Microsoft has a new video on their WCF site at http://www.microsoft.com/net/wcf/champ/ that shows two competitors in a boxing ring fighting it out over the right way to create web services. I watched the video which is just over 2.5 minutes long. It is definitely part 1 (and judging by the site there will be 2 more) of a longer story so there isn’t really and ending (just the end of this round) but it does make some good points.

1. No unnecessary taunting (3rd rule from the referee so I guess necessary taunting is OK) :)
2. Using the WCF test client should speed up service development because you can visualize and test your service without having to build a client for it.
3. Java/AJAX frameworks get you started quickly but… (they never really said what was bad about it just that it is “old school” and traditional).

It is a different way to get the message across although I am not sure I get the whole boxing metaphor. Microsoft has spent a lot of time, money, and effort to make sure that web services are interoperable. Hopefully the boxing part evolves into something around “fighting” old habits that detract from your productivity and not into some sort of “we are better than our competitors” type of theme. I guess I will have to wait until the next round to see what comes of this.

I will give them a +1 for creativity. Instead of just linking to the resources they have a video. Don’t worry, the links to WCF, .NET StockTrader, and DinnerNow are on the web site.

I give them a –1 for the “share this” link on the site. On my machine it creates a new e-mail message with the subject “Play This!” and a link in the body. I would almost certainly delete this message as SPAM with a spoofed return address if I saw it come into my in box.

BTW if you just want to see the video it is available on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7y2aQ-A_AIs or just click play below.