I think each has a use although one and two overlap. 
They are not equally strong.  It comes down to purposes 
and the audience.  One and two lead to conflicts  
of application (eg, do web services of necessity rely on 
SOA and vice versa, is REST and SOA, etc.), whereas the 
third is easy to explain and currently a good pitch 
for selling systems because it explains an approach to 
problems the majority of buyers have at this time 
(sell to their pain).

A recurring problem in our industry, particularly in 
the web media, is embracing geekTalk for suitTalk 
when the geeks disagree and the suits don't.  The 
web is self-obsessed and that exacerbates the problem 
as it encourages opportunistic behaviors.

So your spec is most welcome, Joe, as it provides a 
single citation instead of a 'see Google' response.

http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/download.php/15966/wd-soa-rm-11.pdf

len


From: Chiusano Joseph [mailto:chiusano_joseph@b...]

I would say that they are all correct, and all equally useful. The best
situation would be to have a single definition that comprises all of
these, as they each point out valuable and important aspects of SOA.