Panel Session 4: Mobile Web Services Trend Perspectives

Web services are finding their way into mobile devices in several disparate islands: We can find WS proxies connected via proprietary wireless connectors to mobile devices (Blackberry MDS), the beginnings of a Web service consumer stack in mobile Java (JSR172), Web service identity federation stacks built into smartphone operating systems (Series 60, Windows Live for Mobile), Web services "Lite" in the form of Ajax (Opera) on browsers and widgets for mobile devices). However, challenging issues abound: (1) Where should we terminate a Web service - at a proxy or on the mobile device? (2) Are there any compelling reasons to make a mobile device a Web service consumer or provider itself? (3) Can mobile Web services realize the potential of multivendor interoperability? (4) When will we see seamless interoperability between enterprise Web service platforms (for example J2EE and Vista WCF and their mobile counterparts J2ME and Windows Mobile)? (5) What are the mobility versions of the Web 2.0 scenarios of social networking and collaboration? This panel of experts from organizations (Microsoft, Sun, RIM, Opera, Motorola) leading these developments will debate their visions of the mobile Web services future.