VOEvent "Breaking News"?

[Roy Williams]

Joshua Bloom wrote:
> I suppose the biggest hurdle is not the technology but the authority factor.
Absolutely! That is the crux of it!

Of course this authority and trust has been held for a long time with 
the CBAT and MPC at Harvard.  If only we could somehow get them into the 
VOEvent structure! Unfortunately, there are three major problems:

(1) CBAT does not distribute structured events, and brittle 
screen-scraping is the only way to convert them to such. But more of a 
problem is:

(2)The CBAT has an explicit non-distribution policy (*): "Redistribution 
of the circulars posted on this web site is not permitted in any form. "

(3) The CBAT is in a transition (**): "As of 2010 Feb. 1, the SAO will 
no longer be hosting the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams 
(CBAT) for the International Astronomical Union (IAU) because SAO has 
been unable to obtain sufficient funding to sustain the CBAT 
financially. The CBAT is working, with the support of the IAU, on a 
transition to a new sponsoring institution."

(*) http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/iau/WWWPolicy.html
(**) http://www.portaltotheuniverse.org/blogs/posts/view/43304/

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