Observation/characterization/provenance discussion

[bonnarel at alinda.u-strasbg.fr]

    At the end of the Cambridge IVOA meeting last year, a team formed to
address the problem of building an Observation DM by extending 
characterization
and defining a basic Provenance model.

    This team which I am trying to coordinate ( is that possible ;-) ? 
) is made of (by chronological joigning order)
Mireille Louys
Anita M. S. Richards
François Bonnarel
Igor Chilingarian
Fabien Chereau
Andreas Wicenec
JONATHAN Mc Dowell
Gerard Lemson
Alberto Micol
Peter skoda
(all above from Cambridge UK meeting)
__________________________
Juan de Dios Santander Vela
Nausicaa Delmotte
Miguel Cervino
Arnold Rots
Carlos Rodriguo
Gretchen Greene
Tamas Budavari
Alex  Szalay
Bruno Rino
Thomas Boch
Doug Tody

The team had a mailing list, some teleconfs, partial side-meeting in 
Garching and Trieste.

Recently we had a very hot discussion on several aspects which I try to 
tidy up there. The DM1 session (and part of DM 2) of this interop will 
show various presentation showing where we are in this questions.

      I ) Models "dissemination" , usage and suitability with the 
user/developper/dataprovider needs. Are the model too complex ?


     II ) Formats and vocabularies
        Do we need utypes and ucds ? Is a model transportable in VOTABLE.
IS JSON alternative or complementary to XML ?

     III )  UNits and Coordinate systems
            Do we force dataproviders to use only one or do we allow 
various systems by providing acccurate description using STC and a 
(coming) Unit datamodel...


      IV ) How are metadata related to data and Data access layer...

I will post now 4 emails with the best part of the discussion on these 
subjects...

Cheers
François