revolution brewing in the software industry, and SAP AG plans to be at the center of it. Working with partners, SAP plans to define and publish a common language—a lingua franca for doing business in a service-oriented world.

SW apps:   Medical industry first group on semantic Web

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has launched its first special interest group to begin the planning necessary for application of semantic Web technologies in a vertical industry. The new group, called the Health Care and Life Sciences Interest Group (HCLSIG), will be the first to deploy semantic Web specifications into services defined by a user community.

SW development tool:  Altova Reveals Ground-Breaking Semantic Web Tool

Altova SemanticWorks 2006 is a visual Semantic Web development tool with support for Resource Description Framework (RDF) and Web Ontology Language (OWL) creation and editing.

SWS & WSMO:   Semantic Web Services with the Web Services Modeling Ontology (WSMO)

A feature article appearing in the latest edition of AgentlinkNews (edition 19), by John Domingue, Dieter Fensel and Dumitru Roman. This coincides with the announcement of the latest release of WSMO Studio tool (v0.3.0) by the DIP project.

SOA :   BPEL in a Service-Oriented Architecture

BPEL (Business Process Execution Language for Web Services) is a language for describing Web service orchestration in terms of stateful, long-running interactions consisting of synchronous and asynchronous message exchanges. This article focuses on executable BPEL processes and presents one view on the benefits that BPEL brings to an XML Web service.

SW & GRID :   W2COG Launches Three Netcentric Projects

The World Wide Consortium for the Grid (W2COG), a U.S. government development program, has announced activity in three project themes focused on improving communications and collaboration within government agencies, private industry, academia and non-government organizations. The three projects have the following as themes: Rich Semantic Track; Private Coalition Communications; and Network-enabled Business Process.

WS applications:   Leading banks collaborate with SAP on Web Services definitions

ABN Amro, Barclays, BBVA, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Postbank, ING and Standard Bank are collaborating with SAP in an effort to define bank-specific business processes for delivering an enterprise-wide service oriented architecture.

SOA tools:   New SOA Web Services Architecture Tools For Mainframe

GT Software has announced Ivory Service Architect– an integrated toolset that enables organizations to rapidly implement an SOA using their existing mainframe hardware, applications, data and skills.

WS tools:   Web Services: Ready, Set, Implement

Through XML and the Internet, companies can now provide services and applications over the Web in a plug and play, distributed environment. In fact, according to a Capgemini (New York) survey, 64 percent of those surveyed are planning on using service-oriented architectures (SOA) in the future.

WS app:   Rhapsody launches Web-based digital music services

Digital media company RealNetworks Inc on Monday said it would launch a free, Web-based version of its Rhapsody digital music subscription services.

Semantic Web:   Semantics, Openness and New Collaborative Processes

The First Online Metadata and Semantics Research Conference scheduled for November 23-30, has been extended until December 7th. The website hosts presentations, papers, a forum and a chatline for conference participants to talk at leisure about the conference topics, without moving from their desks.

SW tools:   Wicked Cool Java - Crawling the Semantic Web

In this excerpt from Wicked Cool Java, Brian Eubanks explains how Java developers can participate in the Semantic Web, a project that strives to create a universal medium for information exchange by linking concepts together.

Semantic Mac app?:   Mac Programs That Come With Thinking Caps On

Devon, developed in Germany and offered by Devon-technologies.com, offers fast, indexed searches for files containing a specific name or word. But alongside those keyword matches, it displays a "show also" button that will bring up files or passages whose meaning is related to what you are looking for.

WS application:   StrikeIron, Jamcracker To Bring Web Services To The Software-As-A-Service Market

StrikeIron Inc., involved in Web Services commercialization through its Web Services Business Network (WSBizNet), has announced a strategic partnership with Jamcracker, a provider of on-demand delivery software.

WS application:   ColdFusion MX: A Web Service Example

From the first day the Internet was conceived, its primary goal was to allow people to access information stored on remote computers. Over the last couple of years, the technology of Web services has evolved not only to enhance accessing this information, but to share it as well.

WS standards:  IBM, BEA, Oracle and SAP team on new web services standards

A press release listed the high-tech firepower being brought to bear on the issue of developing web service standards: Oracle, IBM, BEA, SAP, Zend, Iona, Siebel, Xcalia, and Sybase. Once developed, the standards specification will help bring structure to the various applications constructed upon the SOA and its series of reusable services.

