14 Sept 2005NVO Summer School II 1

What’s on Tap in the VO?

THE US NATIONAL VIRTUAL OBSERVATORY

Robert HanischUS NVO Project Manager

Space Telescope Science Institute

14 Sept 2005NVO Summer School II 2

THE US NATIONAL VIRTUAL OBSERVATORY

14 Sept 2005NVO Summer School II 3

THE US NATIONAL VIRTUAL OBSERVATORY

14 Sept 2005NVO Summer School II 4

Technical roadmap

• IVOA agrees upon priorities and plans for technology development

http://www.ivoa.net/Documents/latest/RoadMap.html

14 Sept 2005NVO Summer School II 5

Science roadmap

• Science Steering Committee advice– Fast data inventory service– Sky coverage footprint services– WCS fixer– Integration of DataScope with VOEvent

notifications– Forms-based interfaces for database queries

and cross-correlations

14 Sept 2005NVO Summer School II 6

Near-term opportunities

• Research initiatives (Oct 1)– http://www.us-vo.org/research/

• Microsoft technology program (Sept 19)– http://research.microsoft.com/ur/us/funding

opps/RFPs/SmartClient_eScience_RFP.aspx

• NASA AISRP (next year)– http://nspires.nasaprs.com/external/

14 Sept 2005NVO Summer School II 7

The NVO Facility

• NVO development project finishes in September 2006

• NSF and NASA now preparing joint solicitation for ongoing NVO operations– NVO Facility intended to be small-scale

national observatory– Strong endorsement from Astronomy &

Astrophysics Advisory Committee– Members of the NVO development team

preparing NVO Facility proposal– May include grants and fellowship program

14 Sept 2005NVO Summer School II 8

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,

Cyberinfrastructure)– Security: authentication and authorization– Testing and system integration, multi-platform

support

14 Sept 2005NVO Summer School II 9

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,

Cyberinfrastructure)– Security: authentication and authorization– Testing and system integration, multi-platform

support– Documentation– User support, web site

14 Sept 2005NVO Summer School II 10

The NVO Facility

• Management– Education and public outreach– Community engagement– Grants, fellowship, internship program management– Logging, metrics– Science program definition– VO-enabled research– Task management, reporting, budget planning and

justification– Agency liaison– Oversight and advisory committees– Board of Directors

14 Sept 2005NVO Summer School II 11

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

14 Sept 2005NVO Summer School II 12

The future

• NVO will happen– Unstructured, chaotic, inefficient– Structured, deliberate, effective

• You are now part of the story, part of the path toward success