WS-I is an open industry organization chartered to promote Web services interoperability across platforms, operating systems and programming languages. The organization's diverse community of Web services leaders helps customers to develop interoperable Web services by providing guidance, recommended practices and supporting resources. All companies interested in promoting Web services interoperability are encouraged to join the effort. Specifically, WS-I creates, promotes and supports generic protocols for the interoperable exchange of messages between Web services. In this context, "generic protocols" are protocols that are independent of any action indicated by a message, other than those actions necessary for its secure, reliable and efficient delivery, and "interoperable" means suitable for multiple operating systems and multiple programming languages.

The WS-I's view of the Web Services architecture looks like: