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Foster Expires April 30 1994
A Status Report
on
Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups
Draft version 5.0
29th October 1993
Produced by the Joint IETF/RARE/CNI
Networked Information Retrieval - Working Group (NIR-WG)
Editors:
Jill Foster (RARE and NISP/Mailbase) Jill.Foster@newcastle.ac.uk
George Brett (CNIDR and CNI) ghb@concert.net
Peter Deutsch (BUNYIP) peterd@bunyip.com
The following Text is required by the Internet-draft rules:
This document is an Internet Draft. Internet Drafts are working
documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its Areas,
and its Working Groups. Note that other groups may also distribute
working documents as Internet Drafts.
Internet Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six
months. Internet Drafts may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted
by other documents at any time. It is not appropriate to use
Internet Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than
as a "working draft" or "work in progress."
Please check the I-D abstract listing contained in each Internet
Draft directory to learn the current status of this or any
other Internet Draft.
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this report is to increase the awareness of Networked
Information Retrieval by bringing together in one place information
about the various networked information retrieval tools, their
developers, interested organisations, and other activities that relate
to the production, dissemination, and support of NIR tools. NIR Tools
covered include Archie, WAIS, gopher and World Wide Web.
CONTENTS
1. Introduction.
2. How the information was collected.
3. What is covered?
4. Updating information.
5. Overview of the types of NIR Tool.
6. NIR Tools.
7. NIR Groups.
8. Appendix A: NIR Tool Template.
9. Appendix B: NIR Group Template.
10. Appendix C: Email Lists and Newsgroups.
11. Appendix D: Coming Attractions.
12. Appendix E: Extinct Critters (Tools).
13. Appendix F: Extinct Critters (Groups).
1. Introduction
As the network has grown, along with it there has been an increase in
the number of software tools and applications to navigate the network
and make use of the many, varied resources which are part of the
network. Within the past two and a half years we have seen a
widespread adoption of tools such as the archie servers, the Wide Area
Information Servers (WAIS), the Internet gopher, and the Worldwide Web
(WWW). In addition to the acceptance of these tools there are also
diverse efforts to enhance and customise these tools to meet the needs
of particular network communities.
There are many organisations and associations that are focusing on the
proliferating resources and tools for networked information retrieval
(NIR). The Networked Information Retrieval Group is a cooperative
effort of three major players in the field of NIR: The Internet
Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Association of European Research
Networks (RARE), and the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI)
specifically tasked to collect and disseminate information about the
tools and to discuss and encourage cooperative development of current
and future tools.
The purpose of this report is to increase the awareness of NIR by
bringing together in one place information about the various networked
information retrieval tools, their developers, interested
organisations, and other activities that relate to the production,
dissemination, and support of NIR tools. The intention is to make
this a "living document". It will be held on-line so that each
section may be updated separately as appropriate. In addition, it is
intended that the full document will be updated once a year so that it
provides a "snapshot" report on activities in this area.
Whilst the NIR tools in this report are being used on a wide variety
of information sources including files and databases there remains
much that is currently not accessible by these means. On the other
hand, the majority of the NIR Tools described here are freely
available to the networked Research and Education community. Tools
for accessing specialised datasets are often only available at a cost.
It should be noted that in many ways networked information retrieval
is in its infancy compared with traditional information retrieval
systems. Thesaurus construction, boolean searching and classification
control are issues which are under discussion for the popular NIR
Tools but as yet are not in widespread use. However it should be said
that, with the vast amount of effort that is currently going into the
NIR field, rapid progress is being made. Much work is currently being
done on expanding some of the NIR tools to include handling of
multimedia information services. Progress has also been made in the
discussions on classifying and cataloguing electronic information
resources.
2. How the information was collected
The information contained in this report was collected over the
network from the contacts for each NIR Tool or Group using two
templates:
- the NIR Tool Template, included in Appendix A;
- the NIR Group Template, included in Appendix B.
The contents of these templates were discussed by the NIR WG in Boston
(July, 1992) and subsequently on the email list. (See the Section on
the NIR-WG for details of how to join this mailing list). The initial
draft report was discussed at the NIR Working Group in Washington
(November, 1992) and updated and added to at subsequent WG meetings.
The NIR Tool template was used to collect the information necessary to
identify and track the development of networked information retrieval
tools. This template asked for information such as how and where to
get the software for each NIR Tool, documentation, demonstration
sites, etc. The main part of the template has been completed by the
main individual responsible for the tool. Sections of the template
(e.g. on clients) may have required completion by others.
The NIR Group template requested information on the aim and purpose of
the group, the current tasks being undertaken, mailing lists, document
archives, etc.
