"Don Box - Sums up schema use in MS framework on XML-DEV"

At this point, I believe most SOAP plumbers have conceded that XML

Schema will be the dominant type system and metadata format for interop.

How one converts from their local type system to the world of XML Schema

is a local problem that is (and should be) outside the scope of SOAP.

In MSFT-land, we do the conversion by importing XML Schema into our

runtime and making the "foreign" types look local. That technology is

broadly useful outside the scope of SOAP and/or web services, so we make

it accessible everywhere, although I'm sure there are lots of customers

who have no idea this is even in the platform.Link