Standards Process Review

The IVOA aims to be responsive to community feedback: for example, the new Operations Interest Group serves as a focal point for discussions about the implementability and running of IVOA protocols. In recent months, the IVOA standards process has received a number of comments:

• Significant comments on a standard are coming in after the official RFC period has ended
• It is unclear what a reference implementation is, e.g, do they implement all aspects of a standard, or who should be implementing it
• How much of the standard should a validator test and who validates the validator?
• The standards process is too slow to meet community schedules
• Standards need to be better informed by implementation as part of the design process

In response to these, the IVOA Exec has decided to commission a timely review of it. For those attending the Sydney Interop, there will be a plenary session to solicit community feedback on the successes and shortfalls of the existing procedures. For those unable to attend and/or who would prefer to submit written comments, you can:

• attach text to this wiki page below
• email them to Matthew Graham and Francoise Genova if you would prefer to remain anonymous

---

Comments on the standards process