NDS: starting the conversation

[Ray Plante <rplante@illinois.edu>]

Hi folks,

My name is Ray Plante, and I am leading the team here at NCSA that is 
assisting Ed with the organization of the NDS initiative.  To be sure, 
it's very exciting to be able to talk with such a diverse group of 
leaders on the important and timely issue of data sharing and 
publishing.

As you've noticed, based on your responses to our invitiation to join 
an NDS consortium or one of its advisory boards, we've taken the 
liberty of adding you to the mailing list, 
consortium@nationaldataservice.org.  You'll also notice that you are 
free to post to this list.  Indeed, we hope you will use this list 
freely to discuss issues of what the NDS should become.  We very much 
want open discussion to be a hallmark of this initiative.  

(I'll confess that a technical glitch put the wrong reply-to: in the 
message; nevertheless, I'm happy for all of us to see how the meeting 
is taking shape.)

If you want to communicate with us one-on-one, please use the 
info@nationaldataservice.org address.  In particular, if you find the 
consortium list too busy, we'll be happy to remove you from the list, 
and keep you informed via the less busy "announce" list.  

In the coming weeks, we'll be filling out the web site 
(http://www.nationaldataservice.org/) with more information, including 
details about the June meeting.  We'll be connecting a wiki as well, 
giving you a chance to engage directly in the planning and discussion.

Finally, we appreciate that this is a busy time for most of us, and 
not everyone will be able to make the June 12-13 meeting; however, 
this will not be the only opportunity to be involved.  We're planning 
some virtual discussions both before and after that I hope will keep 
you fully connected with the process.  

thanks for your excitement!
Ray Plante