DM-Community Communications

The original  DM-community communications framework is described in the LSST 2017 presentation to the SAC (also presentation-546). As of 2023, Community communications has been handed over to the Operations System Performance Community Science Team

Overview

After decades of R&D and years of construction, the LSST almost here, with much of the design frozen at this point (telescope, camera, filters, etc.). Two elements where some flexibility remains is deployment (cadence), and data management (flavors and details of data products and services). We (the DM SST) concern ourselves with the latter of these two; the former is the responsibility of the LSST Project Scientist.

As the data management (DM) system is built, the community needs to be kept informed of what data products and services to expect from LSST once it becomes operational. There are also elements in the DM system where some flexibility in implementation remains (e.g., some algorithmic choices, the look and feel of some DM services, etc.); the community should be consulted and can help in making better choices in such cases. To make this two-way communication happen, LSST DM have designated Points of Contacts to the LSST Science Collaborations, utilizing the Collaborations as an organized proxy for the overall (and large) LSST community. These contacts allow us to develop designs, make choices, and propose these to formal bodies within the project (DMCCB, CCB, SAC, etc.).

Points of Contact

Every SC has a member of the DM SST designated as their liaison ("Point of Contact"). Their list is in the table below.

These PoCs work with the SC chairs to ensure good two-way communication between the collaboration and LSST DM. For example, if LSST DM has questions on the suitability of certain design or decision, the PoCs can ask the SC chair for advice from the collaboration. Conversely, if the collaboration members have a question on LSST data products, they can ask the PoC (preferably in some organized way through their collaboration Chair).

DM PoCs are meant to be generally “plugged in” to collaboration work and plans, so they can identify and advise both the Project and the SCs on potential issues. Their science interests are generally aligned with the collaboration's, with them being an active member of the collaboration. They will be on collaboration mailing lists, and attend collaboration telecons and in-person meetings (as much as possible, given resource constraints). 

Website and community.lsst.org

We will open an area on community.lsst.org for questions/discussions about LSST data products and science. This will be a good place to ask questions that don't easily fit into any single science collaboration or are broad or cross-cutting. Melissa Graham will serve as the editor of that area, forwarding the questions to DM SST members as needed.

We would like to establish and maintain the "science oriented" LSST website; the LSST Communicatons Team will maintain it, with input from the SST (see  COMT-24 - Getting issue details... STATUS ).

Rollout

• Mario Juric will e-mail the SC Chairs mailing list (and their Coordinator (position curretnly empty, after Lucianne Walkowicz stepped down)), that we're putting this into effect.
• All PoCs should introduce themselves to the chairs, explain you're the PoC(s) for any questions the members may have about DM (just a short e-mail; CC Mario Juric)
  • Propose to begin with a presentation on DM status/plans (as relevant for any given collaboration) on one of their telecons
• Have yourselves added to Collaboration mailing lists, Slack channel, relevant area on c.l.o
  • Monitor these (but do ask the Chairs to help bring your attention to questions where your response is truly needed).
• Begin attending your SC's telecons

Issues to be resolved

• Understand a good way to handle cross-cutting issues (such as the Portal or Notebooks).
  
  • See Melissa Graham's proposal on using community.lsst.org (mailing list, dm-sst #174 and its origin #168)