Web services considered harmful?

It has been estimated that all of the Web Services specifications and proposals ("WS-*") weigh in at several thousand pages by now. At the same time, their predecessor technologies such as XML-RPC have developed alongside other "grassroots" technologies like RSS. This debate has arguably even risen to the architectural level, contrasting "service-oriented architectures" with REST-based architectural styles. Unfortunately, the multiple overlapping specifications, standards bodies, and vendor strategies tend to obscure the very real successes of providing machine-automatable services over the Web today. This panel asks: Are current community processes for developing, debating, and adopting Web Services are helping or hindering the adoption of Web Services technology? URL: