[CCGT] Astro-RG/ IVOA joint one day workshop: Proposal

[Nicholas Walton]

Dear Craig

we in Astro-RG and the IVOA (see http://www.ivoa.net) would like to propose
organising a one-day workshop at GGF17 in Tokyo. We have put together our
proposal, and would be pleased to know whether this is acceptable.

If there is any more infomation that you require, please let us know.

Yours,

Nic Walton				(co-chair GGF Astro-RG)
					(secretary IVOA)

Masatoshi Ohishi			(co-chair GGF Astro-RG)
					(chair IVOA)

------------------

Proposal for a Joint IVOA - GGF (Astro-RG) WorkShop
===================================================

Tokyo @ GGF17						8 May 2006

Draft: Nic Walton					16 Feb 2006


A) Workshop Title

Building a Global Virtual Observatory for Astronomy -
Grid Standards and their Relevance in Use


B) Proposed workshop organizer names and affiliations (possibly
incl. review committee for type 2). Be sure to identify yourself if
you are a chair of an existing RG/WG.

Nicholas A Walton, IoA, Univ of Cambridge, UK		(Co-Chair Astro-RG)
Chenzhou Cui, National Astronomical Observatory, China
Neil Geddes, NGS, RAL, UK
Thilo Kielmann,	Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, NL	(Co-Chair APPS-RG)*
Reagan Moore, SDSC, San Diego, USA			(Co-Chair PE-RG)
Steven Newhouse, OMII, Southampton, UK			(Co-Chair GESA-WG)*
Mastoshi Ohishi, NAOJ, Tokyo, Japan			(Chair IVOA)
Fabio Pasian, INAF-SI, Trieste, Italy			(EGEE/NA4)
Guy Rixon, IoA, Univ of Cambridge, UK			(Chair IVOA
							 Grid-Web
							 Services WG)
David Wallom, Center for E-Research Bristol, UK		(Co-Chair PGS-RG)
Roy Williams, CACR, Caltech, USA			(Chair IVOA Techinical
							 Coordination Group)

Note: * contacted but currently unconfirmed.


C) Sponsoring Groups:

Astronomy Applications					Astro-RG	conf
Database Access and Integration Services WG		DAIS-WG		pend
Simple API for Grid Applications			SAGA-RG		pend
Preservation Environments				PE-RG		conf
Workflow Management Research Group			WFM-RG		pend
Production Grid Services Research Group			PGS-RG		pend


D) Scope and Content (a paragraph or two of the workshop description
to be put on the program.

This workshop, jointly sponsored by the GGF and the International
Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA - see http://www.ivoa.net). The
meeting is timely in that the global Virtual Observatory (VO) projects
are now deploying systems worldwide for operational and scientific
use, where use of emerging GGF standards in or instance data
management and security may have a vital role to
play. Interoperability with existing grid infrastructures (e.g.
TeraGrid, EGEE) is also a key topic, since VO centers or users must be
allowed to take advantage of the power offered by computational grids.
This meeting preceeds the next major IVOA interoperability workshop to
be held in Victoria, Canada (15-19 May 2006).

The programme would address issues of common interest to the GGF and
the IVOA focusing on how a Global Virtual Observatory is being
constructed using domain developed high level interoperability
standards, but utilising lower level grid and grid service standards
and concepts where relevant.

The workshop will provide an opportunity for those involved in creating
the interoperabilty standards required by the global Vrtual
Observatory community to interact with those creating generic grid
standards. The feedback from the exemplar science domain will
highlight the opportunities and difficulties presented by take up of
GGF standard compliant implementations.


E) Programme

We envisage that the meeting would be a 'Type two (refereed workshop)'
- with a call for papers.

The programme would address in 8 ~one hour sessions, the following areas:

1) Requirements for a Virtual Observatory: the Domain Perspective
   - Science drivers for a Virtual Observatory			(Walton)
   - Capturing user needs from a middleware perspective		(Newhouse)

2) VO Case Studies
   - Example VO implementations, UK, USA, Japan, etc
   - Experience with existing grid infrastructures

3) Registries and Resource Discovery

4) Data Management
   - including preservation of data and knowledge

5) Application Environments

6) Astronomical Workflows

7) Security
   - authroisation and authentication

8) The Production Virtual Observatory
   - logging and debugging
   - training and support
   - account management
   - software licensing

Each session would include a period for open discussion


F) Past History of hosting a similar workshop inside or outside GGF.

The co-organisers have organised a number of successful workshops at
previous workshops including most recently the 'Workshop on
Grid Applications: from Early Adopters to Mainstream Users, Jun
2005).

The IVOA regularly hold technical workshops - see www.ivoa.net

G) Duration of workshop

One full day - to be held in Tokyo at GGF17 (May 2006). The venue
could be either the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, or at the
GGF.


H) Estimated # of participants

50+ attendees would be expected.

I) Publication Plans --- please indicate if you have plan to publish
the workshop result with a certain publisher. If left out we will
assume that the workshop product will be a GGF Informational Document.

The meeting would be published as a GGF informational document.

========================================================================
Dr N. A. Walton
(AstroGrid Project Scientist	       http://www.astrogrid.org)
(Euro-VO VOTC Project Scientist	       http://www.euro-vo.org)
Institute of Astronomy          Tel:   +44 1223 337503
University of Cambridge         Fax:   +44 1223 337523
Madingley Road                  WWW:   http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~naw
Cambridge, CB3 0HA              email: naw at ast.cam.ac.uk
========================================================================