 Information brought by gravitational waves will be added to those provided by the study of the electromagnetic spectrum (microwaves, radio waves, infrared, the visible spectrum, ultraviolet, X-rays and gamma rays), of cosmic rays and of neutrinos.In order to correlate a gravitational wave detection with visible and localized events in the sky, the LIGO and Virgo collaborations have signed bilateral agreements with many teams operating telescopes to quickly inform (on the timescale of a few days or a few hours) these partners that a potential gravitational wave signal has been observed.These alerts must be sent before knowing whether the signal is real or not, because the source (if it is real) may only remain visible during a short amount of time.