RofR

[Roy Williams]

Tony Linde wrote:

>I'm unclear about what the registry of registries (RofR) is going to do. I
>understand that *every* registry is listed there, whether full or
>publishing. 
>  
>
I am also unclear. I think it is good to know where the registries are 
running, but I do not see why the RofR needs to be a registry itself. 
The problem then is that the owner of the RofR is perceived as being the 
center of the IVO, which is politically unattractive, unless you are 
part of the project that runs the central registry, in which case it is 
very attractive.

Perhaps the RofR could start out as a web page or a Twiki page, just so 
we know where everyone is. Forget the formal structure for now? A URL 
for humans and an endpoint to get the service?

>Let's distinguish between full and publishing registries. 
>
I was never really comfortable with this distinction. My view is that 
each registry *may* have any of three interfaces: publish, query, and 
harvest. A registry may harvest only a few other registries, or it may 
harvest all. If people can publish or query there, I don't see what that 
has to do with their harvesting policies. Please can somebody explain 
the advantage of this  full/publish scheme?

Roy