The advent of new and more sensitive surveys providing photometry at many wavelength ranges and covering large sky areas (GALEX, SDSS,2MASS, UKIDSS, AKARI, WISE), is pushing astronomy towards a change ofparadigm where small groups, and not only large consortia, need toanalyze large multi-wavelength data sets as part of their everydaywork. In this context, the Virtual Observatory (VO), as a common frameto exchange not only observational data but also theoretical models,plays a very important role.
In the talk I will provide some further motivation on the need offrameworks as the Virtual Observatory and will describe some of themost commonly used VO-tools including a "life" demo of capabilities ofsome of these tools.
NOTE: This colloquium will be transmited by streaming from Universidad de Chile, Santiago, by means REUNA.cl, please click the following link on your computer to connect with the videoconference: http://vcenter.reuna.cl/videos/livestreams/page1/