LSST Community Brokers Workshop (Invitational)

This is the first announcement of the invitational LSST Community Brokers Workshop.
June 19-21 2019, Sheraton Seattle WA.

Beginning late 2022, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will produce a nightly stream of ten million public alerts that will disseminate new information about transient, variable, and moving objects within 60 seconds of readout. A small number of community brokers will receive the full LSST alert stream, add scientific value, and provide science users the ability to identify targets of interest and trigger follow-up observations. Letters of Intent (LoI) are required from all teams who plan to propose a community alert broker, and are due by May 15 2019. One month later, this technical workshop will bring together LSST Project personnel, representatives of the LSST Science Collaborations, and proposers of community brokers. Attendance will be by invitation only (~50 people maximum). The SOC plans to invite at least one representative from each team that submits an LoI.

Topics of discussion will include:

  • learning from the experiences of precursor surveys
  • scientific use-cases and goals enabled by alert brokers
  • sharing technical experience and organizational information
  • the architecture and technology of LSST-broker interfaces
  • the broker selection process and policy issues

The goal of this workshop is to facilitate the success of community brokers by opening lines of communication with the LSST project. The SOC will write a white paper summarizing the outcomes of this workshop that will serve as a reference for LSST community brokers going forward.

Science Organizing Committee:
Leanne Guy (AURA/LSST)
Eric Bellm (LSST, UW)
Željko Ivezić (LSST, UW)
Federica Bianco (University of Delaware)
Rachel Street (Las Cumbres Observatory)
Joshua Bloom (University of California, Berkeley)
Robert Blum (AURA/LSST)
Melissa Graham (LSST, UW)

Links:
Conference website: https://project.lsst.org/meetings/cbw
Call for Letters of Intent for Community Brokers: https://ldm-682.lsst.io
Document “Plans and Policies for LSST Alert Distribution”: https://ldm-612.lsst.io
Sheraton Seattle: https://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/seasi-sheraton-grand-seattle