WS applications:  Insurers Gear Up for Web Services Implementation

Based on open, standard protocols, primarily XML, Web services expose an application or data on one computer to requests from other computers without using proprietary interface languages.

SOA & WS :  Ten Things Your Enterprise Information Intergration Vendor May Not Tell You

A lot of the scenarios and case studies[vendors] present are very targeted or are simple examples of how their product works that don't delve into the complexities of a real-world environment.

WS application:  FEMA plans to use Web services for disaster claims

The storm-wracked Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) plans to accelerate payments to disaster victims by switching its main system for tracking and calculating claims from a client-server application to a Web services system .

SW conference:  Das Semantic Web auf dem Weg in die Praxis (in German)

An article reporing on the recent Semantics 2005 conference held in Vienna, Austria. It mentions project DIP,  the DIP e-Government case study, and WSMO.

WS uptake :  Microsoft gearing up for Web services

A recent memo from Microsoft chairman Bill Gates to his top employees, the leadership direction coming from new chief technology officer Ray Ozzie, and the announced Windows Live and Office Live offerings have put the spotlight on Web-based services.

SW initiative:  European Semantic Systems Initiative launched

SDK, which is a cluster of the IST projects SEKT, DIP and Knowledge Web started a strategic alignment with the IST ASG project on adaptive services for Grids resulting in the formation of the European Semantic Systems Initiative (ESSI). (This is the IST Results take on the story first announced in the Press Release titled SDK joins forces with Adaptive Services Grid(ASG) for European Semantic Systems Initiative (ESSI), released on 14/11/2005).

WS IPR issue:  eBay Granted Supreme Court Hearing Over Web Services Feature

The U.S. Supreme Court will consider an appeal by eBay with regard to an ongoing battle the company is having with MercExchange. The court will hear debate over an appeals court's issuance of a permanent injunction against eBay's use of the "Buy It Now" feature, which MercExchange says infringes on two of its patents.

WS application ;-) :  Bill Gates Relaunches Self As XML-RPC Web Services Collection

The announcement was greeted with surprise, admiration, and a certain degree of frustration by the 380 million Windows users, all of whom were forced to reboot their computers within five minutes of viewing the popup announcement.

SW applications:  Semantic Web eyed to link health care information

The W3C Consortium has announced formation of the Semantic Web for Health Care and Life Sciences Interest Group, which is to deploy standardized Semantic Web specifications to provide services defined by the user community. According to W3C, embedding of semantics into medical and research information will offer better access to information needed to find cures for diseases, make drugs safer and more affordable, and enable health care providers to offer individualized clinical management.

Technology advances Looking Back on IDC's 2005 Predictions

Back in January 2005, TDC Trade printed a list of  ten predictions for 2005 from IDC, the market intelligence and advisory firm for the Asia/Pacific Information and Communications Technology regional market. Here is the reminder (including one involving SW technologies, point 10)

SOA survey:   Study Confirms Service Reuse Reduces Project Cycle Time

A new analyst report documents that enterprises are enhancing IT responsiveness and agility while realizing "significant" business benefits as a result of thier SOA implementations. The analysis, produced by Nucleus Research, was based on interviews with companies at various stages of SOA and Web services rollouts. The final report is available via download by visiting http://www.webMethods.com/ROI4SOA

WS struggle :   Microsoft, Google Face Off over Services

Tech analysts are speculating what the future of computing will look like as free web-based services and open-source software increasingly compete with Microsoft's core product line of operating systems and office products. The theory runs that at some point advertising-supported, web-based applications and services could take the place of shrink-wrapped, store-purchased software.

SW uptake:   W3C Launches Group Linking Medical Industry with Semantic Web

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is launching a new interest Group - the Semantic Web for Health Care and Life Sciences Interest Group (HCLSIG) - to connect medical industry players with Semantic Web experts in an effort to improve collaboration, research and development, and innovation adoption in the health care and life science industries.  A second story on the same theme can be found in Bio-IT World  "W3C Forms Life Science Semantic Web Group"

WS application:   Provia's Web Services Simplify Warehouse Management

The new Provia WMS 7.0 is the first edition of Provia Software's product to be based an SOA (service-oriented architecture) . The distributed nature of warehouse environments was a decisive factor in the move to include the "operational side" in developing the Web services-based software.

