ASCOM - Advocacy

Advocating ASCOM ¹

Despite the fact that the driver/client architecture has been the norm for interfacing devices with computers for over 30 years, the astronomical software community has not adopted this model. As a result, innovation has been stifled and astronomers' choices in software and instruments have been limited. ASCOM has changed all of that. You can help continue ASCOM's success by advocating it when it's appropriate.

The main points to hit are:

Vendor-independent: Any astronomy instrument/device maker or astronomy software developer can participate and use the drivers.
Language-Independent: Any language on Windows can use an ASCOM driver.
Free of Charge: No royalties for use of ASCOM tools and drivers.
Drivers have been used for all computer peripherals for 20+ years. ASCOM brings drivers to astronomy software. Use printers and software that prints as a useful analogy. See this diagram.

Here are some things you can do:

Share your personal experiences (good and bad) with ASCOM. Everyone knows that software has bugs and limitations and if we only have glowing comments about ASCOM, we aren't being honest.
If someone has a problem that ASCOM components may be able to solve, offer to provide pointers to appropriate information (Web pages, magazine articles, developers, ...). If you haven't actually used the proposed solution, say so.
Participate in star parties and conferences. While your first priority must be to contribute to the success of the event, use the opportunity to let others know what ASCOM can do for them. If you are available for making presentations about ASCOM, let the organizers know this, and offer to speak.
Talk about ASCOM with hardware vendors. Manufacturers need to know the leverage that an ASCOM driver can bring to their products, as well as the advantages of developing and developing products and drivers together. For so many of them, their customers' experience is from the computer screen and keyboard, and the driver is a key part of that!
Some people still believe that ASCOM is only for programmers and/or computer-heads. Make sure that they are aware of the availability of the wide variety of applications that rest on ASCOM. Be sure to highlight the building block nature of components, drivers, middleware, and applications, but don't befuddle the listener with jargon. One way to explain the concept is to use word processing programs and printers as an analogy. What if each WP program out there had to implement support for all printers? And what happens when a new printer appears? The driver architecture is the primary focus of ASCOM. Tools are the next most important.
Point out that the production of ASCOM-based software takes place in an environment of open collaboration between system architects, programmers, writers, alpha/beta testers and end users which often results in well documented, robust products such as the ASCOM Platform.
On astronomy groups (not just ASCOM-Talk), try to respond to one "newbie" posting that ASCOM might apply to each week. Seek out the tough questions, you may be the only one to respond and you may learn something in the process. However, if you aren't confident that you can respond with the correct answer, find someone that can.
Seek out astronomy software developers and small firms, and offer to make a presentation about ASCOM.
Always consider the viewpoints of the person to whom you are "selling" ASCOM. Support, reliability, interoperability and cost are all factors that a decision-maker must consider. Of the above, cost is often the least important portion of the equation.
Availability of support for the integrated combination of components is often mentioned as a concern when considering the adoption of ASCOM based tools. Most of the authors and companies listed on the Partners Page offer support for some or all components of a typical ASCOM enabled setup. Most ASCOM participants freely assist end-users with problems involving component combinations even when their own bits are not involved. distribution. Of course, some of the best support is found in the ASCOM-Talk Users group, and for developers, the ASCOM Talk Developers group.
Participate! If you have benefited from ASCOM-based applications, please consider assisting the ASCOM software community by:
- submitting detailed bug reports
- writing documentation
- creating artwork
- supplying management skills
- suggesting enhancements
- providing technical support
- contributing software

[1] This paper is a loose adaptation to ASCOM of Advocating Linux, part of Paul L. Rogers' Linux Advocacy mini-HOWTO.

Advocating ASCOM 1

The main points to hit are:

Here are some things you can do:

Advocating ASCOM ¹