Fed boost for web services by James Riley, February 11, 2003

THE Federal Government has thrown its weight behind the growing web services market, issuing a tender for the creation of a next-generation "XML clearing house" to help kick-start development of the technology here.

The National Office of Information Economy (NOIE) is seeking proposals for the creation of a central registry and repository of XML objects to assist the creation of what is expected to be a multibillion-dollar web services industry.

The clearing house pilot aims to make web services systems cheaper to implement, making it easier for both government agencies and private sector organisations to share data.

Web services is expected to become a central component of all electronic business and electronic government transactions despite being one of the more hyped but under-used technologies of the past 12 months.