Sean Rhody

One of my favorite sayings is, "if you don't know where you're going, any direction will do." While in many cases people take that as license to do whatever they feel like, what it really means is that before you embark on a journey, you should plan your destination. You know, ge... (more)

As you can imagine, I spend a lot of time speaking to people about service-oriented architecture (and its variants for infrastructure and enterprise) and about how best to create a true implementation (or at least, an effective one). There is a great deal of detail in creating su... (more)

As you can imagine, I spend a lot of time speaking to people about service oriented architecture (and it’s variants for infrastructure and enterprise) and about how best to create a true implementation (or at least, an effective one).  There is a great deal of detail in creating ... (more)

I remember (vaguely) when I was in kindergarten, playing with my classmates, learning to make things out of clay and paper, and generally enjoying that sneaky introduction to education. Little did I know that my teacher (I forget her name, it was a long time ago) was grading my p... (more)

There's a biblical story about a walled city called Jericho. In the story, the walled city was under siege, and the folks who wanted in blew their horns for seven days and then the walls all fell down. The Open Group has an initiative based on this story, called Jericho Security... (more)

When I was a kid, which seems like just yesterday (and no comments from the peanut gallery), I loved playing with LEGO, making imaginary ray guns, space ships, and other things that amuse the average boy. LEGO's popularity and longevity have to be due in no small part to the abil... (more)

From the title, you might be thinking that I’m about to start this month’s editorial with a reference to talking to animals and somehow tie that into SOA. Instead, what I actually would like to talk about is the pushmi-pullyu (I got the spelling from Wikipedia; I always thought ... (more)

It seems like not a day goes by lately in which some new story of malfeasance in office doesn’t come out – whether it’s lying under oath, using the services of a call girl, or spying on other officials in the government in order to further a personal agenda. Cle... (more)

I had the opportunity recently to speak at a Microsoft event on Web 2.0. It was an interesting evening, with speakers from several organizations discussing various issues and strategies that could be used to move the bar forward on the Web. Now if you're a faithful reader, you'v... (more)

As a student of physics, Albert Einstein is one of my personal heroes. Aside from being one of the most brilliant minds to ever contemplate the universe, Albert had a way with words. One of his quotes strikes me as particularly apropos for this month's issue - "Any intelligent fo... (more)

Last month I wrote about the future, what might be ahead for SOA and beyond, focusing significantly on user interfaces. This month I'm still thinking about user interfaces and the impact they have on the final judge of any SOA project - the end user. If you've read my editorials... (more)

At the end of the year, it's always interesting to take a moment and try to imagine what's next. In this case, I'm not thinking about whether the Patriots will win the Super Bowl, I'm wondering what comes after service-oriented architecture. Although SOA has been dramatically hy... (more)

Recently I had a chance to do some training in France. I participated in a week of coursework with classmates from all over the world. Some were from France, Spain, Holland, Sweden, and England; others were from even further - the United States and even India. To say the least, i... (more)

I have no children myself, but I've watched my nieces and nephew grow from newborns to walking, talking, independent individuals over the years. To me, one of the most fascinating parts of watching a child grow is seeing them go from their first tentative, hesitant steps to toddl... (more)

Back before I began my career in computers, I studied physics. One of the concepts that fascinated me was that of nuclear fusion - bringing two particles together to form a new, heavier particle and at the same time producing energy. In the business world, I find the concept of ... (more)

One of my friends has a child who used to bring a blanket with her wherever she went. It didn't matter that it was a hundred degrees outside; she carried it more for comfort than to keep herself warm and safe. Not that it protected her in reality, but it provided the illusion of ... (more)

Recently SOA World Magazine was the host of a conference on SOA and Web 2.0 in New York City. SOA World 2007 brought together an amazing group of IT professionals who helped describe and expand the definitions of SOA. One of the most interesting challenges faced by IT is the role ... (more)

Many recent science fiction novels deal with the concept of nanites - tiny bits of computers than can aggregate themselves to form new larger composites to assist their host. These concepts typically relate to making human cells self-healing, but they also have their sinister asp... (more)

We all do it from time to time - forget something, get it out of sequence - and experience that annoying feeling that we've just done something incredibly stupid. I usually arrive at the dry cleaners to pick up my clothes, only to realize I'd left the next batch behind. Fortunate... (more)

Sometimes it seems like it takes forever for new technology to be adopted, and even when a technology goes mainstream, it seems as if people cling to the old ways long after a better way has been shown. Heck, I drive a car but still have a couple of horses - sometimes you just wa... (more)