[kdd] Welcome to the IVOA Interest Group in Knowledge Discovery in Databases!

[Raffaele D'Abrusco]

>From Giuseppe Longo:

Dear Colleagues

I am writing to inform you that Raffaele and Omar have activated the IVOA
WIKI pages for the Interest Group in Knowledge Discovery in Databases
(KDD). You can find this page at the following address:

http://www.ivoa.net/cgi-bin/twiki/bin/view/IVOA/IvoaKDD

The first activities will proceed according to what was decided during
the last Interop meeting in Victoria.

I also wish to remind all of you that Raffaele D'Abrusco (CfA-USA) has
volunteered to act as secretary of the IG. I do thank him for his help.

Let me shortly summarize the main task we should pursue:

1. Build a vocabulary of the main terminology used in DM (Data Mining) and
KDD (R. D'Abrusco). This is crucial in order to have a common platform on
which to build the future collaborations;

2. Start a census of DM and ML (Machine Learning) tools and methods of
astronomical interest (all);

3. Begin to define a group of template datasets to be used for
benchmarking of algorithms (C. Donalek, Caltech-USA)

4. Begin to write a short and user friendly guide for data mining in
astronomy (N. Ball, G. Longo and whoever wishes to contribute).

5. Start the discussion on how the various DM tasks correlate with
existing VO standards and eventually propose to the new community new
ones.

Obviously this is only the beginning of the story. Everyone who wants to
contribute or suggest topics and/or actions is encouraged to do so. For
the success of this IG it will be crucial to have contributions from
everyone of us.

Some of you have never participated in the IVOA activities. I hope that
this IG-KDD will also serve to attract new ideas and fresh blood to our
community.

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO SEND ALL YOUR FEEDBACKS, COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS.

Wishing to all of us good work, I remain

Most sincerely yours
Giuseppe Longo
(Chair)