One message that comes through loud and clear from this month's CBR on Web services is that we (i.e., the IT industry) are not yet at all sure what we mean by these two words. Maybe that's not surprising. It is the latest buzz phrase, and judging from the data presented in the articles that follow, everybody is piling on this bandwagon (we may not know what it is, but most of us are pretty sure we're doing it). Buzz phrases are vague by nature, and when people start piling on, definitions usually get hazier. I know, I know, the stock market is in a funk, we're all rather distracted, and, all in all, it's been a really lousy six months or so for information technologists. Someone should cut us some slack.