Mario, This is very helpful. Having a diagram such as this provides some interesting clarity to what the various pieces are and how they (might) relate. So, when I look at what you created, I wonder about a fair number of missing lines. I think that it spending one of our teleconferences looking at this diagram (or its next version, depending upon timing) would be a good way to most certainly raise a number of issues about the architecture and might provide a touch point for resolving issues. Allen Mario Antonioletti <mario@epcc.ed.ac.uk> Sent by: owner-ogsa-d-wg@ggf.org 05/03/2005 05:54 AM To ogsa-d-wg@ggf.org cc Subject The Bigger Picture. Hi, I think one thing that has been lacking a bit in the OGSA-D WG so far has been the bigger picture trying to tie some of the concepts together. A long time ago I remember seeing the concept maps that were produced for the WS architecture (see: http://www.w3.org/TR/ws-arch/) and I quite liked these. I don't know what tool they used but I found something similar, if not the same. See: http://cmap.ihmc.us/ It's a java application and I think, though I've not looked too closely, is free. I have tried to create a concept map for the data architecture and have included an exported image as an attachment to this email as well as the cmap file that contains the source to the diagram in case anyone wants to play with it. It was very easy to generate and change and I believe the cmaps can be shared so they could be developed in a collaborative fashion. I think it helps to ellicit detail from the model, e.g. to what does the data description bind to: the virtualization or the service? Does the idea of having a data set defined in the data transfer make sense? i.e. I think of a data set as a disconnected piece of data that has been materialised outside the data resource and this would only make sense if it were staged. Do we benefit at all from making the distinction between a simple and aggregated data service? etc, etc, etc. Note that I am not advocating that these should be included in the document, nor that everything should go in one diagram (as is currently). I think that the diagrams can be nested (maybe). Is this a worthwhile thing to do? If the answer is yes can it be done so the diagrams are shared? Thoughts? I will try to distribute something on data access by the close of day today (UK time) albeit it'll be far from complete. Mario +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ |Mario Antonioletti:EPCC,JCMB,The King's Buildings,Edinburgh EH9 3JZ. | |Tel:0131 650 5141|mario@epcc.ed.ac.uk|http://www.epcc.ed.ac.uk/~mario/ | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ [attachment "OGSA-D.jpg" deleted by Allen Luniewski/Almaden/IBM] [attachment "OGSA-D.cmap" deleted by Allen Luniewski/Almaden/IBM]