XML Web Services: Means to an End

Don Box on end to the Web services era, at least on a standards level:

Don Box, an architect in Microsoft Corp.'s developer division told an audience of Web services conference attendees Wednesday: "The end of the XML Web services era is near. I predict two years from now we won't have this conference."

Box said XML Web services are a means to an end. "We have to get the plumbing sorted out," he said. "We have a couple more years of plumbing work, but after that we move on to applications," he said. Box said the "protocol work is starting to wind down, the infrastructure is catching up with protocols and it's time to start thinking about applications."
Very well said.