A comment on ecosystems

[Francis McCabe <frankmccabe@mac.com>]

I mentioned that I had been thinking about ecosystems lately, and this  
image captures an aspect of this nicely:

The point here is that the icon for wifi has be repurposed in a way  
that is both unexpected and obvious at the same time.

The idea that somehow we can build an ecosystem where the only thing  
that is going on is new services being added -- each of which is  
neatly described etc. -- is naive. In a true ecosystem, the different  
players build on each other in unexpected and non-foreseable ways.

Another example of this is Google. Google uses the web HTTP/HTML to  
deliver its services. But its role in the web ecosystem is not  
captured by HTTP/HTML. If you view its wordsense/advertising functions  
as one of its most influential 'services', the full impact of this is  
not felt by the delivery means.

If you think about what will happen with the next 'big thing'; you can  
be reasonably sure that (a) it will build on the success of services  
like Google and (b) that it will do so in a way that is not currently  
predictable (otherwise we would all be driving better cars).

I can see a scenario where the next big thing in SOA will layer over  
services, will use services and SOA concepts, but is not containable  
by SOA concepts such as description and interaction.

Do not know what this means for the RA, except that I have a strong  
feeling that we have been limiting ourselves too much.

Frank

smime.p7s