Writing in from Berlin, where I just saw some great news on the wire...We often discuss interoperability in terms of technology which, in and of itself, drives intense debate about best practices. Open source proponents posit that interoperability is best achieved through standards, while Microsoft takes a more holistic approach that includes standards - but goes well beyond.
To that end, Microsoft is careful not to forget that interoperability is, first and foremost, about business (processes and work flows), and, fundamentally, about people. The needs of both suggest how IT should behave...
Bringing people together can do alot for interop...For further reading:
Connecting People, Data, and Diverse Systems… A few weeks (maybe months) back, I wrote about interoperability