e-inf-astro

The common interest and common background is the creation or further development of interoperable data services in astronomy, the creation of tools for their use, and the support of the various user communities, both on the publishing and on the consuming side.

"Interoperable" in this context means that, thanks to internationally agreed or currently developed standards, the various components of a data infrastructure in astronomy fit together in such a way that they can be combined with minimal effort to create powerful science workflows, depending on the task at hand. Users thus have a flexible construction kit of services, instruments, client programs, libraries and their own files, in which one part fits to the other.

Essential here is in particular the active participation in the work of IVOA (International Virtual Observatory Alliance), which coordinates the international activities in this field and develops a large part of the interoperability standards used in astronomy; the German IVOA partner organization is GAVO.