Astronomy education and public outreach (EPO) is one of the important part of the future development of astronomy. During the past few years, as the rapid evolution of Internet and the continuous change of policy, the breeding environment of science EPO keep improving and the number of related projects show a booming trend. EPO is no longer just a matter of to teachers and science educators but also attracted the attention of professional astronomers. Among all activates of astronomy EPO, the data driven astronomy education and public outreach (abbreviated as DAEPO) is special and important. It benefits from the development of Big Data and Internet technology and is full of flexibility and diversity. We will present the history, definition, best practices and prospective development of DAEPO for better understanding this active field.

Astronomy has been at the forefront among scientific disciplines for the sharing of data, and the advent of the World Wide Web has produced a revolution in the way astronomers do science. The recent development of the concept of Virtual Observatory builds on these foundations. This is one of the truly global endeavours of astronomy, aiming at providing astronomers with seamless access to data and tools, including theoretical data. Astronomy on-line resources provide a rare example of a world-wide, discipline-wide knowledge infrastructure, based on internationally agreed interoperability standards.

I will discuss in this article the emerging concept of virtual observatories, the efforts being made in various countries to set up these structures, and the relevance of the concept to astronomy in developing countries.