Edd, I have a different point of view.

I'd be happy if two years from now there were five standardized and
documented interfaces, and that there were validation apps that tested
implementations for conformance.

In other words, rather than providing discovery, we work on interfaces,
really document them (an opportunity for O'Reilly) and provide working code
that's free for most environments.

An example, if Napster implemented an XML-RPC interface, we'd all be jumping
on that bandwagon in minutes. There would be no debate over modular this or
that, or whether we should use SOAP or RDF or whatever. In all software
markets, apps drive.

BTW, the Napster interface, although inelegant is documented. It's nowhere
near as nice as XML-RPC, but it's being implemented everywhere.

Apps apps apps. Ship apps.

Dave