Web(http)-based or not, I'm interested in network protocols that aren't tied to a specific website, or otherwise encumbered. By now somebody must have designed

Web(http)-based or not, I'm interested in network protocols that aren't tied to a specific website, or otherwise encumbered. By now somebody must have designed a decent protocol mapping LDAP's data model directly onto a nice RESTful API that R. Fielding and TBL would be proud of. That should make for a good upgrade path, no?