<div dir="ltr"><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div>Dear WFC members,<br><br>I trust you are still aware that WFC stands for WGAS FITS Committee,<br>
i.e., the North American regional FITS committee.<br><br></div>Lucio Chiappetti sent a message around to the IAU FITS Working Group<br></div>with some issues on which it would be good to hear the opinion of regional<br></div>
committee members.<br><br></div>The most basic question is whether the regional committees still fulfill a<br></div>useful function. Around the time we were founded the world of FITS looked<br></div>different: the global communication environment was dramatically different<br>
</div>and three distinct FITS communities could easily be identified: North America,<br></div>Europe, and Japan (though much smaller than the other two).<br><br></div>Today we live in a different world as far as electronic communication is<br>
concerned, communities are more defined by research interest than by<br></div>geographic location, and, not withstanding the addition of Australia, large<br>parts of the world are not represented, most notably India, China, Africa,<br>
</div>and South America.<br><br>Basically, there are five options:<br></div>- Leave things the way they are<br></div>- Add more regional committees<br></div>- Redraw the boundaries of the regional committees<br></div>- Change the regional committees into, e.g., wavelength/frequency/energy<br>
</div> defined committees<br></div>- Abolish the regional committees<br><br></div>Before you run off and jot down you opinions on this matter (and I would very<br>much like to hear them), you may want to take into account that:<br>
</div>a. there are discussions ongoing on the question whether the IAU FWG should<br></div> cover more file format standards than just FITS (HDF5, NDF, ...?)<br></div>b. the next (and possibly last) major component of the standard, the Time WCS,<br>
</div> might conceivably come before us during this calendar year (yes, really);<br></div> if we were to abolish the regional committees, the completion of that standard<br></div> might be considered a natural breakpoint in FITS history.<br>
<br></div>Enough said - let the comments fly.<br><br></div><div>Ah, no, there is one other thing: a number of IAU FWG members are stepping<br></div><div>down. If you have any comments or suggestions on IAU FWG membership, throw<br>
</div><div>that in the mix as well.<br></div><div><br>Cheers,<br><br></div> - Arnold<br clear="all"><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div>
<div><div><div><br><br><div dir="ltr">-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>Arnold H. Rots Chandra X-ray Science Center<br>
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory tel: <a href="tel:%2B1%20617%20496%207701" value="+16174967701" target="_blank">+1 617 496 7701</a><br>60 Garden Street, MS 67 fax: <a href="tel:%2B1%20617%20495%207356" value="+16174957356" target="_blank">+1 617 495 7356</a><br>
Cambridge, MA 02138 <a href="mailto:arots@cfa.harvard.edu" target="_blank">arots@cfa.harvard.edu</a><br>
USA <a href="http://hea-www.harvard.edu/%7Earots/" target="_blank">http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~arots/</a><br>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
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