>Update: Sorry this got a little long.

Yeah, well, sometimes some persons need more to make visions clear.
Anyway, it's a sunny friday here ;))
See below.

>So, we have some things to work through. The biggest question I have right now is, by the time we work through these, will Web Services be obsolete? We move back and forth from distributed and centralized computing all too often.

I think there is a difference here. WS is in the middle of the technical environment that urges for centralization. No, wrong, integration, but controlled by centralized means (the Internet). It doesn't take stupid stuff like duplication or replication. It's all right in the middle, right there to grab. And mind you, it doesn't need .NET for it.

>I can imagine, some time in the future where we move from the current state of Web Services to an environment where every computer has an operating system whose file system is really a database. So the way I store my Word Documents and manage the Checks I write are exactly the same as how my company stores information in a database about the customers we support. And that accessing the files on your home computer is functionallity identical to accessing the files on the computer you happen to be looking at. This open architecture would basically eleminate all the need for Web Services as we currently know them.

"... as we currently know them.". Possibly you can't guess half of how much true this is. Will be, that is.

Mike, let's say that there aren't many people around with visions as you have them. Or better, with visions which comply to mine. For what it's worth. And what might it be worth ?

I operate at the, say, higher level of the IT industry. Higher level means at the highest level of e-communications between companies. This has nothing to do with me being better or whatever, but just with the operating in the middle of the real desires for WS. Think of "chain-integration" (conversion from Dutch) as being THE means of connecting the supplier-supplier-producer-supplier-producer(-etc)-consumersupplier. Hence, the last has to know what the status (of products) of already the first is, in order to have an available to promise to the customer. I hope this is kinda clear; it's ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning).
This is not a fashion/hype, and instead it is the real need. And, it couldn't be a hype yet, because it isn't done at all right now. It is obvious why, just as well : if one part of the chain is missing (for the sake of delivering the info concerned), the chain is broken and the whole thing doesn't work.

Now, all parts of the chain have other means of IT (apps), but it all should connect to the outer world. It can't be done with EDI (asynchroneous), and it could be done with XML-bases stuff. But it's a means of transport, and it isn't right for the sake of logic. Here is where WS come in ...

But as you say it yourself, in what appearance ?

Right now, .NET is the attempt of MS to feed us all with the means of getting to what I just described. But as known, "begin all over". Really, it can't be done for the big-apps, and the ones making the attempt, finishing in quite some years from now, will find the physical means of .NET obsolete. Well, it can be expceted, right ?

As we also know, it doesn't need .NET at all to get there. But, the problem of "standards" become even bigger then. So who dives in to it ? you ? me ?
As commenly known also, there is just no application showing - but worse, setting the standards. IMO, this is because the example-apps aren't worth while looking at for the most of us. It's like your CNN examples. What would (coincidentally) I do with it ? The point is, such an example is not at the proper level. Just dive into the companies themselves, and look at their problems. It's nothing more OR LESS than obtaining products (or info) at the right time in the right place. It is not about me needing to obtain the news or so. BUT : if the WS are setup right, I could do that too in the mean time.

It needs the proper trigger, and it won't come from the non-legacy apps. It has to come from legacy apps.

Mike, your visions are right, just like MS' vision is right for the same reasons. But the physical means are wrong, and the developers don't dive in (enough). But one for sure, and that 'll be me.
I already have it running, and it's coming. Trust me. HOWEVER and still ...
Will I be able to set the standard ?
Trust me again, I probably won't.

It depends on
a. The learning curve and the means to (rather) implicitly apply it;
b. The means of marketing "I" will have;
c. The fighters I meet and how strong they are (MS, IBM, SUN, any individual with the better idea).

But no matter what and who, ITC will change in the most drastic way ever seen before. I am looking at it right overhere. I can hardly believe my own eyes. Really.

Peter