> How about the week of August 18?

I'm afraid I'm not available that week (or the following week).
 
> > Unless it was in Europe this year?
>
> I expect that the later (Autumn) meeting will be in DC, and
> so, though I'd
> like the August meeting in DC, I'm not pushing too hard for
> that (though if
> we do it after the week of August 18 I can't go anywhere).
> However, I do think
> it needs to be in the US, if we're going to persuade some of
> the metasearch
> folks to come.

Mmmmm, my travel budget this year is now pretty low, so *I*'d presonally
favour European venues...

> Well that's what I'm thinking but I could be convinced
> otherwise. Though I
> think it would be real tricky to try to ascertain
> requirements and get them
> into 1.1, without undue delay to 1.1.

I think that we are more or less there with the 1.1 features (with the
possible exceptions of the range searching and record metadata) - it
just needs that burst of concentrated effort and consensus which is
better done face to face (or at least teleconference) than via e-mail.
On the other hand I don't think we have a particularly good grasp of
what the metasearch folks need (at present the solutions vary from a
completely new WebService to SRW 1.0 over http 1.1). I'm not that
concerned that metasearch might be a 1.2 or 2.0 (or whatever) feature as
long as we identify a timeframe: we have various options from rolling
metasearch with other stuff into a 1.2/2.0 release about 9 months after
1.1; or we might do an iterim 1.15 (or whatever version number you
prefer) release a few months after 1.1 which just adds metasearch. At
present we therefore need to get a better idea of requirements and
urgency from the metasearch folks.

On a related matter, one of the other concerns from the metasearch crew
is about branding. One of the things I focused on in a report I did for
the JISC on service descriptions is the wealth of bradning type
information in traditional Explain. For instance:

An icon used to represent this database (in machine presentable form)
(today this would probably be termed a logo rather than icon)
Whether there is charge to access this database.
A human-readable name or title for the database
A description of the database, in human readable text.
Any disclaimers concerning this database, in human readable text.
News about this database, in human readable text.
Hours of operation that this database is available.
Best time to access this database, in human readable text.
A description of copyright issues relating to this database, in human
readable text.
A notice concerning copyright which the target expects the origin to
display to the user if possible, in human readable text.
Description and contact information for the database producer, database
supplier, and for how to submit material for inclusion in this database,
in human readable text.

At a quick glance many of these aren't yet in ZeeRex. Some may need a
little thought (e.g. News about database might be better as a link to an
RSS feed, or even embedded RSS, than a string?) but I would have thought
it not too difficult to add these in ZeeRex 1.9/2.0 and hence tackle
this issue. Also we may need to consider branding information in our
record metadata discussions.

Matthew