I am limited on what I can do as my first post. I will follow up.
The announcement on the blog was made by Massimo Banzi.
All the info on the arduino.cc page for the shield comes from
David A. Mellis. (Based on this)
I'm wondering were the discussion about this piece of hardware it taking place, or who I can contact in order to contribute to the effort of getting the SD reader supported. I have asked this question on the developers mailing list.
Any ideas?