3. What is covered?
In the current report you will find information on the following NIR
tools:
Alex
archie
gopher
Hytelnet
Netfind
Prospero
Veronica
WAIS (including freeWAIS)
WHOIS
World Wide Web (including MOSAIC)
X.500 White Pages
Appendix D covers "Forthcoming Attractions":
Hyper-G
Soft Pages
WHOIS++
and the following NIR Groups:
CNI Coalition for Networked Information (CNI)
Architectures and Standards
Directories and Resource Information Services
TopNode for Networked Information Resources, Services,
and Tools
CNIDR Clearinghouse for Networked Information Discovery
and Retrieval
IETF Integrated Directory Services (IDS)
Integration of Internet Information Resources (IIIR)
Networked Information Retrieval (NIR) joint IETF/RARE WG
Network Information Services Infrastructure (NISI)
OSI-Directory Service (OSI-DS)
Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI)
Whois and Network Information Lookup Service (WNILS)
IRTF Internet Research Task Force Research Group on
Resource Discovery and Directory Service (IRTF-RD)
NISO Z39.50 Implementors Group
RARE Information Services and User Support Working Group
(ISUS)
USMARC/OCLC USMARC Advisory Group; OCLC Internet Resources
Cataloging Experiment (USMARC/OCLC)
Appendix C contains a list of the relevant email lists and Appendix D
contains information on "Coming Attractions" which are NIR tools not
yet in widespread use.
4. Updating Information
Updates on, and additions to the information contained in this report
are welcomed by the editors. CNIDR have agreed to host the report and
to accept updates to individual templates from the template
maintainers. Send updates using the appropriate template (from
Appendix A or Appendix B of this report) to:
nir-updates@cnidr.org
The current templates and this report may be retrieved from the UK
Mailbase Server:
[Editor's note: to be replaced by an address at CNIDR]
Via anonymous ftp to:
mailbase.ac.uk
(use your email address as the password)
file: /pub/lists/nir/files/tool.template
file: /pub/lists/nir/files/group.template
file: /pub/lists/nir/files/nir.status.report
or via gopher to mailbase.ac.uk
or via email:
Mail to: mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk
Text of the message:
send nir tool.template
send nir group.template
send nir nir.status.report
5. Overview of the types of NIR Tool
The following is an overview of the major NIR tools available on the
Internet. There are now many books which cover the Internet and the
NIR Tools in more detail. Such books include "The Whole Internet
User's Guide and Catalog" by Ed Krol and published by O'Reilly and
Associates, Inc and "The Internet Guide for New Users" by Daniel Dearn
and published by Meckler [Editor: or McGraw Hill or both?]
The number of these NIR tools is large, and growing fast but despite
first appearances, there _is_ order in the seeming chaos. Certain
techniques reappear regularly and many seemingly different tools
perform similar tasks. Given this, it is possible to offer a
relatively simple classification of projects that will encompass most
of the existing tools and services.
Bear in mind that the classification presented here is only one
possible such ordering. Further, despite anything someone may write,
a user may choose to use a particular tool for any task they wish. The
goal is not to define what can be done with a particular tool, but to
help explain how each tool might fit into a user's own particular
Internet toolbox.
Each type of service is now examined in turn (in brackets are the
names of specific tools that belong within this classification):
Interactive Information Delivery Services (Gopher, World Wide Web)
------------------------------------------------------------------
Whilst basic internet services such as email and anonymous FTP can be
used to share information across the Internet, neither system allows
simple browsing and neither is particularly easy for the new-comer to
learn. Gopher and the World Wide Web (or W3) are two recent
development projects that take aim at the problem of making it easier
to distribute information in an Internet environment. Both allow the
user to browse information across the net without the necessity of
logging in or knowing in advance where to look for information.
The Gopher system offers the information to be served as a simple
hierarchical system of menus and files. Although gateways to
additional services are also provided, this is usually done
transparently to the user. Operators of the Gopher system can easily
offer a hierarchical directory of information across the Internet and
the information served can be accessed using a wide variety of public
domain or freely available client programs.
The Gopher project was first developed at the University of Minnesota
and began life as a simple tool for offering user support information
to their user community. It has now developed into a powerful
distributed system for offering information across the net and finds
widespread user as a Campus-Wide information system (CWIS).
The simplicity of the underlying Gopher protocol makes creating new
Gopher clients a relatively simple task and a great deal of work has
been done in this area. Gopher clients are available for virtually
all of the major operating systems in use on the Internet.
Where Gopher allows the user to browse menus and select individual
documents for browsing, the World Wide Web project allows the use of
hypertext links from one document to another to allow the user to
follow links from within one document to another. The W3 project also
allows the user to annotate documents (again using hypertext links)
and allows the user to see the entire collection of information
available within the system as a single large mesh of information,
freely available for browsing, searching and access.
Both projects offer gateways to additional collections of information
and a range of free clients for many environments.
