Issue #1 afore the WS-Addressing Working group is the relationship of EPRs to URIs. I was an obvious target for owning this issue as I have been on the W3C TAG and have been a frequent TAG/WS group liaison.
The issue is that the Web Architecture is really built upon using URIs for identifiers. But there are lots of deploying components using web protocols (notice that I don't say "on the web") that use URIs+ for identifiers. Like Cookies. QNames. EPR Reference Properties. I wrote earlier this year about RefProperties, Cookies and Frag-ids. DonB responded about EPRs and Queries, but he's since moved his blog and I can't find the entry.
Akin a legal opening argument, I intend to show that an XML based identifier systems in addition to URIs has potential upsides. These upsides will be defined in terms of the REST thesis properties.
I will keep the issue to the identifier issue, and not let it bleed into whether stateful or stateless Web services are good or bad. If you're interested, some of us are nattering away on www-ws@w3.org about it, such as "costs of stateful/stateless" and I even disagree with a part of Roy's thesis on stateless benefits
I always appreciate it when Mark mentions me, but I'm not sure what warnings I'm heeding. I've always been a believer in pragmatic software and network architectures, and using formalisms to enable better discussion. Thinking of who I've heeded, a variety of people have helped my understanding of distributed systems architecture, like Roy Fielding, Don Box, Adam Bosworth, Tim Bray, TimBL and even long ago Rohit Khare. Thanks all.
I do wish that the WS-Arch WG had formally defined some of the constraints and properties of the Web service architecture similar to the REST thesis. :-( It would have been handy. For now, I'll have to make up the SOA/Web service properties as I go along.