Workshop Organizing Committee

P. Quinn (ESO, chair), F. Genova (CDS), A. Lawrence (Univ. of Edinburgh), M. Kessler (ESA), W. Voges (MPE), F. Pasian (INAF), K. Kuijken (RuG), E. Solano (LAEFF)

Local Organizing Committee

P. Padovani, M. Dolensky, M. Leoni, A. Micol, M. Peltzer

Purpose

The EURO-VO Project announces a workshop on VO technologies and standards explicitly designed for data centres and large projects to acquire the knowledge and experience necessary to allow them to become “publishers” in the VO. In tutorials and lectures, participants will be instructed in the use of VO analysis tools, libraries and the existing web service infrastructure to build VO compliant services. Participants will be familiarized with new methods of data discovery, data access and data fusion.

Over the past three years, the International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA) has facilitated the definition of many of the new data interoperability standards and technologies necessary for an operational international Virtual Observatory. Through coordinated demonstrations in 2003 and 2004, several of the projects in the IVOA have demonstrated the application of these standards and technologies to realistic astronomical problems. These prototype applications have actually precipitated the first VO-enabled scientific results. Several new technologies, including resource registries, data access layers, workflow, web service middleware and community file stores (MySpace) will be highlighted at the demonstrations in January 2005.

The IVOA roadmap highlights 2005 as an important year of transition along the road to an operational international Virtual Observatory. The work of the VO projects will move from technology and standards definition to technology take-up. Data centres and large projects can now employ the emerging VO standards to publish their data products within the VO. Through the uptake of VO standards and technologies and the creation of registries of resources and holdings, a network of VO-compliant data centres and projects will evolve that will constitute the international VO.

Who Should Attend

The workshop is valuable for those software engineers and designers building archive interfaces or writing applications accessing remote Astronomy data. It is also of interest to system architects designing archive facilities and data flows for future instruments and missions.

Attendance to the workshop will be limited to no more than 80 participants and applications are invited from data centre and large-scale project staff from Europe and internationally. Limited travel support will be available.

Expected Background

Participants should have a working knowledge of XML and a high-level programming language. Basic experience with data discovery in Astronomy and familiarity with any DBMS and SQL at the level of a casual user are helpful.

Deadline for Registration

The application deadline is 1 April 2005: registration is now closed.

Workshop Fees and Payment

There will be a €150 fee for this Workshop. Among things covered by this fee are coffee breaks, the Workshop dinner and transport to and from hotels. Payment can be in advance by credit card or at registration in cash only. If you would like to pay in advance using a credit card, please fax the following information to Martine Peltzer on +49 89 3200 6480:

		Name of Participant
		Type of card
		Number of card
		Name on card
		Expiry date
		Billing Address

Any queries should be sent to dmdsec@eso.org