Developers now have yet another organization to watch for Web Services information - though the relationship between the new WSIO and the W3C is yet to be determined.

Well-stocked with large vendors - Microsoft, IBM, and BEA in the lead, and Sun perhaps staying out - the WSIO launched last week with a site that seems to consist, so far, of press response to its creation. A FAQ provides some answers about the nature of the organization, but provides few details about the costs and benefits of membership.

The relationship between WSIO and W3C is presently unknown. An article by Paul Festa suggests storms ahead, with Brian Eisenberg of Netegrity insisting that:

"Vendors want to get this stuff into their products. Inaction on the W3C's part leaves vendors to implement solutions that are based on specs that aren't standardized, which in the Web services game poses a threat to true interoperability and openness. And that's what Web services are all about."

On the hand, Tim Bray suggests that "The hype merchants are out of control on this one," and Edd Dumbill (an editor at xmlhack) says:

"I'm not convinced that developers are too bothered. I think developers are being poorly served by the fact that the big companies have dominated the work of the W3C over the last year. The W3C does more or less what its members tell it to. So I don't have a huge amount of sympathy for the complaints of large companies."

The implications of the WSIO's creation are still pretty unknown. A lot will depend on discussions between the W3C, WSIO, and their members over the coming months.