IVOA Exec Meeting Highlights

[Dave De Young]

Dear IVOA Members;

The IVOA Executive met last week on 17 January 2008 via
a teleconference, and in keeping with our prior resolution
to improve internal communication within the IVOA, I am
once again sending you a brief summary of this Exec meeting.

There were no new standards or revisions of existing
standards put forward for acceptance by the Exec at this
meeting.  Most of the items on the agenda involved status
reports or informational bulletins.

Of interest to the Exec were informal reports
of activities by several small teams in the areas of
TAP, ADQL, and footprint services.  Progress is
being made in the areas of region specification, query
capabilities, and footprint collaborative efforts.

Other Highlights:
- The IVOA Assessment committee continues its development of
  recommendations to the IVOA that come from the response to
  the assessment survey.  The plan is to have a draft report
  ready for review by Exec in April 2008, with a presentation
  of the final report at the May Interop

- The Exec was informed of the growing activity relevant to
  VO interests by Google and Microsoft. Efforts will be made
  to see if IVOA can contribute to the development of standards
  in this area and to the formation of collaboration among
  the principal groups.

- In response to the Assessment committee findings, an IVOA
  web page that contains information about, and links to,
  VO informational material, tutorials, and introductory
  presentations has been established.  The page may be 
  found at: 
  http://ivoa.net/twiki/bin/view/TrainingMaterialsAndPresentations 

- A draft charter for the Exec standing committee on Standards
  has been submitted, together with a new document on the
  Standards process.  Francoise Genova has been made the Chair
  of this committee, and she will be overseeing these documents
  through the approval process.

- Planning for the May Interop meeting in Trieste is proceeding;
  as a reminder, the dates for this meeting are 18-23 May 2008.
  The dates for the fall 2008 Interop meeting are will be
  announced soon.

- The next Exec meeting will be a telecon in late April 2008

Best wishes,

Dave De Young
IVOA Chair