Web Services Strategies

Beyond the technology, IT strategies for implementation of Web services by Doug Kaye.

BIG Brains. I just returned home from a great 90-minute meeting with a panel consisting of some of our industry's gurus: Lee Gomes, Wall St. Journal, Moderator John Hagel, Author, Net Gain Todd Hewlin, The Chasm Group Lawrence Lessig, Stanford University Here are some random quotes that relate to web services. I had to type them all on my Blackberry, since I managed to forget to take along pen and paper. Hagel thinks many of the typical investment opportunities don't exist in web services because the BigCos have already filled many of the niches. However, he still sees substantial opportunities in what he calls "shared enabling services." (See his service grid in Your Next IT Strategy by Hagel and John Seely Brown in Harvard Business Review. $6 to download the PDF.) Hagel and Brown are both part of 12 Entrepreneuring, which incubated Grand Central Communications, one of those shared enabling service companies. No surprise there. Hagel has a new book about web services coming out in October. It's entitled, Out of the Box. Hagel described how enterprises go through binge/purge cycles in which they go overboard with a new technology, only to later reject it. But he thinks web services are here to stay. He's otimistic because web services have a valuable and pragmatic business proposition: they'e driven by operating-cost reduction. He expressed surprise that web services are not first being deployed (as many recommend) within the enterprise, but rather at the edge of the enterprise in order to communicate with business partners. He referred to how Eastman Chemical spun out its logistics business (transportation of chemicals) and now offers its capabilities to others via web services. Lessig (an attorney/professor/author) said he was hopeful about web services because they encourage innovation at the endpoints of the network. This turned out to be a major theme (beyond web services), and refers to the idea that the network should be "plain vanilla" as opposed to trying to innovate within the infrastructure. He reminded us that in 1984, when AT&T was broken up, the courts told them, "You just sell pipes, and don't tell people what they can and can't do with them." Larry is concerned that AOL/Time Warner and others are restricting innovation because they control both content and infrastructure. [As an aside, Lessig also feels that Open Access won't work, "...because the Baby Bells are so good at screwing their competition."] Hewlin like business services or BPO as a growth technology. He thinks there's a lot more room to unbundle particularly clerical services, similar to what's happened in the past with payroll services. Given that the panel had a lot of knowledge about web services and intellectual property, I asked about the effect of patents on standards, and the W3C's RAND (Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory) policy on patents. A lively discussion ensued, but to no conclusion. Although it started out looking like the Hagel/Hewlin show, Lessig dominated the second half, particularly with his thoughts on innovation. "For 200 out of our country's 210 years, we didn't ban technologies." He used the handgun as a sarcastic but real example. We've never banned handguns, even though they can be used for illegal purposes. Yet the technology behind Napster was essentially destroyed merely because of its potential to support illegal activities, and even though it's owners suggested they could eliminate 98% of illegal use. The U.S. Supreme Court used to say, "It's not our job to deal with this." As another example, after eight years, they decided not to ban VCRs even though they have the potential to be used for illegal purposes. The court found that doing so would unreasonably restrict innovation and the legal benefits of VCRs. The current court is taking a very different approach. Imagine, as Lessig suggests, if Xerox had developed and tried to sell the photocopier in the current climate. Good stuff. I'll make a point of attending more of the Big-SF events. Posted Wednesday, May 29, 2002 10:14:30 PM

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