APIs (aka Services) for Web Applications are needed and good. Little effort to implement them, with high payoffs in terms of sharing and collaboration Use Corba, use XML-RPC, use SOAP, use whatever, just make one. But make it nice and simple, your fellow programmers will love you for that. XML-RPC is nice and simple, and you can read the specs over a cup of coffee (or tea). SOAP is a little more complex, but it gives you more flexibility (see also WSDL, UDDI). *Bioinformatics:* the tool to explore the unexplored new biological landscape. (Consider programming bioinformatic applications)