I just picked up a new book from John Hagel III,  author of Net Gain and Net Worth.  This one is titled “Out of the Box: Strategies for Achieving Profits Today and Growth Tomorrow through Web Services”. 

Web Services is the TCP/IP of the Integration world.  Where TCP/IP allowed a variety of computers to connect via the browser,  Web Services allows diverse business systems to connect,  thus allowing a variety of systems to interface via XML,  a text based,  data-rich markup language.  XML has become the currency of crosstalk;  the integration of systems via a common and widespread language that can traverse the TCP/IP connections.  Of course,  this spells hopeful scenarios for organizations seeking to maximize their existing communication infrastructure investments,  such as the Church.