According to Robert F. Pecora, managing director of the Salutation Consortium, the Consortium will evaluate responses to the RFI based on both the technical solution and the business model proposed. A decision is expected by the end of the year. The group expects to deliver the completed Reference Model to developers by spring 1998. Cost of the Reference Model has not been set, but is expected to be nominal. What Salutation Does The Salutation Architecture is a protocol for locating and controlling computers, consumer devices, and office equipment across the Internet or a company intranet.
Salutation allows an application to send a network query to locate a device, application or service.
Once a device has been located, Salutation can attach the proper device drivers, allowing maximum possible use of the device and its characteristics. Intranets build the need for Salutation features by making more peripherals available to the desktop, and by supporting mobile network attachments. The Salutation specification is independent of network transport, hardware platform, and operating system software and supports standard Internet and other message formats. A Reference Model allows developers to plug in a module for protocol implementation and focus their development efforts on the profitable performance and feature enhancements. The RFI details the minimum requirements for the Reference Model and a test scenario to verify that the minimum functions are met.