WebMink
Simon Phipps's personal commentary

Both charging the canvas and VAS&ND link to DocMorph and the newly-released MyMorph but perhaps miss the true significance that this is in fact a web service using SOAP. That means that results and outputs of future net-aware software can be easily delivered as PDF. Another "web service component" joins the armoury.

We are all, of course, grateful for the ability to do this and liberated by the new 'web services' take on the old idea of RPC, now spun with added XML filling. This is all part of an unstoppable trend that will doubtless surge on like the previous innovations of web browsing, Java software and XML usage. And the fact that the whole software industry is hyping the idea to death may play a role too ;-)

Of course, there is an underlying 'gotcha' in all this. Just because the interfaces are 'standard', that says nothing about the XML being passed between the interfaces. As we see the cascade of new services made available on the web, what steps will we take to ensure that we do not become the unwitting victims of lock in or users of protected intellectual property in the shape of proprietary data flows or patented algorithms? In an earlier era this would have been an unnecessary fear but in today's RIAA- and pigopolist-fueled litigious, IP-paranoid world, we need to be asking the questions now, not just going with the (data) flow.

posted at 2:11 PM (UK) | |