Agenda for Interop Theory Session

[Gerard Lemson]

Please find below a first proposal for an agenda for the session of the IVOA
theory
interest group during the interoperability meeting in Cambridge, MA. This
session will be
held on Tuesday morning, 8:30 – 12:00.

I would like to ask the chair persons of the working groups and other
interest groups if
they are willing to present their thoughts (if they have any) on what it
takes to
incorporate theoretical datasets or services in their process, if they think
this is
relevant. I think the groups listed below should have something to say about
this, but
others are welcome.

I think it would be good if representatives of the national VOs could give a
short
presentation about existing or planned theory projects in their
“constituency”, or at least
send me links to projects they think are relevant. I would like to add these
to the TWiki
page (http://www.ivoa.net/twiki/bin/view/IVOA/IvoaTheory) before the meeting
starts and btw
feel free to do so yourself. If anyone wishes to present a short demo that
would be nice.

We need to define some concrete projects as well and hopefully we can decide
on some during
this meeting. We could try to follow the IVOA pattern and define one or more
demos and
maybe find volunteers to implement these.

Please send me your comments on this agenda, if you have any.

Thanks

Gerard Lemson


Agenda
1.	Introduction to the theory interest group
-	why was the group founded ?
-	what issues are there for theory in the IVOA process ?
-	discussion of the charter.
2.	Relation with working groups. Short presentations by working group chairs
on what
      they think should/could happen on the subject of theory in their
group.
-	DAL : theory specific protocols ? (cone searches or XMatch are not
relevant in
      general)
-	DM : incorporation of theory (meta-)data in modeling process
-	UCD : how is theory represented in the UCD list now and how can extensions
be made.
-	Others please.
3.	Relation with the astronomical community.
-	Overview of existing or planned theory related projects. Hopefully
representatives of
      national VOs can give a presentation, possibly with a demo.
-	Discussion on how we can use the existing projects in the group’s process.
Maybe
      extend into demos ? How can the working groups use these results?
-	How can we bring the theoretical and observational astronomical community
together
      and create applications that combine theory and observational data ?
4.	Discussion of a roadmap for the next year:
-	Discussion about the interaction between the interest group and the
working groups.
      How can theory issues be incorporated in their process.
-	How can the theory group be effective in acting as a forum for discussing
theory
      specific aspects and as a source of information for groups building
theory related
      services in a VO compatible manner.
-	Define one or more theory VO projects to be implemented as demo for next
year.
-	More.