There is an excellent post on Loosely Coupled that I suggest everyone read. It highlights one of the afflictions of our times. Software standard organizations are typically inventing standards rather than ratifying and cleaning them up. This is like a bunch of food critics writing a cook book without ever actually trying out the recipes they invent. They have domain expertise, but lots of things aren’t thought through, are over designed, or just plain are too hard. Bravo to Loosely Coupled and Tim Bray.