WS security:  WSE 3.0 Final Release

Web Services Enhancements 3.0 final release version is now freely available for download.  WSE 3.0 will work with both Visual Studio.NET 2005 and the .NET Framework 2.0.

WS tools:   Microsoft Releases Technology for Developing Secure Web Services

Microsoft has released the latest version of its Web Services Enhancements technology. WSE 3.0 is an add-on to the company's latest Visual Studio 2005 and the .NET Framework 2.0. It allows developers to write and implement Web Services Interoperability Organization's WS* protocols (WS-Security, WS-Routing, WS-Attachments etc.) by adding a few lines of code to their apps.

SW search:   Google Base (beta) Officially Live Now

Google says this is the new (free) service where you can add any type of information, and they will host it and make it searchable online. Though not strictly semantic based, GBase is close to Google’s mission statement (“organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”).

WS apps:   EBay Makes Access To Its Web Services Free

In an effort to reward third-party developers and to woo new programmers to create applications for its e-commerce and auction site, eBay Inc. has made access to eBay Web Services free .

WS standards:   Microsoft Backs Web Services-Federation Against SAML 2.0 For Identity Federation

The WS-Federation protocols compete with the SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language) 2.0 specification, which so far has strong footing in the race to create secured identity federation across organizations. SAML 2.0 is backed by consortiums such as the Liberty Alliance and the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS).

SW tool:   Introducing SPARQL - Querying the Semantic Web (Part 1 of 3)

This tutorial, the first of a three-part series, introduces SPARQL - a query language and data access protocol for the Semantic Web.

WS integration:   U.S. Air Force, DOD Set To Link Web Services

The U.S. Air Force and U.S. Department of Defence plan to merge part of their Web services registries to allow the sharing of such services throughout the military.

WS apps:  Develop apps with Web services and the eBay SDK (Part 3)

IBM Developerworks has posted part 3 of their series article Develop apps with Web services and the eBay SDK. Parts 1 , 2 are also available from the page.

WS vs .Net:   Out with .Net; In with Web Services

Revealed in two internal memos crafted by Gates and recently arrived Chief Technology Officer Ray Ozzie, Microsoft is ready to take on the "services wave" of software available to millions over the Web.

Ambient computing:  The Impact of "Ambient Findability"

Peter Morville discusses the results of being able to find anything from anywhere at anytime, thanks to ubiquitous computing and the Net.

WS for MS:   Gates Orders Web Services Emphasis

Microsoft internal memos analyze another 'sea change' for company's focus, and Bill Gates backs a sweeping plan to reshape Microsoft's development efforts of new Internet-based services.

WS language :   Why Ajax may be the future of Web services

Ajax (' asynchronous JavaScript and XML') is a programming technique for creating rich, Web-based applications that look and work like desktop software, even though they are browser-based and use few resources.

SW standards :   W3C Group Works to Standardize Web Rules

The RIF (Rule Interchange Format) working group is tasked with producing a standard means for exchanging rules on the Web, regardless of data format.

W3C and SWS:  DERI leads new OASIS Semantic Execution Environment Technical Committee for Service Orientated Architecture (Press Release)

The new OASIS Semantic Execution Environment (SEE) Technical Committee will develop guidelines, justifications, and implementation directions for an execution environment for Semantic Web services.

SW lecture :   Ontologies and the Semantic Web by Prof. Ian Horrocks

This is the annual lecture where the winner of the BCS Roger Needham Award is given an opportunity to give a public lecture on their work. The lecture will be held at The Royal Society, London on 7 December 2005 .

EU RTD :   Europe Boosts IT Research

The follow-up of the ITEA program ( Information Technology for European Advancement) , known as ITEA-2,  is set to run from 2007 for eight years with a budget of more than 3 billion euro (about $3.6 billion).

W3C standards :   World Wide Web Consortium Launches RIF Working Group

World Wide Web Consortium has announced the formation of the Rule Interchange Format (RIF) Working Group with a mission to produce a standard means for exchanging rules on the Web. Rules constitute a key element of the Semantic Web vision, allowing integration, derivation, and transformation of data from multiple sources.

SW toolkit :  Semantisches Web auf dem Vormarsch  (in German)

Nokia is promoting open source in a big way. Wilbur, a Semantic Web toolkit written in Common Lisp, can be found at opensource.nokia.com.

