Microsoft donates code to Apache Stonehenge project via ZapThink on 1/20/09

“In general, this is a big issue. The whole point of standards is to provide for interoperability, but so many are implemented in slightly different ways that the desired interoperability is not achieved,” said ZapThink managing partner Jason Bloomberg. In many ways, that lack of standards interoperability is slowing down Web services efforts, and SOA has now outpaced Web services due to the standards challenge being faced, he added. Standards interoperability is what allows mobile phones to work anywhere in the world, Bloomberg noted. “Imagine what has to happen to make that work. Handsets are working with local providers across infrastructures. In IT, there is nothing like that. It is still using stone knives and bearskins compared to the telecommunications world’s leverage of standards.”