Can Astronomy Manage Its Data?

Abstract

Astronomy has a distinguished tradition of using technology to accelerate the quality and effectiveness of science, and data-intensive initiatives such as the Virtual Observatory lead the way amongst other fields of science. However, astronomical data are not uniformly well-managed, and our current freedom to create open-access databases is threatened by those who would like all data to be subject to strict Intellectual Property controls. We, like other fields of science, need to establish and agree on a set of guiding principles for the management of astronomical data.