TEAM Zarate Tarrani Notes From the Field

More on web services: a ZDNet news item dated 6 February, Software Giants Unite for Web Services, reported that Bea Systems, Microsoft, Intel and IBM are expected to launch a new industry consortium aimed at promoting Web services. The group is called the Web Services Interoperability Organization, which bodes well for the future of compatible and interoperable web services - if the consortium does not fall apart.

That news led to a weblog I discovered today called VoidStar. The author is Julian Bond and the content is excellent. He augments his weblog with essays which are well-written and carefully thought out. The essay that led me to his site in the first place (I was searching for Web Services Interoperability Organization) is titled Web Services Are .... That led me to the Syndic8 Project, which in turn led me to an article by Mr. Bond titled Content Syndication: The Syndic8 Project. It doesn't end there. I clicked back to VoidStar only to discover another tidbit that has Mr. Bond's touch: Drupal.org, which is the official website of an open source engine called Dupral. This engine is designed to power content management and discussion applications. The project's mission is to develop a leading edge open-source content management system that implements the latest thinking in community publishing, knowledge management, and software design. Chalk one more up for the open source movement.

A significant item from the open source movement was reported in The Register titled DARPA funds open-source bug hunt. You can be sure that when the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency cuts loose funds with the goal of hardening open source software that open source has become mainstream.

SAP AG has also joined the open source movement with the release of SAP DB as an open source database. See SAP DB Database Tools for what the release encompasses. If you're new to open source be sure to visit (and bookmark) Open Source Development Network.

I'm going to end with two IBM resources that impress me:

1. Advanced Enterprise Middleware Group page, which features an impressive list of publications and some interesting projects.
2. Web services: Articles, columns & tips

Tomorrow I'll share the fruits of my investigation of Aspect-Oriented Software Development that I mentioned in yesterday's entry. The preliminary research has led to some interesting information - come back tomorrow and read about it.