WS-ReliableMessaging, WS-Reliability now under OASIS jurisdiction Multiple specifications for provisioning reliable messaging for Web services could be unified under OASIS, which now has jurisdiction over all three technologies.The WS-RM (WS-ReliableMessaging) specification and the accompanying WS-RM Policy specification, developed by BEA Systems, IBM, Microsoft, and Tibco are being submitted to OASIS. OASIS already has had its own WS-Reliability specification for reliable messaging.WS-RM and WS-RM Policy will be developed within the new OASIS WS-RX (Web Services Reliable Exchange) Technical Committee, according to OASIS spokesperson Carol Geyer. WS-Reliability will remain under the jurisdiction of the OASIS Web Services Reliable Messaging Technical Committee. Whether the newly submitted specifications would be unified with WS-Reliability into a single proposal remains to be seen, Geyer said. “It’s too early to say at this point. I think this is a good first step,” she said.An analyst commented on the dueling WS-RM and WS-Reliability specifications. “It was clear that these two standards were going to go head-to-head in a pitched battle to see which would win out,” said Ronald Schmelzer, senior analyst at ZapThink. “Well, it seems that this problem has now been defused.”“The various groups have realized that it’s in no one’s best interest to have competing reliability specifications on the market, and so by collaborating on a single specification, the potential competition problems should be ameliorated,” Schmelzer said. WS-RM and the partnering policy specification will be made available under the OASIS Intellectual Property Rights Policy, which provides for royalty-free use of technologies but allows for RAND (reasonable and nondiscriminatory) licensing terms when deemed necessary. Software Development