Ouch!
From Nick Gall's position paper on an upcoming W3C workshop on a Web of Services for Enterprise Computing:
Actually, the W3C XML Protocol Working Group uses a much more accurate name for WS-*-style Web Services: XML Protocol Services. If WS-* "Web Services" had originally been "XML Middleware Services" (XMS-*), I doubt the W3C would have ever gotten directly involved with standardizing such an architecture. It would have left such work to the middleware vendors, and at best coordinated with them in their use of HTTP, XML, etc. Instead the W3C would have focused on protocols and formats such as RSS, Atom, Microformats, and now GData that are the best examples of how to enable one software agent to interact with another (aka A2A integration).
It is my position that the W3C should extricate itself from further direct work on SOAP, WDSL, or any other WS-* specifications and redirect its resources into evangelizing and standardizing identifiers, formats, and protocols that exemplify Web architectural principles. This includes educating enterprise application architects how to design "applications" that are "native" web applications.