Latest tidbits on the XML protocols front:

• Secret Labs have released version 0.9.9 of the Python XML-RPC library, xmlrpclib. The new version adds support for multiple character encodings, Unicode, and secure transport via https.

• Dave Winer of UserLand Software has created soapware.org, a directory site for SOAP resources.

• Christopher Dix has created SOAP Workshop, which along with Visual Basic SOAP information hosts Kafka, an XSLT framework for constructing SOAP endpoints. In Dix's words: "half-toy, half-toolkit, but it's fun to play with."