IVOA Operations Group and Ops Sessions in Sesto

[Rob Seaman]

Howdy,

Catching up on email after a deadline and then last week’s Hotwired IV meeting.  Various friends of IVOA were in attendence and many virtual topics were discussed including an excellent VOEvent demo from John Swinbank followed by a rousing discussion with many non-virtual astronomers.

Interest in VO operations extends beyond the IVOA.  We are about 6 months out from the abstract deadline for the 2016 SPIE meeting (http://spie.org/x13662.xml).  Topics of VO operations have been welcome at the SPIE for several years and IVOA is encouraged to make a strong showing at the Edinburgh meeting in both the Operations and Cyberinfrastructure conferences.  Observatory directors and managers who may never make it to an InterOp, never miss an SPIE meeting.

Rob Seaman
Co-chair, SPIE Observatory Operations: Strategies, Processes & Systems
—

> On May 7, 2015, at 9:59 AM, Tom McGlynn <Tom.McGlynn at nasa.gov> wrote:
> 
> Dear Colleagues,
> 
> You are invited to join the new IVOA Operations Interest Group which has been created to provide a forum for the discussion of operational issues in the virtual observatory.  The goal of the operations group is to promote the robust, effective use of the virtual observatory.  From the charter for the group, its responsibilities include:
> 
> 1. Publicize existing forums and encourage new ones for monitoring
>   services, notifications, discussions and questions regarding
>   “real-time” operations of VO/distributed services.
> 2. Promote discussion within the IVOA on standards and practices that
>   would increase the reliability of VO implementations.
> 3. Develop nominal implementation strategies for VO services as guides
>   to best practice in the operational use of VO protocols.
> 4. Periodically provide reports to the IVOA executive and WGs
>   summarizing availability, quality and usage statistics for
>   distributed services and VO protocols.
> 5. During the IVOA standards review process, assess the validation
>   capabilities that are now required as part of new standards.
> 
> This announcement E-mail has been sent to the full interop distribution, but further discussion will use the traditional Wiki and mailing list.
> 
> The wiki for the new group may be found at http://wiki.ivoa.net/IvoaOps. If you are interested in participating in the discussions and activities of the operations group please join the Ops discussion list (ops at ivoa.net) using the link
> http://mail.ivoa.net/mailman/listinfo/ops .
> 
> 
> We currently plan for two sessions at the next InterOp in Sesto. The first will  focus on discussions of current operations statistics for VO services and also how we will organize the activities of the group.  The second will be open to discussions in all areas of the Ops charter. If you would like to present or lead a discussion please get in touch with me as soon as possible.  And if you are interested in a topic, even if you don't wish to present yourself, please send in a suggestion.
> 
> Looking forward to seeing you next month and working with you on VO operations issues.
> 
> Regards,
> Tom McGlynn
> Operations Interest Group Chair
>