WS tool :   Microsoft Updates Web Services Tool

Microsoft is expected to release the latest version of its Web Service Enhancements (WSE) tool to the general public today Monday, just in time for the launch of Visual Studio 2005 (VS 2005). WSE 3.0 is an add-on to the Visual Studio 2005 platform and .NET Framework 2.0 that allows developers to create secure Web services using the latest industry protocols.

SOA & WS :  SOA Web Services and Enterprise Content Management

Faced with the limited interoperability and/or scalability of conventional ECM platforms, developers are turning to Web services as a way to realize ECM functionality and real-time content.

WS for interoperability :   Sun Adds New Web Services to Grid Utility

Sun Microsystems intends to deliver on-demand network services to convert documents from proprietary formats such as Microsoft Office into the Open Document Format (ODF), and also plans to deliver a service to convert text files to podcasts or audio files for playback at a later date.

SOA for SWS:   OASIS Committee to Tackle Semantic Web services

Members of the OASIS international standards consortium have formed a committee to define an architecture to incorporate the application of semantics into service-oriented systems, providing intelligent mechanisms for consuming Semantic Web services.

SOA and sci-fi:   OASIS melds sci-fi, SOA

Closely following the announcement that OASIS is to form a committee to define a semantic basis for SOA (see story above), this commentary from Michael Meehan throws doubt over such an undertaking.

WS apps :   Microsoft Serves Up Web Services

Microsoft Inc.has unveiled a renewed focus on services delivered over the Internet, as it tries to fend off challenges from Google Inc. and other competitors.

WS alt. :   Can Web services be used in other communication platforms besides the Web?

Yes, they can. Web services are described by WSDL, which is used to describe a service using XML, not necessarily one that is used over the Web.

WS over IP :   XML Marks The Spot In IP Services

The move to provision broadband voice, video and data services at the application layer via XML picked up steam last week. As executives from Telcordia Technologies promoted their Maestro Internet Protocol multimedia service (IMS) suite, IBM Corp. announced it acquired DataPower Technology, one of the last independent providers of XML acceleration systems.

WS standards :  IBM Submits Web Services Polling (WS-Polling) Specification to W3C

WS-Polling defines a mechanism to deliver messages destined to an unreachable endpoint by allowing the destination to poll the source for messages targeted for it.

SW Lab :  Fire hits computer research at Southampton U.

A major fire has partially destroyed the world-class computer labs at Southampton University where Tim Berners-Lee was last year appointed a professor, where he is working on the next version of the web, the Semantic Web.

WS app :   Web Services Assurance for Insurance

Web services promise insurance companies the ability to be rapidly responsive to both regulatory requirements and market opportunities by enabling changes to software systems without disrupting internal integration among applications or external integration with brokers, agents, and partners.

SOA :    Is Web 2.0 The Global SOA?

Are we heading towards an architectural singularity in the software industry? Is Web 2.0 actually the most massive instance possible of service-oriented architecture, realized on a worldwide scale and sprawling across the Web?

SW & metadata:   The many meanings of metadata

As we weave more and better metadata into software, documents, Web sites, and file systems, the information stored in these various containers will become more available, more cohesive, and therefore more useful.

SOA case study:   SOA in Action - LibGo Travel

LibGo's Next-Generation Travel System (NGTS) has adopted a modern SOA with shared business services and Web services: data interchange using XML and WSDL as the single interface definition standard.

XML patent :   Who Owns XML?

Executives at Scientigo, a small software maker based in Charlotte, NC, claim the company owns two U.S. patents (No. 5,842,213 and No. 6,393,426), that cover one of the fundamental concepts behind XML .

SW search:   ePrecis - next generation search?

ePrécis is compared to the Semantic Web's effort to process natural language - and in particular OWL (Ontology Language Overview). James Matthewson thinks that ePrécis "can do today what OWL might only do after much rapid refinement and adoption".

WS standards   OASIS Members Form Committee for Web Services Secure Exchange (WS-SX)

The committee plans to define extensions to the WS-Security OASIS Standard that will enable the trusted exchange of multiple SOAP messages and will define security policies that govern the formats and tokens of those messages. The consortium includes Adobe, BEA Systems, Computer Associates, DataPower, HP, IBM, IONA, Microsoft, Nokia, Novell, Oracle, SAP, SOA Software, VeriSign, webMethods and others ...

