I've noticed that there has been a lot of detailed and theoretical discussions around the trends, benefits and relevance of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) in the blog-o-sphere lately and these are interesting reads.  However, I'm sure there are many people who are just now considering SOA--Service Oriented Architecture--or have been handed the directive to bring SOA to their organization and are not sure how to get started. 

Just give me the basics please!..

HP and Gartner Research went "back to basics" with this short video on getting started with SOA.  It has the auspicious title of "Achieving the promised business outcomes of SOA" but really provides a short vignette on what to think about to get your SOA initiative off the launching pad.  It requires a brief registration here...

http://www.itbriefingcenter.com/programs/gartner_668_hp.html 

Enjoy!