’services’ doesn’t just mean http

Careful readers of the Franklin Street Statement will have noticed that it doesn’t ever use the word ‘web.’ That was very deliberate. While web services are pretty important to all our lives at this point, and web services like facebook and twitter have provided plenty of fodder for discussion of autonomous services, there are lots of non-web services that are pretty important. These range from very obvious ones (like email) to less obvious ones- like, say, virtual worlds like Second Life.

There has been some progress in virtual worlds, particularly with efforts like opencroquet, but more could still be done. Azdel Slade has written some worthwhile and interesting posts about the problem here, here, and here- worth a read!