Phone Meeting 2004-03-23 15:00 UT

Participantes: PrebenGrosbol, PascalBallester, DavidGiaretta, JanneIgnatius, ThijsVanDerHulst, BillCotton, BillPence^?, DickShaw, DougTody

Agenda and minutes

1. General information
   • Status of OPTICON and funding
     • OPTICON is in the process of signing the final contract with EU. It is expected that ~90kEUR will be available for our network over its 3-4 year life time. This would finance 5-6 full face-to-face meetings assuming a cost of ~1kEUR per person per meeting.
   • Possible available man-power
     • As part of the entry of Findland into ESO, an in-kind contribution of software man-power is expected (of the order of 18 man-years over a period of 3 years). Peter Quinn, Head of DMD/ESO, has indicated that he is considering to make some of this man-power available to this project e.g. to make feasibility studies such as prototypes.

1. Format and usage of TWiki
   • Is general structure of TWiki OK?
     • As a start, the TWIki was acceptable. A page on the scope should be added.
   • SomeIdeas on using the TWiki for tracking requirements -- DanielPonz - 18 Mar 2004
     • Although the concept was found interesting, it was feared that it would give too much overhead (e.g. through need for special tools) considering the relative small amount of high-level requirements expected (of the order of 100s). Thus, it was decided to continue with a simple list structure for the time being.

1. What will be the best process to achieve results?
   • Create subgroups - which, how many?
     • After some discussion it was decided to form 5 subgroups on the following items:
       • Detailed scope of network
       • High-level requirements
       • Architecture and framework
       • Standard applications and system libraries
       • Astronomical applications
   • Create mailing list - one or more?
     • A single mailing list should be created.
   • Explicit action list?
     • It seems to be needed to push things. A page should be setup using the TWiki action plig-in.
   • Usage of demos/prototypes?
     • It was felt that demos/prototypes would be useful to show that what we do is not only nice paper work but potentially could be applied to the real world. The exact definition should be done soon, if we want to have anything ready for ADASS 2005. One option would be to demonstrate that one from a single environment could access legacy applications from several existing systems (e.g. AIPS, AIPS++, IRAF, MIDAS, ...).
   • Interaction with a wider community?
     • It was recognized that it would be useful and even necessary to interact with a wider astronomical community i.e. both software and science. The best way and timing should be further discussed.

1. What milestones should we set ourselves?
   • Some kind of presents at ADASS 2004 (e.g. poster)
   • Draft requirements by fall 2004
   • Definition of objectives for first demo (maybe for ADASS 2005)
   • Definition of subsystems or workpackages (winter 2004/2005)
   • Overview of interface specifications needed (spring 2005)
   • First demo/prototype (ADASS 2005)
   • Definition of second demo (fall 2005)

• • • There were no basic objections to the milestones proposed. A final list should be made but it may depend on the discussions on the exact scope of our network.

1. What meetings should we aim for this year and next?
   • First full discussion of requirements, objectives for prototype - fall 2004 ?
   • Consolidation of requirements, definition of interfaces - spring 2005
   • Discussion of demo/prototype, inventory of interface specifications - around ADASS 2005

• • • There we general agreement with this proposal but we have to check options to keep meetings together with other conferences in order to reduce cost.
    • It was unclear if only meetings in Europa could be supported by OPTICON. In some cases, it may be cheaper to arrange the Network meeting together with another major meeting e.g. ADASS. To be checked by PrebenGrosbol.

1. Time for next phone meeting
   • Suggestion: 2004-04-20 14:30 UT - earlier/later?
     • The tentative date was agreed on. Anybody who has problems with this time should e-mail PrebenGrosbol at least on week before the meeting. We will reschedule if more than half have problems.

1. Any other business
   • PrebenGrosbol is not available until after Easter. Thus, many of the changes and additions to the TWiki will first be made after.

-- PrebenGrosbol - 24 Mar 2004
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