9/14/2006NVOSS III1 The Future of the Virtual Observatory Robert Hanisch US NVO Project Manager Space Telescope Science Institute T HE US N ATIONAL V IRTUAL O BSERVATORY

9/14/2006NVOSS III2 The current state of affairs 16 national and international VO projects Self-organized structure, International VO Alliance, for exchange of experience and development of standards and protocols Working Groups and Interest Groups focus on key topics Mix of large and small projects International recognition, with formal standing in IAU through IAU VO Working Group See

9/14/2006NVOSS III3 What is working well IVOA partners are self-motivated Collaboration is in everyones interest Large (well-funded) projects provide most of the infrastructure development Small projects contribute software in their areas of expertise/interest, or publish their unique data collections W3C-based standards process

9/14/2006NVOSS III4 Challenges Distributed projects means that progress can be slow, effort diluted Internal project schedules and priorities can be in conflict with international agreements Project funding cycles are all different Meetings require extensive travel, telecons span 24 time zones, discussions span workdays

9/14/2006NVOSS III5 Successes, infrastructure VOTable SIAP SSAP ADQL OpenSkyNode Resource Metadata, registries, harvesting VO Identifiers UCDs Space-Time Coordinates VOEvent CEA VOStore

9/14/2006NVOSS III6 Successes, applications Aladin VOPlot Topcat DataScope OpenSkyQuery VOSpec Specview Spectrum Services WESIX and many others… …and, VO-enabled research results are now beginning to appear (Padovani, McGlynn, Suchkov, Miller, …)

9/14/2006NVOSS III7 Community engagement NVO Summer Schools I, II, and III (Sept 2004, Sept 2005, Sept 2006) NVO Research Initiatives program (2005-6) Euro-VO Workshop (June 2005) AstroGrid spring school ADASS conferences –1/3 of ADASS abstracts mention VO explicitly –> 1/2 have some VO connection IAU General Assembly, VO Special Session (Prague, August 2006)

9/14/2006NVOSS III8 The NVO Facility NVO development project was to finish in September 2006 NSF and NASA preparing joint solicitation for ongoing NVO operations –NVO Facility intended to be small-scale national observatory, funded for the foreseeable future –Strong endorsement from Astronomy & Astrophysics Advisory Committee –Members of the NVO development team preparing NVO Facility proposal –May include grants and fellowship program Solicitation continues to be delayed; NVO project awarded funding extension for FY 2007

9/14/2006NVOSS III9 The NVO Facility: development Requirements analysis, priority assessment Continued software development; technology tracking Standards and protocols, in collaboration with international VO partners Software templates, reference applications Computational services and scalability (Grid, Cyber-Infrastructure) Security: authentication and authorization Testing and system integration, multi-platform support

9/14/2006NVOSS III10 The NVO Facility: operations Repository for contributed software Registry curation, service monitoring and validation Data publication support Data preservation Data quality forum? Computational services and scalability (Grid, Cyber-Infrastructure) Security: authentication and authorization Testing and system integration, multi-platform support Documentation User support, web site

9/14/2006NVOSS III11 The NVO Facility: management Education and public outreach Community engagement Grants, fellowship, internships Logging, metrics Science program definition Task management, reporting, budget planning and justification Agency liaison Oversight and advisory committees Board of Directors

9/14/2006NVOSS III12 Transition challenges Development approach: open-loop, prototypes vs. structured, tested, maintained Project structure: extent of distributed effort, lines of authority and responsibility Governance and community oversight: management accountability Balance between science and IT-based motivations Performance goals, science metrics Balance between NSF and NASA project management styles

9/14/2006NVOSS III13 NVO priorities in FY07 To complete and enhance the VO core infrastructure, providing a full suite of data discovery and data access protocols. To improve user interfaces, documentation, and capabilities for NVO science applications. To further improve the NVO web site to make it easier for astronomers to utilize NVO tools in their regular research. To inform the community of VO capabilities and provide training opportunities through a presence at astronomy conferences, technical meetings, and dedicated training sessions such as the NVO Summer Schools. To engage the outreach and education communities in using VO tools and data products in the development of informal and formal science education.

9/14/2006NVOSS III14 Discussion