Ecosystem metaphor could be a valuable

["Jeffrey A. Estefan" <jeffrey.a.estefan@jpl.nasa.gov>]

Frank and the RA SC,

Nearly finished with the Business Integration Journal article on the SOA-RM 
and so I'm about to return to working on the RA.  The first thing I promised 
to do during our face-to-face was provide some updates to the Intro section 
in the areas of reference architecture and ecosystem.  I just wanted to 
mention that I'm beginning to like the ecosystem metaphor more and more; not 
so much from the perspective of architecture or architecting but rather as a 
metaphor for SOA and service participants in a SOA "ecosystem."  There are 
certainly some scholarly articles out there that describe the evolution of 
business from vertical silos to horizontal, process-oriented enterprises to 
modern day business ecosystems.  I don't want to abandon the idea just yet 
and it may serve well as a view on the reference architecture.

Bye for now...

 - Jeff