Here is some background to the talk:

• The .NET Framework provides a runtime system that is used by all .NET languages.
• It provides:
  • a standard set of primitive types;
  • a class library;
  • a standard way of processing exceptions;
  • ...
• Microsoft are providing .NET compilers for:
  • Managed C++
  • JScript
  • Visual Basic.NET
  • C#
• Others are providing .NET compilers for:
  • COBOL
  • Eiffel
  • Fortran
  • Haskell
  • ML
  • Perl
  • Python
  • Scheme
  • Smalltalk
  • ...

This talk has the following aims:

• introduce the idea of a Web Service;
• demonstrate how the .NET Framework makes it easy to provide a Web Service;
• demonstrate how the .NET Framework makes it easy to access a Web Service;
• examine how you communicate with a Web Service (HTTP using SOAP);
• introduce other specifications for providing Web Services;
• consider the security features offered by the WS-Security specification;
• introduce a language (WSDL) that is used to describe the services offered by a Web Service;
• mention how businesses can publish/discover services (UDDI);
• demonstrate with examples how easy it is to use Web Services provided around the world.

Of course, some of you may already know about .NET and Web Services.