Finally back from BZ Media's WebServices DevCon (not to be confused with the Sells Brothers WSDC). I thought that I would be the skeptic, telling people that another protocol or the latest tool wasn't a golden bullet. Instead, I found a striking atmosphere of Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt -- people are being told that Web Services are "not ready for prime time" because, say, there is no transaction protocol or security protocol. So instead of being the skeptic, I ended up spending the last part of my course saying "Hey, I've been doing XML over HTTP for 3 years, and every time we've seen 2 things -- the ability to rapidly create new types of innovative client programs that we hadn't initially conceived of and concrete benefits in software development project management." It turned out that's what they needed to hear.