The software industry returned to New York City with the International Java & Web Services Conference and Expo at the Hilton New York.

Web Services Edge 2001 East International Web Services Conference & Expo was colocated with the JDJEdge 2001 International Java Developer Conference & Expo

New York, NY, September 23, 2001 - In spite of what many thought might prove insurmountable obstacles, the international software industry has provided New York City today with a resounding indication that heavy hearts and thoughts are not to be permitted to become a barrier to returning to the business of business, including the Internet technology business.

Delegates from various parts of the country and from around the world began gathering at the Hilton New York to attend the leading Java and Web services technology events on the East Coast this year, JDJEdge 2001 International Java? Developer Conference & Expo and Web Services Edge 2001 International Web Services Conference & Expo East, both produced by SYS-CON Events, Inc. www.sys-con.com.

Coming so soon after the devastating World Trade Center carnage, this is a strong sign that America's software developers and vendors alike are determined to go forward - coming together - to learn, to network, and to do business with each other. The first conference sessions were well attended, in one case so well that there was standing room only.

While we were all certainly justified in fearing a light turnout for Web Services Edge in light of the events of September 11, when I walked out to give the opening remarks to a packed room I was proud and grateful that this in fact was not the case. Our first Web Services conference, in conjunction with JDJEdge, was very well attended.

The first keynote presentation featured James Gosling, Sun Fellow and Father of Java. Gosling's talk covered a number of topics, including the introduction of Web services. His individual remarks were later amplified by a keynote panel discussion on Web services. The panel consisted of James Gosling; David Litwack, CEO of SilverStream; Dave Chappell, chief evangelist of Sonic Software; Richard Soley, CEO of OMG; Rick Ross, founder of the Java Lobby; Tyler Jewell, BEA evangelist; Don Leclair, VP of Computer Associates; and me.

This vocal and opinionated panel covered a variety of topics, including security, discovery, and the very nature of Web services itself. Unfortunately, we didn't get a definition of Web services (or rather, we got eight of them), but we did get some very enlightened insight into what the value proposition of Web services is. It included the ability to finally make J2EE and Microsoft work together, as well as the ability for people to simply, easily do "really cool stuff" with their computers. One of the points of almost total agreement was that Web services is as much a social paradigm shift as a technical one.

The nature of Web services is that people now want to connect their applications, and have agreed on a common approach to doing so. Gosling made the point that a system that inherently relies upon a network of other systems is useless until there is a widespread adoption of such a system. He used the fax machine as an example - what good is one fax machine - and he likened it to the idea of Web services. Not all of the technology for Web services is new, and certainly the idea of connecting applications together has been present for decades. What is compelling is that we have a core set of technologies to do so, we have applications that have been designed in a way that enables swift transition and minimal intrusion, and we have a widespread desire to make our applications communicate.

I believe a key quote from that keynote session was, "Even if we never connect two enterprises together with Web services, it will be a success because we can finally connect to ourselves." Finally, Web services will provide interoperability without the vast array of adapters. Joe Menard, CEO of WebGain, referred to this in his session as the M x N problem - for every EAI system (M) and every legacy application (N), there's an M x N order of magnitude of work to be done. Web services removes that by leveling the playing field with dynamic discovery and simple binding.

Discovery and UDDI was a topic on everyone's minds. The panel discussed the ability to create a global DNS as well as the real value in having one particular global system. The prevailing opinion seemed to be that UDDI was destined for smaller, private usage (i.e., a domain per industry) with only limited deployment of services to the public. Part of this was due again to the social nature of the way people do business - they like to know their trading partners. "The idea that Joe's tire shop will provide the next million tires to Ford just because they have a Web service for tires is ridiculous," was one of the more memorable quotes from the panel. People share with other people based on relationships, and any technology that ignores this is doomed.

Later in the week we saw how simple it is to put together a Web service on top of a J2EE server. Scott Dietzen, CTO of BEA's eCommerce Division, stopped for five minutes during his presentation to actually build and demonstrate a Web service. While trivial, it did show the power of the J2EE tools available already, and how they can be exposed as Web services with very little effort. Dietzen actually demonstrated service chaining, combining two Web services to obtain traffic information in French - one to obtain the information, another to translate it from English (à la Babelfish-esque technology). He pointed out how naturally Web services fit on top of the J2EE stack, and how the design principles already employed for J2EE design serve well in the Web services world.

The exposition floor was packed with vendors exhibiting wares aimed at Web services. Cape Clear and Shinka were both present, demonstrating tools aimed at simplification of Web service deployment. SilverStream demonstrated their Extend product set, and has made available a Web Services Container free to developers on their Web site. BEA demonstrated the latest version of WebLogic Server, which has been tuned to provide Web service performance from the J2EE stack.

As the show was a mixture of Java and Web services, there were a number of vendors present that were focused primarily on Java, but almost all of the vendors had some take on what a Web service was and how their product line did or would play a part in the world of Web services.

The show closed after three days as a remarkable success. We look forward to seeing you at our next conference. Stay tuned.