Web Services for the Whole Family
by Jason Jackson

October 13, 2004

Like many of us, I often find myself being asked by family and friends who don't work in the tech industry to explain exactly what my job—and what BEA—is all about. The longwinded answer (where I talk about WebLogic Server and then try to give examples of sites they may have seen that have been built on it) usually suffices for only a couple of awkward moments. Usually, the reply is just a nod, a moment of silence, and then the question being repeated a second time.

Recently, when faced with this situation, I've started to answer this question by giving a brief, non-technical talk about Web services. Surprisingly, it seems to work. "Imagine that you have this big pool of information—like the weather for every zip code in the United States," I'll say. "You want people to be able to come to your Web site to check their local weather forecast by entering in their zip code. Well, a Web service is something you build behind-the-scenes that enables users to tap into that big pool of information. That way, no matter where you live or where in the United States you plan to visit, you can get the current weather forecast right there on your computer. We help people do that."

Yeah, it's crude, but it's not like Aunt Fran needs APIs and technical specs. She still can't figure out how to access her e-mail.

In many cases, this explanation works. However, I think I'm in for a much more difficult challenge. I'll be headed to a family reunion in a couple of weeks that's going to be attended by a whole lot of my older relatives, and my current explanation isn't going to cut it. For instance, I already know when I try my weather-forecast story with my great-grandmother, she's going to ask, "If they want to know the weather, why don't they just look out the window?" That woman's still sharp as a tack, which is a blessing—even though it can be quite annoying in situations such as these.

This is where you come in. I'm sending out a call for content—in other words, I need the help of WebLogic Pro nation here. With your gracious assistance, I need to come up with a Web service example that even a group of elderly non-computer users would understand. I don't know if it's a Web service that returns television schedules for "Murder, She Wrote" reruns or recipes for apple brown betty and various Jell-O desserts, but I need some good ones. Send your suggestions to me at jjackson@bea.com, and I'll share some of your ideas with my relatives—and in a future column.

While we're on the topic of Web services, you should be aware that the dev2dev Web site features a number of resources that won't help my relatives in the least, but typical readers of this magazine and this column will find them useful. The dev2dev editorial team has put together an entire section of articles, resources, and technical documentation dedicated to Web services that you can find from the homepage of dev2dev.bea.com (just look for where it says "Web services" on the list of technologies).

Also, if you're not in the mood to read about Web services, you can watch some streaming media presentations about them at dev2dev Live, an interactive resource center featuring plenty of downloadable and on-demand presentations and technical talks for Web services and a number of other topics. You'll find this information online at dev2dev.bea.com/live.

About the Author
Jason is editor of dev2dev. Contact him at jjackson@bea.com.