OASIS sets out to tame the SOA beast

OASIS is building a reference model that it hopes will pin down the definition of a service oriented architecture.  ZDNet's Martin LaMonica explores the oversight group's latest initiative, the OASIS SOA-RM Technical Committee, charged with creating a reference model "to preserve a common layer of understanding across multiple service-oriented environments and architectures."

"The term SOA is used in an increasing number of contexts with differing--and even conflicting--meanings," said Adobe Systems' Duane Nickull, committee chair.

That's certainly an understatement.