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Who Owns the One True Schema My Aunt Gracie!!! Where's the Wall Plug?

• From: Len Bullard <len.bullard@u...>
• To: xml-dev@l...
• Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:09:11 -0500

I think Ken's question is related to an older question.  I am Reading Café
Con Leche and see this quote:

"...The Myth of the One True Schema. Assuming a developer creates a working
..proto/.idl/.wsdl definition, and two companies agree on it, what happens
when one side wants to evolve or change that definition? Who gets to decide
the evolutionary progress of that file? Who "owns" that definition, in
effect?" - Ted Neward

http://blogs.tedneward.com/2008/07/11/So+You+Say+You+Want+To+Kill+XML.aspx

The Customer should.   Does the customer know that?   The example above
talks about two developers at two companies.   Should they be determining
that?  Maybe.  Perhaps not.

There is a long history of asking where is the one true schema when bidding
government projects, and often such things exist, eg, the customer believes
that by citing EBXML they are done with the policy job.  Maybe not.

I spent this week at a conference where many millions of tax dollars are
being spent on "sustainability" and "interoperability" and "communities of
practice" and other isms and schisms that I've come to associate with wonk
silliness.  Great speakers, resounding sound systems, big screens, and I had
only one question:  Where is the WSDL?  

Urr.... ummm... ah... you should talk to Fred about that.  Oh.. Hmmm?  I
think John's group does that?  And then .... we have a contractor working on
that.  But ultimately from the horse's mouth (The Contractor), The Customer
Has No Policy.

Millions spent to train the band, make their costumes, set up the stage,
light the performers... and no place to plug in.

O  For the old guys:  CALS REDUX.  Four billion spent and no systems
delivered.

O  For the younger guys:  A few million tossed at a university and now the
world wide web.

Who owns it?  Who paid for it?   Did they get what they paid for or did they
buy only what a vendor's business development schwoozmeister told them they
needed?

Of course there are WSDLs out there.  All of the vendors have one and
they'll show it to you for more money.   Sigh.... and I guess that is what
I'll have to do as well, but frankly, I was hoping for a policy.

Sustainability is about low-energy cost systems.  Interoperability is about
WSDL-declared services and portable data schemas. There is an economic
tsunami coming over the walls and these big initiatives will vanish like the
vapor they are.  If we intend to deliver, we better dump these theoretical
arguments and Spy Vs Spy competitions (eg, REST vs WS*), and make sure the
policy supports the procurements.

If you are profiling at the beginning of the initiative, you are already in
deep trouble.

len
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