<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><br></div><div>Hello web service users,</div><div><br></div><div>The DMC's prototype MetaData Service (MDS), aka <a href="http://www.iris.edu/mds/">http://www.iris.edu/mds/</a>, be shut down on <b>May 2nd 2011.</b></div><div><br></div><div>The functional replacement is the ws-station service: <b><a href="http://www.iris.edu/ws/station/">http://www.iris.edu/ws/station/</a></b> which returns station metadata in StationXML format and is fully supported.</div><div><br></div><div>The MDS service was used in some of the early versions of the web service Fetch scripts, if you are not using the latest Fetch scripts please visit <b><a href="http://www.iris.edu/ws/wsclients/">http://www.iris.edu/ws/wsclients/</a></b> to get the most recent versions dated 2011.046 or later.</div><div><br></div><div>If you are using MDS with your own client code we encourage you to transition to the ws-station service as soon as possible.</div><div><br></div><div>Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns regarding the retirement of MDS.</div><div><br></div><div>thanks,</div><div>IRIS web services team</div></body></html>