Dear IVOA Members;
The IVOA Exec met last week on April 24 2008 via a teleconference. As in the past, I am sending you some highlights from this meeting that will provide some added information about the Exec activities. Other information, including a formal list of Exec actions, can be found in the minutes posted on the IVOA website. (Please note that these minutes are still in draft form.)
Several of the agenda items were simple updates about preparations being made for the full Interop meeting next month in Trieste. There were no new standards or revisions of existing standards put forward for approval at this meeting.
Discussion has been underway for some time about the term of the Chair of the IVOA. The current one year term provides rapid rotation of the leadership among the various IVOA member countries, and this rotation is beneficial because it provides a distributed representation of IVOA leadership. However, now that IVOA is more mature there is a growing need for longer term policies and programs, and it was recognized that a longer term for the Chair would make the oversight of such programs more effective. A doubling of the current term to 2 years would accomplish this, but concern was also expressed that the value of frequent transfer of leadership should not be lost. As a result of these deliberations, a term of 18 months for the IVOA Chair was proposed, and this proposal was accepted by the Exec, to become effective with the term of the next Chair.
It was noted that several (6) Chairs of Working Groups or Interest Groups are due for rotation at the Trieste meeting. I will be sending a separate email to all of you very soon that asks for your opinions on these changes of leadership.
The committee to evaluate the results of the IVOA Assessment has been meeting for several months, and at this meeting the committee report was presented to the Exec for comments and revisions. The report focuses on the role of the IVOA in the era of VO operations, and many of the recommendations describe new initiatives for the IVOA that are relevant to this role. Among these are establishing better communication and information transfer among the various VO projects, improving the processes for adopting new and revised standards, and establishing liaison between the IVOA and various "VO like" projects in other fields. After the inclusion of any revisions, the report will be ready for formal adoption at the May Interop meeting.
The planning for the Trieste meeting is in its final stages, and the fall Interop meeting will be held in Baltimore from 26 October to 31 October 2008. I look forward to seeing you in Trieste.
Best wishes,
Dave De Young
IVOA Chair
Received on 2008-05-02Z02:08:53