VOEvent session

[Rob Seaman]

On Dec 13, 2010, at 8:57 PM, Mike Fitzpatrick wrote:

> On Mon, Dec 13, 2010 at 8:01 PM, Rob Seaman <seaman at noao.edu> wrote:
> Can a "lightweight voevent packet followed by an arbitrary payload" correspond to "publishing a telegram"?
> 
> It makes every bit as much sense as a 'telegram' that contains enough data for 
> a machine to make an automated decision, some might call that a data product.

It isn't obvious why a telegram can't also be a data product.  The notion has always been to combine the rich semantics of astronomical telegrams with the rapid delivery of GCN in a publish/subscribe paradigm.  In addition to near real time notification, the goal is to provide a path for the historical human language telegrams to transition to parse-able schema/utypes/ontologies/DMs/etc - exactly the stuff you say are too complex for the packet.

> Mine was an off-the-cuff example but the idea is there is a separation
> between some well-defined notice (the voevent packet), and some
> arbitrary piece of data people might want to follow on (but which we
> wouldn't need to characterize).

Who then is "we"?  Somebody has to characterize the content.

> Think of a postcard, and then a postcard
> (optionally) taped to a box:  In one case it's an IAU telegram, in the other
> case it's that telegram taped to a box of tapes containing data, but the
> telegram alone is enough to tell you whether to search VO for more data
> or just open the box.

How is it enough without astronomical content?

> Poor analogies aside, FWIW I thought the whole point of a voevent was
> your "Hey, over here....." idea.  Pushing around datasets has more of a
> workflow or messaging feel to it, in which case separating the message,
> the payload and the transport seem like better design ideas.

Yes to the first:

	http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/asna.200710960/pdf

The payload is already separated from the transport.  Not obvious if separating messaging from content is "better".

Rob

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