diff --git a/apiclient/model.py b/apiclient/model.py
new file mode 100644
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--- /dev/null
+++ b/apiclient/model.py
@@ -0,0 +1,105 @@
+#!/usr/bin/python2.4
+#
+# Copyright 2010 Google Inc. All Rights Reserved.
+
+"""Model objects for requests and responses
+
+Each API may support one or more serializations, such
+as JSON, Atom, etc. The model classes are responsible
+for converting between the wire format and the Python
+object representation.
+"""
+
+__author__ = 'jcgregorio@google.com (Joe Gregorio)'
+
+import logging
+import urllib
+
+from apiclient.json import simplejson
+from apiclient.errors import HttpError
+
+
+class JsonModel(object):
+  """Model class for JSON.
+
+  Serializes and de-serializes between JSON and the Python
+  object representation of HTTP request and response bodies.
+  """
+
+  def request(self, headers, path_params, query_params, body_value):
+    """Updates outgoing requests with JSON bodies.
+
+    Args:
+      headers: dict, request headers
+      path_params: dict, parameters that appear in the request path
+      query_params: dict, parameters that appear in the query
+      body_value: object, the request body as a Python object, which must be
+                  serializable by simplejson.
+    Returns:
+      A tuple of (headers, path_params, query, body)
+
+      headers: dict, request headers
+      path_params: dict, parameters that appear in the request path
+      query: string, query part of the request URI
+      body: string, the body serialized as JSON
+    """
+    query = self._build_query(query_params)
+    headers['accept'] = 'application/json'
+    if 'user-agent' in headers:
+      headers['user-agent'] += ' '
+    else:
+      headers['user-agent'] = ''
+    headers['user-agent'] += 'google-api-python-client/1.0'
+    if body_value is None:
+      return (headers, path_params, query, None)
+    else:
+      headers['content-type'] = 'application/json'
+      return (headers, path_params, query, simplejson.dumps(body_value))
+
+  def _build_query(self, params):
+    """Builds a query string.
+
+    Args:
+      params: dict, the query parameters
+
+    Returns:
+      The query parameters properly encoded into an HTTP URI query string.
+    """
+    params.update({'alt': 'json'})
+    astuples = []
+    for key, value in params.iteritems():
+      if getattr(value, 'encode', False) and callable(value.encode):
+        value = value.encode('utf-8')
+      astuples.append((key, value))
+    return '?' + urllib.urlencode(astuples)
+
+  def response(self, resp, content):
+    """Convert the response wire format into a Python object.
+
+    Args:
+      resp: httplib2.Response, the HTTP response headers and status
+      content: string, the body of the HTTP response
+
+    Returns:
+      The body de-serialized as a Python object.
+
+    Raises:
+      apiclient.errors.HttpError if a non 2xx response is received.
+    """
+    # Error handling is TBD, for example, do we retry
+    # for some operation/error combinations?
+    if resp.status < 300:
+      if resp.status == 204:
+        # A 204: No Content response should be treated differently
+        # to all the other success states
+        return simplejson.loads('{}')
+      body = simplejson.loads(content)
+      if isinstance(body, dict) and 'data' in body:
+        body = body['data']
+      return body
+    else:
+      logging.debug('Content from bad request was: %s' % content)
+      if resp.get('content-type', '').startswith('application/json'):
+        raise HttpError(resp, simplejson.loads(content)['error'])
+      else:
+        raise HttpError(resp, '%d %s' % (resp.status, resp.reason))