Group: SKUA

SKUA is a JISC-funded project (Jan'08-Jun'09) which intends the creation of a semantic infrastructure for astronomy based on the organisation of assertion services with relatively simple interfaces. As a testbed for these services, we propose a social application called Spacebook in which individuals will be able to create and share queries, workflows and assertions about VO resources, in addition to supporting a professional/social network. We are currently assessing the use of myExperiment as the basis for Spacebook.

From initial explanation email to Dave & Carol:

The project ‘home’ page is at http://myskua.org but we also have the project set up on GoogleCode at http://code.google.com/p/skua/ which has a wiki (sort of), a repository, and issue tracker. We've also got a couple of mailing lists: one for announcements (http://groups.google.com/group/skua-announce?hl=en) and one for general discussions (http://groups.google.com/group/skua-discuss?hl=en).

The initial proposal to JISC is downloadable from above and at http://www.myskua.org/case-public.pdf. The part that I was interested in MyExperiment for was the testbed application of ‘Spacebook’, a Facebook-like social application for astronomers as individuals and as members of projects, ad hoc groups, departments and institutes. The proposal includes a description of how such an app might work. I started prototyping this on Ning (http://skuaspacebook.ning.com/) but would be interested in seeing if MyExperiment could fulfil the platform role instead of Ning, especially if it already includes the ability to create the above groupings.