Quick input from the sidelines if I may. As an astronomer pushing VO potential and VO enabled clients to fellow astronomers in the UK and the wider EuroVO community we seem to be reaching a bit of a tipping point of interest and potential use. This is based on workshops and general interest at UK and EuroVO events in the last 2-3 years I have been involved with. The single thing such users are currently most impressed with seems to be the ability to discover, access and pass multi mission data between established and new VO enabled data analysis tools via plastic. People see this as the obvious first step on the road to wider VO use in astronomy whie recognising it is a first step (from their point of view).
I therefore propose that we have to be as pragmatic as possible at this point if we are to successfully persuade astronomers to become involved with using the VO. Yes I don't doubt that there will be limitations for some messaging uses but astronomers are more than used to the many more limitations in accessing and interoperating between multiple archive datasets at present. They will accept, I think, that having an initial protocol such as plastic that works now (within limits of course) in many cases is better than waiting for a wider protocol down the line. I am not persuaded from the arguments to date that the one cannot be incorporated into a more general approach as needed in time?
Cheers,
Jonathan
Dr Jonathan Tedds, Tel: +44 (0)116 252 3502XMM-Newton Survey Science, AstroGrid &
University of Leicester, Email: jat-at-star.le.ac.uk Leicester LE1 7RH, UK http://xmmssc-www.star.le.ac.uk/~jatReceived on 2007-04-16Z19:16:10
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