feedback on and revisions of consortium documents

[Ray Plante <rplante@illinois.edu>]

Hi folks,

As you hopefully know, we held a "Request for Comments" on two 
documents we worked on at the last NDS workshop--namely, the "Shared 
Vision of Success" and the "Interim Charter"--thank you to all who 
responded!  We started this RFC before we had gotten this consortium 
list setup, so we couldn't use it to discuss the documents; however, 
we certainly can going forward.  To catch everyone up, Joel and I 
thought we would give you a summary of the comments received and the 
revisions made to the documents.

The revised documents are now available on the RFC page at 
https://wiki.ncsa.illinois.edu/display/NDS/RFC-Shared+Vision+and+Interim+Charter.
in both Word and PDF formats.  There's a special PDF version there 
that highlights the changes that were made as a result of the RFC.

Much of the changes were of the usual improvements in wording and
labeling.  The changes include the concept of a network of networks,
signaling organizing the stakeholders into categories, and various
other adjustments to the wording.  Kevin Franklin, in particular,
recommended text that calls out the humanities and social sciences as
part of our vision.   

A team representing the LSST Project sent us a thoughtful response
that poses a number of interesting questions.  We'll pass that
response on to this list in full in the interest of further
discussion.  

One open issue that was raised in the review process concerns the
relationship between NDS and NDSC.  Some attempt has been made with
the edits to clarify this relationship, but this will likely need
further discussion.

There was also a suggestion from Kimmo Koski for NDS to have a
tag-line.  In order to start dialogue on this, here are a few
examples: 
 *  Advancing Data Services
 *  Accelerating Data Service Innovation
 *  Transforming Data Services
 *  Data Serving Science 
Comments and additional suggestions are invited.

There were a number of positive comments on both documents, and no one
indicated opposition to moving forward with either.  Still, we are
still accepting comments one final time before review by the Interim
Steering Committee.  Feel free to either share your comments on this
list or send them to info@nationaldataservice.org.  These can come in
the form of notes or direct edits on the Word document supplied on the
RFC page.  (If you do the latter, be sure you have track changes
turned on.)  Please note that we are trying to keep the Vision
document to one page!

Thank you again for your consideration and engagement.

Sincerely,
Ray Plante and
Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld