REST - Simple SOAP Alternative Overview

REST stands for Representational State Transfer and is used in distributed computing.

REST is a simple technique that is basically providing an XML document on the fly via HTTP. Clients using the information just need to be able to use the XML as they see fit, perhaps transforming it with XSLT or whatever.

SOAP obviously is a lot more involved with this, requiring SOAP servers and clients. SOAP also offers a lot more features.

REST is basically about retrieving information and is not able to provide the communication involved in SOAP. If you are simplying trying to distribute information to people with minimal fuss, then the REST distributed computing framework technique could be for you.