Interopathon Plan

It didn't work 

Sorry folks, for whatever reason, there is not a consensus at this time around this plan, so I withdrew as the Default Hardass for Interop for SOAP 1.1 in this message posted to the list. I'm leaving the plan in place for now, perhaps it can serve as a source of ideas for an interop plan drafted by someone else. UserLand will happily participate in any reasonable plan to attain interop for SOAP 1.1.

Getting started 

This is a proposal for a quick process to attain interop among SOAP 1.1 implementations by late spring 2001 or sooner. I wrote this after talking with a fair number of SOAP implementors over the last month. I think I see an expedient way to get interop in SOAP-land in a matter of a few weeks. Comments are welcome.

There will be three stages to the Interopathon.

Stage zero 

Write the plan (this page) and start a new mail list for discussion and further planning. Done.

Stage one 

A call for implementations that wish to participate. The call is open only to developers who have a publicly accessible SOAP server operating on the Internet at the close of the call period. The server must remain operational for the whole Interopathon period (Murphy-willing). Any developer who responds will and must participate. The call will close after 72 hours and a list of implementations will be posted publicly on SoapWare.Org. (Date: early April.)

Stage two 

The second stage will begin with a posting of pairs of implementations chosen at random. Each pair will attain interop, and report the result back to the Registrar (see below) and the result will be recorded publicly on SoapWare.Org. Once all pairs have attained interop, we will form pairs of pairs, again chosen randomly, and each will attain interop. Repeat until all implementations interoperate.

During the second stage there will be a Face-to-Face meeting at a location to be determined, probably in the Bay Area. At this meeting we will consider any glitches or problems that came up in the interop process, and will generally get to know each other better, and talk breathlessly about where we want this stuff to go. We will make time to celebrate and congratulate each other. In order to participate you do not have to commit to the face to face or the third stage, but any participant will be free to do so. Question: Should there be a simultaneous F2F in Europe and Asia as well?

Stage three 

The third stage is a public presentation at NetWorld+Interop in May (Las Vegas), and the O'Reilly Open Source Convention in July (San Diego). The press will be encouraged to attend both events. Then we will spread out over the world, as an empowered community, explaining what interop means, and how we attained it.

Special roles 

A committee of three independent developers will construct a test suite to be used. When the suite has been documented publicly, we will issue the call explained in stage one.

A registrar will maintain the list of pairs and will keep track of interop on a publicly accessible Web page.

Philosophy 

"Ask not what the Internet can do for you, ask what you can do for the Internet."

Interop is the first priority. If the SOAP 1.1 specification is unclear, or it makes interop impossible for one or more implementations, we will consider restating the specification to make interop possible.

We are only testing SOAP 1.1 interop over HTTP. No other formats or protocols are required to participate in the Interopathon.

By default all discussion is public.

We are going to be pressing each others' buttons all the time, but let's not let our buttons rule the discussion.

Benjamin Franklin: "We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately."

Disclosures 

Microsoft and UserLand are the sponsors, so far. Other sponsorships are welcome.

Other disclosures may be added to the disclosure list at a later time.