Will the Real Service Oriented Computing Please Stand Up?

Introduction

At the end of the FACS 2010 meeting, in the charming city of Guimarães, a panel discussion was organized around the topic of service oriented computing. The panel members were asked for their views on whether or not the rather better established field of component based software engineering subsumes service oriented computing, and if not, what exactly is the difference between component based and service oriented computing. The starting position of themajority of the panelmemberswas that the basic concepts and formalisms at the foundation of service oriented computing are covered and investigated sufficiently well within component based software engineering. As a member of this panel, my dissenting views on this topic triggered a lively discussion that engaged the audience as well. Once the dust of the discussions arising from the usual misunderstandings of terminology settled, a near consensus became visible, and a useful distinction emerged that may lead to a better understanding of the territory and identification of directions for further research. Subsequently, a number of participants proposed to me that it may be useful to summarize this part of the discussions, and the editors of this volume agreed that such a summary complements the portrayal of FACS 2010 conveyed by the regular contributed papers in this post-proceedings. As such, this document is neither a report on nor a summary of the said panel discussion. Rather, it is a reconstruction of my personal views as presented and discussed in this panel, which does not necessarily reflect the views of others.