Directory Services: (WHOIS, X.500)
-----------------------------------
Directory Service tools are intended to provide a lookup service for
locating information about users, services or service providers. The
general topic of Directory Services is often divided into more
specific White Pages and Yellow Pages services. For the purposes of
this document, we say that a White Pages service provides information
about individual users, while a Yellow Pages service provides
corresponding information about services and service providers.
As an example, a White Pages service might be used to locate the email
address of a someone, given their name and organization, while a
Yellow Pages service could be used to locate a particular online
library catalogue or a particular file archive site.
There are now several different types of Directory services under
development on the Internet. One of the first such services deployed
was the WHOIS service, a bare-bones user directory originally created
to track key network contacts for the early DARPA Internet. The WHOIS
service is basically a very simple White Pages service.
A number of sites now operate WHOIS servers, with a range of
extensions and enhancements to the basic WHOIS model. WHOIS enjoys
the advantage that is it a simple, no-frills service, and the software
to contact a WHOIS server is available on a large majority of
Internet-connected hosts. Work in now underway on what is known as
the "WHOIS++" project to standardize a set of simple extensions to the
WHOIS service to increase its functionality and ease of use.
The X.500 Directory Service is a much more ambitious Directory project
that has been under development for a number of years. Pilot
implementations are now available from a number of sites and
commercial versions are also available. Proponents have suggested
that X.500 could also be used to provide a Yellow Pages service,
although the pilot projects have concentrated on White Pages
functionality.
Despite years of research and work, there are still no single
Directory Service for the entire net. The biggest obstacle to such a
service would appear to be the huge cost of setting up and maintaining
the required databases which in turn leads to a classic "chicken and
egg" syndrome. Lacking a large installed information base, few users
demand suitable tools for accessing the service. Lacking a large user
base, few sites invest the time and energy bring up or maintain their
databases.
There are now over 100 sites operating their own WHOIS directories,
and several hundred that have participated in the prototy2pe X.500
research. Most of this combined effort has concentrated on White
Pages services. It is to be hoped that as the range of other services
grows, the demand for a functional Yellow Pages service will be the
catalyst the finally pushes Directory Services forward.
Indexing Services (archie, WAIS, online library catalogues)
-----------------------------------------------------------
There are now several Internet-based projects that aim to build up
indexed catalogues of information for rapid searching and retrieval of
information. The first such services aimed at providing network
access to library card catalogues, with more recent projects offering
technology to gather, index or catalogue other types of information.
archie:
The archie service began as a simple project to catalogue the contents
of hundreds of online file archives. The archie service gathers
together the location information, name and other details for files
and indexes them in a dedicated database. Users can then contact an
archie server and search this database for needed files.
The follow-on to the initial archie service is now a commercially
supported product of Bunyip Information Systems Inc. of Montreal and
has been designed to gather and serve other useful collections of
information. The latest version is being used to provide a prototype
Yellow Pages service and directories of online library catalogues and
email mailing lists. Work continues on extending the archie service
to provide additional collections of information.
The archie service is accessible through a range of access methods,
including telnet, stand-alone client programs that run on your own
machine, or via email. The prototype archie service now tracks over
2,100,000 filenames on over 1,200 sites around the world. There are
currently about a dozen archie servers around the world, with more on
the way.
WAIS:
The Wide Area Information Services (WAIS) is a system for indexing and
serving information in an Internet environment that offers a rapid
search capability as well as "relevance feedback". This means that
the results of one search may be used to successively refine future
searches, thus making it easier to find what you are looking for.
WAIS clients allow the user to specify searches as simple
English-language queries, without any complicated logical expressions
or command syntax.
The heart of the WAIS system is a set of WAIS servers that allow the
operator to set up an index of each document (or resource) to be
published onto the Internet. Such indices allow the server to rapidly
locate keywords during searches. The matches found are ranked
according to perceived relevance and an indicator returned to the
user, who may choose to then view the document or further refine the
search.
There are currently several hundred WAIS sources being served on the
Internet. Public domain source code for WAIS servers and clients is
for anonymous FTP from the machine "quake.think.com", along with a
master directory of the sources currently available through WAIS.
WAIS Inc and FreeWAIS:
[Editor's note: section to be inserted by CNIDR]
Online library catalogues:
A large number of libraries make their computerized library catalogues
available over the Internet. Most are available through telnet
sessions (that is, you telnet to a specific address and login as a
particular user). Some are also available through other tools, such
as Gopher.