Web 2.0 hype:  Is Web 2.0 killing the Semantic Web?

I really want the Semantic Web (SW) explosion to happen... But a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach tells me that it's still a long way off. And worse still, that the Web 2.0 momentum could push it further back... explains Dan Zambonini writing in O'Reilly net.

WS trends :  Study Says DBAs Focusing on Web Services, XML

A report from Evans Data Corp. has found that more than half of all DBAs are working with web services, XML, middleware and even application performance tasks.

WS portal :   Google Base - May Take on eBay

The search giant is poised to jump into e-commerce with a service called Google Base. By hosting everything from articles on current events, to used car listings, to scientific data, Google could be taking a step toward building the “Semantic Web” .

WS app :   StrikeIron Announces Free Premium Web Services Analyzer for Windows

The desktop based Premium Analyzer allows users to easily browse through both internal and external directories and includes direct access to the StrikeIron Web Services Marketplace.

SW future :   The future of the Web is Semantic

Ontologies form the backbone of a whole new way to understand online data, says Naveen Balani in this developerWorks introductory article.

SW leveraging :   Microsoft Signs Licensing Agreement With ICRA (Press Release)

ICRA (Internet Content Rating Association) has announced that it has signed a licensing agreement with Microsoft allowing Microsoft to utilize the ICRA system in a range of products such as Internet Explorer, Windows and FrontPage. ICRA uses machine-understandable labels that enable content users to customize their online experience.

Web 2.0 hype :   Six Things you need to know about Bubble 2.0

Andrew Orlowski writing in The Register offers us a reality-based guide to what's happening in the sector, navigating through the mad hype surrounding Web 2.0 .  A follow-up to the article in Web 2.0: you're not even slightly whelmed.

SW search :   Quintura Announces Next-Generation Web Search Software

Quintura Search has announced a new approach the company calls "The Way People Search" that helps a user to search and find information on the web easier and faster by defining the context or meaning of the keyword. In addition, it uses dynamic clusterization and a visual semantic map to simplify web search.

Web 2.0 :   Meet Venture Capital

The emergence of Web 2.0 companies ("'Web 2.0' Has Arrived,") is causing a good deal of excitement for entrepreneurs. Among the hallmarks of these next-generation companies are their low startup costs, limited infrastructure needs, and speedy time-to-market with products.

SW :   The Semantic Organization - Knowing What You Know

A search on the semantic Web promises more (relevance) with less(search results). However progress is slow, mainly because very little information on the Web has not been semantically tagged. It may be more prudent to start on a smaller scale than the Web.

SOA market:   Toward Service-Oriented Architectures

87 percent of 100 CIOs recently polled by Goldman Sachs say they are using Web services now, and 54 percent plan to deploy infrastructure to support SOA by year-end. But many I.T. executives still have trouble identifying the practical steps needed to achieve an enterprise SOA.

SW & Web2.0:   The Future of the Web - in Many Dimensions

Just when we think we understand the Web we find it has yet another dimension and here are eight to start with.

WS markets :   IBM Acquires DataPower on Its Way To Dominate SOA Web Services Market

Already integrated with many IBM products, DataPower builds on IBM's existing SOA capabilities, including WebSphere.

SW & Web2.0:   Who Will You Listen To?

Web2.0 isn't just about building better search. This article by Hans-Peter Brøndmo lists a few other attributes.

SOA Center:  Software AG Unveils SOA Web Services Competency Center

Software AG Inc. has unveiled its SOA Competency Center (SOACC) in North America, which will help organizations understand the value of SOA (service-oriented architecture) in their unique environment .

EU RTD : A Roadmap for Agent-Based Computing

The IST project AgentLink III, a coordination network for agent-based computing, has completed its roadmap which provides an assessment of the current situation with respect to the status of agent technologies .

SOA & WS : WSDL - Describing Web Services in 2005

Currently in its second incarnation and heading for its third, WSDL has been the definitive gold standard for providing descriptions of Web services.

SOA specs:  OASIS Forms New SOA Web Services Transaction Committee

There is a new Oasis Web Services Transaction (WS-TX) technical committee meant to define a set of protocols for coordinating the outcome of distributed application actions. It was formed by IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Adobe, BEA, Fujitsu, Hitachi, SAP, TIBCO, webMethods, among others, and will be co-chaired by IBM and Iona.