From: Roy Williams [roy@caltech.edu]
Sent: 08 January 2005 17:45
To: ivoa@ivoa.net; wgchairs@ivoa.net
Subject: VOEvent WG report

VOEvent Working Group
report for IVOA exec 9 Jan 2005
Roy Williams
----------------------------

(1) Defining semantics of discovery or followup message as "who, when, where, what, 
how" -- analogous to IVOA "Resource and Metadata". Draft is document in place,
http://www.ivoa.net/internal/IVOA/IvoaVOEvent/VOEvent-0.3.htm
Objective is to use schemas as building blocks -- IVOA resource, RTML, etc...

(2) Twiki page is here
http://www.ivoa.net/twiki/bin/view/IVOA/IvoaVOEvent
Mailing list archive is here
http://www.ivoa.net/forum/voevent/
(waiting for links from IVOA front pages)

(3) Working to interoperate existing alert systems
-- IAU Bureau of Telegrams
-- Gamma-ray Burst Coordinate Network (GCN)
-- RTML - Remote Telescope Markup Language
-- Astronomer's Telegram
Question: What other alert systems are out there?

(4) Planning for a 2-day workshop in Pasadena in March or April. All IVOA exec are 
invited. Dates still fluid.

(5) We need an ontology of event types: it would contain for example Comets, Supernovae, 
Novae, Outbursts Of Unusual Variable Stars, Features On Planetary Surfaces. How can we 
make this?

--------
California Institute of Technology
roy@caltech.edu
626 395 3670