6. NIR Tools
This section contains detailed information about the various NIR
Tools. It is ordered alphabetically.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
ALEX
Date template updated or checked: 2nd July, 1993
By: Name: Vincent Cate
Email address: vac@cs.cmu.edu
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
NIR Tool Name: Alex
Brief Description of Tool:
OVERVIEW:
The Alex filesystem provides users and applications transparent read
access to files in anonymous FTP sites on the Internet. Today there
are thousands of anonymous FTP sites with a total of a few millions of
files and roughly a terabyte of data. The standard approach to
accessing these files involves logging in to the remote machine. This
means that an application can not access remote files like local
files. This also means that users do not have any of their aliases or
local tools available. Users who want to use an application on a
remote file first have to manually make a local copy of the file.
There is no mechanism for automatically updating this local copy when
the remote file changes. The users must keep track of where they get
their files from and check to see if there are updates, and then fetch
these. In this approach many different users at the same site may
have made copies of the same remote file each using up disk space for
the same data.
Alex addresses the problems with the existing approach while remaining
within the existing FTP protocol so that the large collection of
currently available files can be used. To get reasonable performance
long term file caching is used. Thus consistency is an issue.
Traditional solutions to the cache consistency problem do not work in
the Internet FTP domain: callbacks are not an option as the FTP
protocol has no provisions for this and polling over the Internet is
slow. Therefore, Alex relaxes file cache consistency semantics, on a
per file basis, and uses special caching algorithms that take into
account the properties of the files and of the network to allow a
simple stateless filesystem to scale to the size of the Internet.
USER'S VIEW:
To a user or application, Alex is just a normal filesystem. Any
command that works on local files will work on Alex files. Since Alex
is a real filesystem, nothing needs to be recompiled and no libraries
are changed. Thus, users can apply all of their existing skills and
tools for using files.
The user sees a filesystem with a hierarchical name space. At the top
level (/alex) there are top-level Internet domains like "edu", "com",
"uk", and "jp". Each component of the hostname becomes a directory
name. Then the remote path is added at the end. If the user does a
"ls /alex/edu/berkeley" he sees some machine names such as "ucbvax"
and "sprite" and some directories on berkeley.edu. From the "ls" it
is not clear what is where. The user may or may not be aware of host
boundaries.
INFORMATION PROVIDER'S VIEW:
Alex is implemented as a user level NFS server. NFS was chosen
because it makes it easy to add Alex to a wide range of machines.
Most machines can simply use the mount command.
The model of usage is that there is one Alex server running at each
institution (though this is not required in any way). Users mount the
local server which caches files for users at that site.
Any information put into any anonymous FTP site becomes available via
Alex.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Contact(s):
Name: Vincent Cate
Email address: vac@cs.cmu.edu
Postal Address: School of Computer Science
5000 Forbes Ave.
Pittsburgh PA, 15213
Telephone: (412) 268-3077
Fax: (412) 681-1998
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Help Line:
At this time Alex is a one person project (Vince).
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Related Working Groups:
Maybe the FTP working group.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sponsoring Organization / Funding source:
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Information Science and
Technology Office, under the title "Research on Parallel Computing,"
ARPA Order No. 7330. Work furnished in connection with this research
is provided under prime contract MDA972-90-C-0035 issued by DARPA/CMO
to Carnegie Mellon University. Vincent Cate is supported by an "Intel
foundation graduate fellowship".
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists
Address: alex-users@cs.cmu.edu
Administration: alex-users-request@cs.cmu.edu
Address: alex-servers@cs.cmu.edu
Administration: alex-servers-request@cs.cmu.edu
Description:
alex-servers is for people setting up an Alex fileserver.
alex-users is for people who just want to use Alex.
Archive:
alex.sp.cs.cmu.edu (128.2.209.13)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
News groups:
none
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Protocols:
What is supported: Any machine that can NFS mount a fileserver.
What it runs over: Unix machine and FTP
Other NIR tools this interworks with:
Uses FTP sites.
WAIS can be used to index files in Alex
(this was done for ftpable-readmes and cs-techreports WAIS servers)
New versions of archie can output Alex paths.
Future plans: Graduate from CMU.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Servers:
Date completed or updated: 3/19/93
By: Name: Vincent Cate
Platform: UNIX
Primary Contact
Name: Vincent Cate
Email address: vac@cs.cmu.edu
Telephone: (412) 268-3077
Server software available from: alex.sp.cs.cmu.edu
Location of more information:
No other place to go to.
Latest version number:
New versions all the time.
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
This software is known to still contain bugs.
Approximate number of such servers in use:
200.
