IBM on Thursday is expanding its SOA outreach, with new programs, services and partner incentives, including the development of SOA Specialty Wikis for vertical industries. As part of its Web 2.0 push, IBM and SOA Business Partners are building Wikis for SOAs in both vertical industries and specialized focus areas. Also, podcasts will be available to educate business partners and customers on the business value IBM on Thursday is expanding its SOA outreach, with new programs, services and partner incentives, including the development of SOA Specialty Wikis for vertical industries. As part of its Web 2.0 push, IBM and SOA Business Partners are building Wikis for SOAs in both vertical industries and specialized focus areas. Also, podcasts will be available to educate business partners and customers on the business value of SOA, IBM said. IBM’s new “Ready for SOA” program, meanwhile, provides incentives for IBM SOA Specialty Business partners supporting the IBM SOA Foundation, which is a set of software, best practices and patterns for deploying SOA. Upon passing a Ready for SOA validation test, partners can receive technical enablement, support and a skills-building roadmap to access SOA market opportunities. Ready for SOA is a branding mark. Additionally, IBM is developing SOA Joint Solution Galleries to assist partners by providing technical resources, demos and marketing materials. IBM’s “cross-sell” kits for SOA hold relevant information and roadmaps for business partners to expand product or service offerings to include SOA. IBM has commitments from eight SOA Business Partners to develop industry-specific services for the WebSphere Business Services Fabric, which is a new technology based on pre-built, customizable SOA assets, semantic models and policies supporting standards such as ACORD and HIPAA. Technology Industry