IVOA Madrid Interop: Semantics summary

[Norman Gray]

Hello, all.

For the benefit of those on this list who weren't at the Interop meeting in Madrid, the week before last, here are my notes of the semantics-related outcomes of the week.

Most concretely, the VOUnits document was approved by the Exec as an IVOA Recommendation: <http://www.ivoa.net/documents/VOUnits/>.  This document has had a long gestation period, and many people have contributed in various ways.  Thank you, everyone, for your contributions, and thanks particularly to Sébastien for initiating the process.

The Semantics session <http://wiki.ivoa.net/twiki/bin/view/IVOA/InterOpMay2014Semantics> included a report of vocabulary developments in Paris, which prompted a useful discussion on links between vocabularies, and best practices for vocabulary coordination.  Baptiste Cecconi (whose name I see I have _again_ misspelled in the posted PDF -- apologies Baptiste!) talked of new UCDs for planetary data, and this prompted another interesting discussion on the choice of UCD strings.  What I conclude from this discussion is that, in a semi-formal structure like UCDs, there are no real _rules_ for UCD construction, and we must and should rely on the good taste of the community, in providing commentary in forums such as this one.

As is now I think the pattern, the semantics WG members had contributions to make to other WGs' efforts, in particular the DM and DAL groups.  This is as it should be, I think.  From one point of view, the IVOA's interoperability goal is 'shared semantics' project as much as it is a 'shared syntax' project, and it is not useful, therefore, for 'semantics' to be ghettoised into a WG out on a limb.

As before, the 'New Technologies' session was interesting, entertaining, and thought-provoking.

Thanks to all of the speakers in both sessions, and to all of those who contributed their thoughts over the week.

Best wishes,

Norman


-- 
Norman Gray  :  http://nxg.me.uk
SUPA School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow, UK