General comments:
Send fixes!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Clients:
You just do an NFS mount of the server. No client software
is needed.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Demonstration sites :
Site name: alex.sp.cs.cmu.edu
Access details:
mkdir /alex
mount -o timeo=30,retrans=300,soft,intr alex.sp.cs.cmu.edu:/ /alex
Example use:
ln -s /alex/edu/cs/cmu/sp/alex/links alexlinks
cd alexlinks
ls
cd cs-tr
cd ls
cd purdue
ls
lpr TR758.PS
If you like Alex and want to use it regularly please find, or set up,
an Alex fileserver at/near your site.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Documentation:
Document Title: intro.ps
Location details:
Site: alex.sp.cs.cmu.edu
Full file name: doc/intro.ps
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography:
@InProceedings{cate:alex,
author = "Vincent Cate",
title = "Alex - a Global Filesystem",
booktitle = "Proceedings of the Usenix File Systems Workshop",
year = 1992,
pages = "1--11",
month = may,
place = "Ann Arbor, MI",
keyword = "distributed file system, wide-area file system"
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Information:
FTP to alex.sp.cs.cmu.edu and "cd to doc". Get the "README"
or anything else there. A current version of this document
may be there and called "NIR.Tool". In Alex this file is
named "/alex/edu/cmu/cs/sp/alex/doc/NIR.Tool".
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
ARCHIE
Date template updated or checked: 7 July, 1993
By: Name: Peter Deutsch
Email address: peterd@bunyip.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
NIR Tool Name: archie
Brief Description of Tool:
The archie system is a tool for gathering, indexing and serving
information from around the Internet. The current version serves a
collection of filenames found at anonymous FTP sites, as well as a
smaller collection of text descriptions for software, data and other
information found at anonymous FTP archives. Additional databases are
under development.
User's View:
Users run a client program to connect to an archie server and issue
search commands to find information in an archie database. In the
case of an anonymous FTP filename, this information can then be used
to fetch the file directly from the archive site using the `ftp'
command. To the user, archie could be seen as a `secondary source' of
information which, because of the high cost of locating and serving,
would not otherwise be available.
The user searches the archie databases through either a telnet session
to a machine running an archie server, or by using a stand-alone
client program (which uses the Prospero protocol for sending and
receiving requests). There is also an email interface which allows
users to send and receive search requests via electronic mail.
Freely available archie clients exist for most operating systems and
can be fetched using anonymous FTP from most of the current archie
servers. There are also gateways to the archie system from many other
NIR tools, including Gopher, WAIS and WWW. An X.500 interface to
archie is currently under development.
Information Provider's View:
There are two types of information providers who would be interested
in archie. Primary information providers are interested in having a
summary of the information provided by their service tracked by an
archie server. Secondary service providers, or those sites wishing to
provide a "value-added" service for the Internet can elect to run an
archie server at their site to provide a useful service to users, to
raise the profile of their institution on the Internet, or to provide
market differentiation (for commercial service providers).
The archie system is of particular utility serving information where
there are many sites to be searched and/or where the cost of searching
each site is high.
For example, there are currently over 1,200 anonymous FTP sites on the
Internet, and the number continues to grow. Searching for a specific
filename at a single site may involve scanning hundreds, or even
thousands of filenames. Thus, most operators of anonymous FTP
archives welcome the fact that archie indexes and serves the names of
all files available from each site tracked.
Information Types Supported:
The archie system allows the gathering and serving of arbitrary
information types, although the current system serves only freeform
text and a dedicated text format for filename listings. Internally,
the archie system now supports a WAIS search engine and a Gopher
frontend for accessing archie information through Gopher clients is
now being tested. Additional collections of information to be served
by the archie software will be announced by August, 1993.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Contact(s):
Name: Archie Group, Bunyip Information Systems Inc.
Email address: info@bunyip.com
Postal Address: Bunyip Information Systems Inc.,
310 St-Catherine St. West, suite 202,
Montreal, QC
CANADA H2X 2A1
Telephone: 1 (514) 875-8611
Fax: 1 (514) 875-8134
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Help Line: for archie server system and telnet client
Name: Archie Group, Bunyip Information Systems Inc.
Email address: info@bunyip.com
Telephone: 1 (514) 875-8611
Level of support offered:
o commercial support for server
(primarily for systems maintainers)
o voluntary helpdesk support for freeware clients
o volunteer helpdesk support for Internet information
gathering tools in general
Hours available: - server system:
email: 24 hour support
phone support: 9-5 EST
- helpdesk consultation: as time permits
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Related Working Groups:
Prospero, WAIS, WWW, Gopher.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sponsoring Organisation / Funding source:
Bunyip Information Systems Inc.
Funded by licensing of archie software and development
contracts from sponsors. Additional information services
based upon this software are now being tested. Donations to
help fund the public helpdesk and operation of free servers
gratefully accepted.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists:
Address: archie-people@bunyip.com
Administration: archie-people-request@bunyip.com
Description:
This mailing list is for people interested in the archie project and
its future developments. Announcments of upgrades, new services, etc
are made to this list.
