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Code Sharing and Collaboration: Experiences from the Scientist's Expert Assistant Project and their Relevance to the Virtual ObservatoryIn the Virtual Observatory (VO), software tools will perform the functions that have traditionally been performed by physical observatories and their instruments. These tools will not be adjuncts to VO functionality but will make up the very core of the VO. Consequently, the tradition of observatory and system independent tools serving a small user base is not valid for the VO. For the VO to succeed, we must improve software collaboration and code sharing between projects and groups. A significant goal of the Scientist's Expert Assistant (SEA) project has been promoting effective collaboration and code sharing between groups. During the past three years, the SEA project has been developing prototypes for new observation planning software tools and strategies. Initially funded by the Next Generation Space Telescope, parts of the SEA code have since been adopted by the Space Telescope Science Institute. SEA has also supplied code for SOFIA, the SIRTF planning tools, and the JSky Open Source Java library. The potential benefits of sharing code are clear. The recipient gains functionality for considerably less cost. The provider gains additional developers working with their code. If enough users groups adopt a set of common code and tools, defacto standards can emerge (as demonstrated by the success of the FITS standard). Code sharing also raises a number of challenges related to the management of the code. In this talk, we will review our experiences with SEA - both successes and failures - and offer some lessons learned that may promote further successes in collaboration and re-use.
Document ID
20010022983
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Preprint (Draft being sent to journal)
Authors
Jones, Jeremy
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD United States)
Grosvenor, Sandy
(Booz-Allen and Hamilton, Inc. United States)
Wolf, Karl
(Commerce One, Inc. United States)
Li, Connie
(Commerce One, Inc. United States)
Koratkar, Anuradha
(Space Telescope Science Inst. United States)
Powers, Edward I.
Date Acquired
August 20, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2001
Subject Category
Astronomy
Meeting Information
Meeting: Astronomical Data Analysis
Location: San Diego, CA
Country: United States
Start Date: July 29, 2001
End Date: August 3, 2001
Sponsors: International Society for Optical Engineering
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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