1.	If you've been reading DaveNet for a couple of years, you've followed the story of our work with Microsoft on XML-RPC technology, distributed computing built on the standards of the Internet, HTTP and XML.
2.	{viewRssBox ("http://www.ourfavoritesongs.com/users/dave@userland.com/rss/soap.xml", boxTitle:"SOAP News", align:"right", width:50, frameColor:"black", titleBarTextColor:"#000000", titleBarColor:"whitesmoke", boxFillColor:"white", timeZone:"PST", hspace:15, vspace:0)}Yesterday we reached a milestone in that work. SOAP v1.1 was released. It's a beautiful spec, a revolutionary technology, it's not what most people expect from Microsoft, and further, it's not just from Microsoft. In the last round of development, IBM and Lotus worked with us, and gained co-authorship status. This time, even Sun is not dissing the spec. In a News.Com report, a Sun exec said the company will support SOAP if it becomes a Web standard. "There's a lot of appeal (to SOAP) because it's so easy to use," said Anne Thomas Manes, Sun's director of business strategy. Surprise!
3.	We have totally enjoyed working with Microsoft, and we very much look forward to a partnership with IBM. It's a strange world, where a tiny company such as UserLand can have so much clout. It's the world I wanted for years, where the quality of your thinking and the power of your ideas count more than the company you work for. This makes sense. It's gratifying and it's great. Thanks Microsoft and thanks IBM.
4.	Such a milestone could not pass without sending an email to the people who I've communicated with for so many years. There will be many more reports and photos from Europe and elsewhere as we go on the road to tell the story of the Internet as an application platform.