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Exploring the Impacts of
Pervasive Computing |
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by Scott Tilley
Migrating to Web ServicesWeb services are network-accessible interfaces to application functionality. There are many articles, journals, and Web sites that promote the use of Web services in almost all possible situations. The result is that there is so much hype surrounding Web services that it is quite difficult to distinguish marketing claims from technical innovation and business reality. The promise of Web services, the truly novel types of applications that it enables, and the many vendor-specific commercial offerings are jumbled together in such a manner as to make even the most determined technology tracker confused. Nevertheless, Web services really do offer a novel approach to engineering and deploying software solutions such as cooperative information systems. For example, there is a growing trend towards the integration of networked heterogeneous applications across the enterprise, a phenomenon that can be greatly facilitated through the judicious use of Web services. The promise of Web services must, however, be tempered by the very real challenges faced by both developers and users of Web service-enabled applications. For example, the skill set that must be mastered by a software engineer to properly develop an application that relies on Web services is considerable. Similarly, the deployment costs of these applications can be significant, both in terms of new software systems and new hardware and networking infrastructure. For this reason, WSE 2002 had an ongoing sub-theme of adoption, which connected nicely to the 2nd International Workshop on Adoption-Centric Software Engineering (ACSE 2002) that took place a few days later as part of STEP 2002 at ÉTS in Montréal. Workshop StructureWSE 2002 was a full-day workshop, structured around theme-oriented presentations made by the papers' authors. Following each presentation, the workshop participants engaged in structured discussion. The idea was to foster the exchange of ideas and information in an informal setting, but with some boundaries placed on topics and time to ensure that the workshop stays on schedule. The final program for WSE 2002 can be found here. In keeping with the theme of "Migrating to Web Services," the WSE 2002 workshop was structured into three central topics:
There was also a section devoted to short papers addressing other Web site evolution issues, and a panel session that I chaired addressing what I consider to be one of the most fundamental questions of migrating to Web services: What are the characteristics of systems that make them amenable to Web services? The panel was the last formal session of WSE 2002, and served as a fitting conclusion to a wonderful workshop. Looking Forward to WSE 2003Based on the success of WSE 2002, plans are already underway for the next workshop. WSE 2003 will be held on September 22, 2003 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, as part of ICSM 2003. The Program Chair for WSE 2003 is Ken Wong of the University of Alberta. Please join us in Amsterdam next autumn for the theme of "Architecture" -- a very interesting and timely topic currently enjoying significant interest in both the academic and practitioner communities. AcknowledgementsI was the General Chair for WSE 2002. This means that while I was in charge of orchestrating the work of others, most of the actual heavy lifting was done by volunteers, not by me. I am deeply indebted to all the people who helped in the organization of the workshop. I'd like to thank the organizers of ICSM 2002 for inviting us to co-locate WSE 2002 with them in Montréal. Thanks to the authors who submitted their work for consideration, and to the members of the Program Committee for their high-quality reviewing of the proposals. Thanks to the workshop participants who traveled from all over the world to attend the event. Without the sponsorship of the IEEE Computer Society's Technical Council on Software Engineering (TCSE), and the support of the University of California, Riverside, the Research Institute for Software Evolution at Durham University, and the Istituto Trentino di Cultura Centro per la Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica (ITC-irst), the workshop would not have been possible. Most of all, I would like to thank the Program Chairs, Cornelia Boldyreff and Paolo Tonella, for their work in putting together an excellent program. Final Comments and PhotosAs always, I took some photos during and after the workshop. I'm grateful for pictures taken by Ken Wong and Shihong Huang that are used in this collage. Click on the thumbnail image to view the full-size picture.
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