Building a worldwide interoperable data infrastructure for astronomy: the International Virtual Observatory Alliance SciDataCon 2016, Denver, 13/Sept/2016 Christophe Arviset Chair of the IVOA Executive Committee

IVOA : Data Sharing, Science Drivers What is your discipline culture with regard to data sharing ? Open data policy, after proprietary period (6-12 months) Open source software policy Overall very collaborative culture, astronomy science has no border ! Many projects have large international collaboration What are the science drivers for building your discipline interoperability infrastructure ? Multi wavelength science, combining datasets from multiple sources Time variability of objects Data discovery and data access tools Data analysis and visualization tools CSP – Committee on Science Priorities, defines priority science cases to be supported by the VO framework

IVOA : Organization How is your discipline organized to build interoperability infrastructure ? Created in 2002, 20 projects today worldwide No formal IVOA funding, nationally funded projects Executive Committee, 1 representative from each project, rotating chair renewed every 1.5 years, 3-4 meeting/telecon per year Committee of Science Priority with senior Scientists, setting science use cases for interoperability Technical Coordination Group with 6 (open) WG, defining interoperability standards, ~W3C process 6 (open) IG discussing experiences with VO tech, give inputs to WG IVOA Architecture, evolving but stable since 2012 2 face to face meetings per year (~80-120 people), organized by one project Collaboration tools (wiki, mailing lists, web pages, …)

IVOA : Lessons Learned and Re-use What are the lessons learned from building your discipline interoperability infrastructure ? Infrastructure needs to be driven by Science, and supported by applications Collaboration amongst projects is difficult and time consuming but compulsory Engagement and take-up from data centres and big projects is key Which part of your discipline interoperability infrastructure could be made generic for other disciplines ? Some IVOA standards specific to astronomy (eg DataModels) Other IVOA standards more generic and re-usable (TAP Table Access Protocol, SAMP – Apps messaging interoperability, VOSpace (“dropbox for VO”), Registry of VO resources, …) Strong re-use from neighbouring disciplines (Planetary Science, Astroparticles, Atomic and Molecular Data, …)