A while back I came across a post on nform.ca, where information architect Gene Smith of the Atomiq.org blog outlined the 7 building blocks of social software.
I recently used the model to explain the key capabilities of social software when brainstorming ideas with some friends. The model worked really well, everybody felt that they understood what the foundation consisted of and we could focus on other issues.
Explaining SOA to some really smart bussines people
Then at another meeting, I was asked to explain SOA to some business people. I tried the traditional approach of explaining how services could be thought of like pieces of LEGO. That the pieces could be assembled in new configurations and thus creating new business processes. I showed them a picture trying to illustrate what I meant. (ZapThink has an excellent article about the LEGO concept of SOA) (The Swedish Magazine NyTeknik has an excellent image depicting the Lego nature of SOA)
But it was to no avail.
Sure they understood the basic concepts but when we came to more and more details such as defining a service as stateless, discoverable, autonomous, loosely coupled, composable, abstract, reusable. Then adding the concepts surrounding governance and SDLC.
I had an epifany and once again I could see where the puck should be
Thats when I had an epifany, why not explain SOA in the frame of social software. I used Gene Smiths original model and rewrote it to be about services instead of people.
7 building blocks of SOA
Identity
A way of uniquely identifying services in the system
Presence
A way of knowing which service is online, available or otherwise reachable
Relationships
A way of describing how services are related
Conversations
A way of communicating with other services
Groups
A way of forming mashups of services
Reputation
A way of knowing the status of other services
Sharing
A way of sharing things that are meaningful to services, such as other services