Archive: none
-------------------
Address: archie-maint@bunyip.com
Administration: archie-maint-request@bunyip.com
Description:
This mailing list is for people who operate and maintain archie
servers. Announcments of bug fixes, new releases and discussion of
new features are carried out on this list.
Archive:
"archives.cc.mcgill.ca:/pub/mailing-lists/archie-maint"
-------------------
Address: iafa@bunyip.com
Administration: iafa-request@bunyip.com
Description:
This mailing list is for people who are involved in the Internet
Anonymous FTP Archives Working Group of the IETF. This group was
involved in standardizing the encoding of information at anonymous FTP
archives and thus is of interest to operators and users of the archie
system. It came to completion in November, 1992 and produced two
documents which have been presented to the IETF as informational RFCs.
Archive: "archives.cc.mcgill.ca:/pub/mailing-lists/iafa"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
News groups:
Name: comp.archives.admin
Description:
This newsgroup is for operators and maintainers of Internet archives.
Announcements and discussions of issues related to archie are
presented here, as well as discussions of more general issues relating
to archiving and Internet services.
Archive: not known
-------------------
Name: alt.internet.services
Description:
This newsgroup is for people interested in Internet-related services,
with a focus at the user level. Announcements and discussions of
issues related to archie are presented here, as well as discussions of
more general issues relating to Internet services.
Archive: not known
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Protocols:
What is supported:
The current archie system clients use the Prospero protocol for
communication with the search engine on the archie server. Freely
available clients are available which include source to perform this
communication for those wishing to implement additional clients.
The archie server is capable of building arbitrary databases, using
arbitrary search and access engines and the current release ships with
the public domain implementation of WAIS. We expect future archie
servers to serve information using this protocol. The current server
system assumes the TCP/IP protocol suite is available, and in
particular the ftp protocol for data gathering.
The archie system can be accessed through systems operating the
Gopher, WAIS and WWW (HDDL) protocols. A gateway from the X.500
system is under development.
What it runs over:
The Prospero protocol implementation runs over its own implementation
of a reliable datagram protocol based upon UDP. Data gathering runs
over the TCP/IP protocol suite.
Other NIR tools this interworks with:
Prospero, Gopher, WAIS, WWW.
Future plans:
The archie system became a commercial product in October, 1992,
marketed by Bunyip Information Systems Inc. The company plans to
market additional data gathering modules to allow the server code to
build additional types of databases. Work is also underway to
integrate extensions to WHOIS to allow the building and maintaining
White Pages (names) directories. The company is also working on other
Internet information tools that will work with the archie system.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Servers:
Date completed or updated: 7 July, 1993
By: Name: Peter Deutsch
Email address: peterd@bunyip.com
Platform: Sun SPARC running SunOS 4.1 or later.
IBM RS6000 running AIX version 3.2 or later.
for additional UNIX platforms, contact
Bunyip Information Systems details.
Primary Contact:
Name: Alan Emtage
Email address: bajan@bunyip.com
Telephone: 1 (514) 398-8611
Server software available from:
Bunyip Information Systems Inc.
email: info@bunyip.com
Location of more information:
Additional information on the archie product line is available from the
anonymous ftp archives on the various archie server sites. Try
"archie.ans.net", "archie.sura.net", "archie.au", etc.
Latest version number: archie 3.1
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
This is the commercial inmplementation of the archie system,
replacing a version done as a Masters project at McGill University
during the period 1990-1992. It comes with an archie telnet client
that offers a number of minor improvements over earlier versions.
Additional releases, with a number of additional improvements, are
planned in the coming months.
Approximate number of such servers in use:
Currently about 27 (not all are publicly available)
General comments:
Most users access archie through a freeware or public domain client
program. These are available from most archie servers via anonymous
FTP. Additional client functionality has been incorporated into the
server and will be available once the next version of the Prospero
protocol is frozen and the features become incorporated into the
clients in the next few months. Check out the archie directory on
any of the publicly available archie servers or the banner message
when logging into any of the archie telnet clients for more details.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Clients:
Date completed or updated: 7 July, 1993
By: Name: Peter Deutsch
Email address: peterd@bunyip.com
Platform: command line shell, written in C. Works
with both UNIX and MSDOS/OS2 shells.
Primary Contact:
Name: Brendan Kehoe
Email address: brendan@cygnus.com
Telephone: not known
Client software available from: most archie server hosts and major
Internet archives. Look for filename
"c-archie-1.3.2.tar.Z".
Location of more information: Packaged with software.
Latest version number: 1.3.2
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
This program provides a simple command line interface to the archie
server system, using the Prospero protocol. Written in C, it has been
ported to MSDOS and OS2.
General comments:
This program should not be confused with the archie system telnet
interface, which is a program that runs on the archie server itself.
Future plans: Not known
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 7 July, 1993
By: Name: Peter Deutsch
Email address: peterd@bunyip.com
Platform: command line shell, written in Perl. Works
with both UNIX and MSDOS/OS2 shells.
