Web services may have been dismissed in some quarters as hype from technology companies hoping to resurrect the dotcom era, but they will become increasingly important, according to Patrick Gannon, president and chief executive of the Organisation for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (Oasis).
Oasis is an international non-profit organisation formed to lead the development of e-business standards. It functions as a vendor-neutral forum for businesses and other technology organisations to express their views.
Speaking at the Hong Kong Computer Society's International Computer Conference at the Convention and Exhibition Centre last week, Mr Gannon said Oasis aimed to create standard frameworks for new technologies.
'We need the widespread deployment of standards-based Web services,' he said.
Oasis avoided getting involved in vendor wars because it represented 600 companies, he said. But without standards that all vendors could agree upon, nothing would get done.
Web services encompass a vision of a fully integrated computing network that includes personal computers, servers, hand-held communication devices, software programes, applications and networking equipment.