Single or collection resources

[Markus Demleitner]

Dear DAL folks,

On Thu, Aug 06, 2009 at 06:28:44AM -0500, Ray Plante wrote:
> collection separate from the services that access it.  In VOResource  
> speak, the former is a resource of type DataCollection, the latter would  
> be a CatalogService with an SIA capability.  The DataCollection resource  
> can reference the service as a "related resource" (of the type  
> "served-by").  This allows for N DataCollections being registered, but  
Yes, that's nifty, and I'd probably like to go this way.  Except:

> One barrier to this approach is the extent to which registries support  
> it.  That is, your registry will need to let you (easily) set the related  
...and in particular, what VOExplorer does with it.  I always find
that people are much more impressed when their data turns up in a
"real" program as opposed to "just another website".  So -- I'd be
really grateful if someone from from the VOExplorer team could
comment what would work best for them.  In particular, do you even
look at DataCollections?  Will you show your nice service icons for
served-by?

> In closing, I'll note that the DAL services aren't currently good for  
> finding data based on the science subject matter that the datasets  
> address.  If we consider our goals of re-purpose data, then perhaps they  
> shouldn't; science happens arguably at a higher level.  The only other  
> service for doing discovery by subject matter is the registry.  We could  
Right -- that is exactly why I'm worrying about individual registry
entries and why the being able to show the service icon behind some
entry in VOExplorer is a bit more than just a means for seducing
potential data providers.

Cheers,

         Markus