SSA working draft

[Doug Tody]

Hi All -

The SSA protocol and data model working draft documents have been
updated.  The current versions can be found off the DAL WG Twiki page
and at the following links:

     http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/~dtody/ssa/ssa-v097.pdf
     http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~jcm/vo/docs/spec98/spec98d.pdf

Both of these have undergone significant revision since the IVOA Moscow
meeting (the data model has been updated as well in the past several
days and is now at V0.98 rev 4).  The protocol document is complete
for the core queryData operation, including both query parameters
and query response metadata (some UCDs still need to be determined,
getCapabilities is not yet specified, and the examples at the end
have not yet been updated).

What we would like to do between now and December is 1) invite comment
on the specification, and 2) proceed with the initial implementations
following ADASS.  Both of these will activities will proceed in
parallel.  The main interface including protocol and data model is now
sufficiently complete and internally consistent to permit both of these
activities to go foward.  A final update to the documents is planned
once this is complete, after which we expect to promote the documents
to preliminary recommendations, suitable for wider implementation.

At this point quite a few implementations are planned, including
both services and client applications, however we are not sure how
many can go forward between now and December.  If you are planning
an implementation in this period which can help verify the final
1.0 interface, please let us know what you plan to do and on what
schedule, so that we can track implementations, and better schedule
the promotion to PR.

 	- Doug