Primary Contact:
Name: Khun Yee Fung
Email address: clipper@csd.uwo.ca
Telephone: not known
Client software available from: most archie server hosts and major
Internet archives. Look for filename
"perl-archie-3.8.tar.Z".
Location of more information: Packaged with software.
Latest version number: 3.8
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
This program provides a simple command line interface to the archie
server system, using the Prospero protocol. Written in Perl.
General comments:
This program should notbe confused with the archie system telnet
interface, which is a program that runs on the archie server itself.
Future plans: Not known
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 7 July, 1993
By: Name: Peter Deutsch
Email address: peterd@bunyip.com
Platform: archie client program for VMS systems.
Primary Contact:
Name: Brendan Kehoe
Email address: brendan@cygnus.com
Telephone: not known
Client software available from: most archie server hosts and major
Internet archives. Look for filename
"archie-vms.com".
Location of more information: Packaged with software.
Latest version number: not known.
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
This program provides a simple command line interface to the archie
server system for users of VMS.
General comments:
This program should not be confused with the archie system telnet
interface, which is a program that runs on the archie server itself.
Future plans: Not known
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 7 July, 1993
By: Name: Peter Deutsch
Email address: peterd@bunyip.com
Platform: Xwindows client (X11R4)
Primary Contact:
Name: George Ferguson
Email address: ferguson@cs.rochester.edu
Telephone: not known
Client software available from: cs.rochester.edu, most archie server hosts
and major Internet archives. Look for file
"xarchie-1.3.tar.Z".
Location of more information: Packaged with software.
Latest version number: xarchie-1.3
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
This program provides an Xwindows client that allows users to search
the archie anonymous FTP database. Also included is the capability of
fetching files (using ftp).
General comments: none.
Future plans: Not known
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 7 July, 1993
By: Name: Peter Deutsch
Email address: peterd@bunyip.com
Platform: NeXTStep client.
Primary Contact:
Name: Scott Stark
Email address: me@superc.che.udel.edu
Telephone: not known
Client software available from: most archie server hosts and major
Internet archives. Look for file
"NeXTArchie.tar.Z".
Location of more information: Packaged with software.
Latest version number:
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
This program provides a NeXTStep client that allows users to search
the archie anonymous FTP database. Also included is the capability of
fetching files (using ftp).
General comments: none.
Future plans: Not known
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Demonstration sites :
Site name: any one of:
archie.rutgers.edu 128.6.18.15 (Rutgers University)
archie.unl.edu 129.93.1.14 (University of Nebraska in
Lincoln)
archie.sura.net 128.167.254.179 (SURAnet archie server)
archie.ans.net 147.225.1.2 (ANS archie server)
archie.au 139.130.4.6 (Australian server)
archie.funet.fi 128.214.6.100 (European server in Finland)
archie.doc.ic.ac.uk 146.169.11.3 (UK/England server)
archie.cs.huji.ac.il 132.65.6.15 (Israel server)
archie.wide.ad.jp 133.4.3.6 (Japanese server)
Client software should be supported at all of these sites.
Additional sites are available. Use the "sites" command in the archie
telnet interface at any of the above sites for a more complete lists.
Access details:
- telnet to any of the above sites
- login as user `archie' (no password is required)
- type `help' at the prompt to get started.
Note: Some people forget and use ftp in place of telnet. This will
not work. The hint that this is being done is that they claim
that a password is needed, not that the site can't be found.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Documentation:
Document Title: What is archie
Location details: anonymous FTP from archie.ans.net
Site: archie.ans.net
Full file name: "pub/archie/doc/whatis.archie"
Description: Brief overview of the archie system.
Document Title: archie man pages
Location details: anonymous FTP from archie.ans.net
Site: archie.ans.net
Full file name: "pub/archie/doc/archie.man.*"
Description: Manual pages for the archie system telnet
interface in various formats (raw ASCII, nroff,
compressed, etc). This document also explains the
various search options and other features, so is
of use to users of the other archie client programs.
Document Title: What's New in 3.0
Location details: anonymous FTP from archie.ans.net
Site: archie.ans.net
Full file name: "pub/archie/doc/whats.new"
Description: Description of the changes to archie for the
first commercial release
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Information:
To come after some deliberation...
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
GOPHER
Date template updated or checked: 8 July 1993
By: Name: Mark P. McCahill
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
NIR Tool Name: Internet Gopher
Brief Description of Tool:
The Internet Gopher protocol is a client/distributed-server document
search and retrieval protocol originally developed at the University of
Minnesota. Gopher was originally created as a fast, simple,
distributed, campus-wide information search and retrieval system, ease
of use and implementation has made Gopher increasingly popular on the
Internet. Since its original release, many folks on the Internet have
contributed to its growth, submitting patches, servers, clients, and
linking their local servers into the worldwide network of Gopher
servers. Gateways exist to seamlessly access a variety of non-Gopher
services such as ftp, WAIS, USENET news, Archie, X.500 directories, etc.
