Registry Schema v0.8.2

[Elizabeth Auden]

Hi,

Tony asked Anita Richards and I to comment on the new schema and how it
compares to the Astrogrid iteration 3 schema.  Here's by 2 cents:

Elizabeth's comments on new VOResource 0.8.2 and related schemas:

1. In VOCommunity-v0.1.xsd:

A. "DataCollRef" is separate from "ServiceRef".  Does "Service Ref" cover
everything that's not a data collection, i.e. mySpace, communities, data
models, data transformation and software packages (like SolarSoft, theXMM
SAS, etc.)?  Should these services have their own ManagesType reference,
or should they and data collections all be sub references under a more
generic ManagesType reference?

2. In VODataService-v0.2.xsd:

A. Element "DataCollection" is described as "a collection of
digitally-encoded data accessible as a single unit" - will this definition
fit data collections like 1XMM that are made up of multiple data
collections?  Can a DataCollection contain other DataCollections?

B. Formats can be MIME types or not MIME types.  Is it worth having an
attribute that specifies "MIMEtype = true or false" to aid automation (ie,
"if format = .wav, play file; if format = cd-rom, do not attempt to play
file), or should that choice be left up to service implementors?

C. RightsType: Is it worth adding "administor" as a type to indicate
whether the data held can be added, edited, or deleted?  For instance, if
someone publishes a derived dataset, they may wish to indicate to the
world that this data may change at their whim if reprocessed by improved
models, but if another person or organization mirrors this dataset, they
would not be able to change any of the data.

D. SkyService: I've talked to a few solar people at MSSL - it may be
useful to give this a more generic name if it will be extended to solar,
planetary, and atmospheric data: perhaps "ObservationService".  Otherwise,
it would be nice to include sibling service types such as "HelioService",
"PlanetService", "TerrestrialAtmosphereService", and so forth  (I realize
that this has already been debated with references to
"siderealSkyService", etc.)

3. In VOPerson-v0.1.1.xsd:

A. RoleType: is it worth pre-defining a few roles like admin, user,
developer, archivist, etc?

4. In VOResource-v0.8.2.xsd:

A. ResourceKey: how will this be generated?  Will each unique key include
versioning, or will the key change if a resource is updated but old and
new versions exist simultaneously?

B. Description: Is this equivalent to a README or will it be a URL to a
README?  Anita and I discussed this in the current Astrogrid resource and
decided to make the equivalent  README be a URL pointing to the
appropriate file.  The reasoning is that if a user queries the registry
for all metadata on a services containing data about stars, a whole lot of
screen space is going to be taken up by full reproductions of README
files.

C. CatagoryType:  (This is nitpicky, but I think it should be spelled
"CategoryType".)  The enumeration includes a choice of "simulation", but
there should be another choice that indicates data transformation other
than a simulation, such as procession, astrometric alignment, etc.  I
can't think of a good name other than "DataTransformation".

D. ManagedResourceType: I'd like to suggest a category in addition to
curation that indicates a software package rather than data curation -
perhaps "Software" or "ProcessingPipeline".  This would include managed
resources that are the big kahunas of astro and solar software: SolarSoft,
the XMM-Newton SAS, IRAF, etc.

E. ContactType-Phone: It may be a good idea to add a "vr:Country" element
to ContactType or to mandate that "vr:Phone" includes a country code.
(I've had too many answering messages where people have left me the phone
number of their hotel and neglecting to mention which country they were
visiting at the time.)

F. Instrument: Should there be a category for "sub-instruments"?  An
example: Facility would refer to XMM-Newton, Instrument would refer to the
Optical Monitor, but how would one specify "data from the UVW1 filter"?
Maybe a Filter or Grism element?

cheers,
Elizabeth