towards a DataLink IVOA Note

[Norman Gray]

François and all, hello.

On 2011 Oct 14, at 09:46, François Bonnarel wrote:

>      Next week in Pune a DAL working group session will be focused on  DataLink.
>      I present here first ideas for an IVOA note on this topic... Sorry for not providing this sooner to people willing to co write the note...
>     But I think after discussing these ideas next weeks we can move rapidly together to something more collective...

This is very interesting.  Looking at the links you posted, it looks as if some part of what you're describing -- the inter-dataset linkage -- is supported by the prototype AstroDAbis service which Bob Mann, Dave Morris and I have been working on (there are a few details at the funder-mandated project blog: <http://astrodabis.jiscinvolve.org/>).  We hope this will turn into a long-term supported service, and would welcome comments.

Another large fraction of the desired capability would seem to be supplied by data DOIs, such as those being developed by the DataCite consortium of libraries <http://datacite.org/>.  They're shaking down the specification, and promoting this as a general world-wide framework for referring to and linking to datasets in a long-term stable way.

Best wishes,

Norman


-- 
Norman Gray  :  http://nxg.me.uk
SUPA School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow, UK