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>Nah, both are just beginning to inflate. The semantic web is bigger
>than anything except web services, and web services are bigger than
>anything except the semantic web.
OK, maybe I'm missing something, or oblivious to what I can hope
is simply irony :~)
Here's an example of what I consider "hype"
http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/stories/story/0,10738,2847069,00.html
"Why Web services will be the Next Big Thing
....
TODAY, ALL THOSE [application integration] problems would be solved on a case-by-
case basis. The way in which you exchanged and used data might vary for every
supplier, every individual airline, and every individual type of cell phone or
wireless device. Because of the complexity involved, most of these problems go
unsolved, leaving some tremendous efficiencies untapped.
As a solution to this problem, Web services establish a method of standardizing
communication, making it easier for applications and devices to share information
back and forth across the Internet."
The author goes on to describe the revelation of writing an application on Windows
that uses a Linux machine on the internet somewhere to ... ADD TWO NUMBERS
TOGETHER!!"
The conclusion is: "For further proof of this, stay tuned. On Wednesday, Bill
Gates will be here in San Francisco introducing the newest version of his
company's flagship development tool, Visual Studio.Net, which is intended to help
developers build these Web services. "
I don't want to pick on the author; he's being worked on by the greatest marketing
machine the world has ever known that is totally focussed on convincing him that
this is indeed the Next Big Thing. And yes, Microsoft is only doing the hype
thing better than anyone else, there's a lot of folks one could also hold
responsible for the SOAP Bubble. But look at
http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/01/30/soap.html to see the current reality for how
much work it takes to write even a Hello, World web service that works across
platforms ... Even if the WS-I can massively simplify this, look at
http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/02/06/rest.html and tell me that RPC is REALLY
the right approach to building industrial strength web services over the internet.
There's a lot of good value that people can get from SOAP in the short run, but a
lot of work to do before the reality approaches the hype. I just wish that the
trade press was saying "caveat emptor" rather than "'"You GO, Bill!". [And yes, I
do realize that is like suggesting that Congress should have tightened rather than
loosening the laws governing the accounting industry when they noticed all the
campaign contributions from those folks.]
I know it's trite to use Enron as a rhetorical tool these days, but I think of
Kenny Boy every time someone says "pay no attention to the reality behind the
curtain" or "don't worry, growth feeds growth."
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