Sesto InterOp

[Rob Seaman]

Hi Steve,

> “Me too”, I’ll be at Sesto but unable to attend
> Hotwired, so I’d be interested in a recap of that.

We’ll try to make it interesting so there’s something to talk about ;-)

> Also would be interested in an operations-oriented
> discussion on event brokers,
> services where projects working with events
> can send-to or recv-from. Would like to get in
> touch with attitudes and options on building/operating
> such broker systems.

The VOEvent book that emerged from Hotwired II remains a good overview:

	http://www.cacr.caltech.edu/hotwired2/book.html

> The success of event networks clearly
> relies on some institution(s) operating network(s) to
> distribute events, a task somewhat independent of the
> production or consumption of the event streams themselves.

Yes.  The VOEvent community has pursued this through several projects
over the years, including VOEventNet, SkyAlert, and the VAO transient facility.
All ran out of funding.  LSST (for instance) assumes that the community will
provide this service.  At the moment it isn’t clear who will pay for that.

> Is this a well-solved problem or an infrastructure gap
> in need of filling?

Both.  The technologies are in place and a tightly coupled project of following
up on a particular survey can easily deploy a system.  Community-wide infrastructure
is lacking.

> Are interested projects expected to
> develop&operate their own from scratch, or are there
> existing services/implementations to tie into or
> build upon?

The technologies are mature.  The specific event schemata will vary between
surveys.  Deploying and operating either generic or task-specific services
requires funding here as with anything.

> As something of an outsider
> to the event community that would be helpful in
> better understanding the lay of the land.

Various other Hotwired presentations and papers may be of interest:
http://hotwireduniverse.org and links.  We are in the early stages of
forming a new IAU time domain working group:

	http://timedomainastronomy.net

Rob
seaman at noao.edu