Web Services Bullshit
I just read a Red Herring article about the "Top 10 Trends for 2005" and feel sorry for people who are forming opinions based upon inaccurate techspeak as is found in Don’t Blink – Web Services Just Became Real.
This little gem defines "Web Services" with such broad brushstrokes that virtually every thing I can think of that is mediated between two computers on the web becomes a "Web Service" whether it’s based upon new technologies or hacked and poorly crafted legacy technologies. If you define them so broadly, then I think web services have been a "hot trend" since at least 1993. I can think of several decade-old examples of one machine publishing useful automated information to another using web protocols.
Add to the soup a few buzzwords like RSS and XML and it gives the article a ring of authority.
"Web Services" are more complex. For web services, in the truest sense, to become real and truly revolutionize machine-mediated interaction:
- The protocols must be based upon a common standard specifically targeted at secure, authenticatable, machine-to-machine interaction.
- There must be a few dominant, popular, and readily-supported protocols.
- There must be a means to publish services in directories to create a producer-consumer model, with requisite authority broken down by domains of control, subscription, and licensing.
- These protocols must be adopted widely and in preference to proprietary solutions.
Ad-hoc B2B machine-to-machine protocols don’t count. HTTP or FTP don’t count. Custom built proprietary solutions by a set of self-interested vendors don’t count.
Maybe RSS feeds count. But the promise of the "web services world" as a beautiful commerce-enabled infospace hyper-connecting businesses throughout the world? RSS is hardly worth pointing to if that’s your aim! And I believe those are the juicy predictions the pundits are prognosticating about.
Prognosis: Don’t expect a web services revolution too soon. Get the bulk of your ROI from mature technologies that can at least be identified rather than living "somewhere out there in the minds of journalists".
Tags: Web/Tech