In addition, an "archie for gopherspace" called veronica (very easy
rodent-oriented net-wide index to computerized archives) has been developed
at the University of Nevada. Veronica makes it easy to search for items in
gopherspace by title.
The gopher protocol is often described as "fiercely simple"; it is
connectionless (stateless), and uses TCP reliable streams. A client
connects to a server using TCP, and sends a one-line text "selector
string". The server responds by returning the item (a file, a
directory listing, or a link to some other service) corresponding to
the selector string and immediately closing the connection. Items in
directory listings are returned as a series of lines terminated by
carriage-return line-feed. Each item (line) is defined by a
one-character tag to specify the item type, a display string or
item-name that the client should display to the user, and a number of
tab delimited fields to specify the selector string, host domain name
and port number. Because of its simple and connectionless nature,
gopher servers make very minimal demands on their host machines and
gopher clients are extremely easy to implement.
The users' view the Gopher world as a series of networked hierarchical
directories much like a familiar filesystem. However, the links define
a graph rather than a simple rooted tree. Links in the Gopher graph
may define services other than simple files or directories; these
include cso (qi) servers, telnet sessions, links to other gopher
servers, and links to gateway servers.
The information provider's simplest view is that files and directories
below a certain root directory on their machine, are all visible and
available for retrieval by gopher clients. More features like long
names, item types, links, and gateway services are available to the
more sophisticated information provider.
Servers and clients run on most popular hardware, including Macs, UNIX
boxes, PC-DOS boxes. The Internet Gopher name is copyright (c) 1991-1992
by the University of Minnesota. The Internet Gopher protocol is described
in an informational RFC (1436) available at better RFC archives everywhere.
The gopher software may be retrieved from numerous Gopher or FTP archive
sites, including the University of Minnesota Gopher server, the Info-Mac
Archive Gopher server, and by anonymous FTP from boombox.micro.umn.edu and
sumex-aim.stanford.edu.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Contact(s):
Name: The Internet Gopher Development Team
Email address: gopher@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Postal Address: Microcomputer & Workstation Networks Center
152 Shepherd Labs
100 Union Street SE.
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Telephone: USA (612) 625-1300
Fax: USA (612) 625-6817
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Help Line (for major center as well as each client)
Name: Microcomputer HelpLine;
ask for The Internet Gopher Development Team
Email address: gopher@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Telephone: USA: 612 MA MICRO (612 626 4276)
Helpline is for general support at the U of M.
Level of support offered:
o all users
Hours available: Phone Helpline 9-4 weekdays.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Related Working Groups:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sponsoring Organisation / Funding source:
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists:
Address:
gopher-news@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Administration:
gopher-news-request@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Description:
News and views of all things gopher.
Archive:
Via Gopher: University of Minnesota Gopher
Information About Gopher
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
News groups:
Name: comp.infosystems.gopher
Description:
Discussion of all things gopher.
Archive: Available via gopher client; connect to the gopher server at
gopher.tc.umn.edu port 70, look in the
"Information About Gopher" section.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Protocols:
What is supported: Internet Gopher
What it runs over: Anything you can run TCP/IP over.
Other NIR tools this interworks with:
Z39.50 WAIS variant via WAIS gateway
FTP via FTP gateway
archie/Prospero via an archie gateway
veronica (an archie for gopherspace)
NNTP via NNTP gateway
Finger (subset of gopher)
X.500 via X.500 gateway
CSO (Ph/Qi) online phone books
Future plans:
Gopher+ protocol extensions implementations are now in beta-test.
Gateway from Gopher to Sybase and Oracle SQL servers under
development for late summer release
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Servers:
Date completed or updated: 8 July, 1993
By: Name: Mark McCahill
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Platform: UNIX.
Primary Contact:
Name: The Internet Gopher Development Team
Email address: gopher@micro.umn.edu
Telephone: USA (612) 625-1300
Server software available from:
Via Gopher: U of M Gopher
Information About Gopher
Gopher Software Distribution
Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu
/pub/gopher/
Location of more information:
As above.
Latest version number: (things change fast;
please check software distribution)
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
Server, index server for WAIS based
indices and for NeXT native indexing, tools, gateway code.
Approximate number of such servers in use:
Over 1400.
General comments:
The defacto standard workhorse Gopher server.
Paul Lindner is the architect and keeper of this server.
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 8 July, 1993
By: Name: Mark McCahill
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Platform: Macintosh.
Primary Contact:
Name: The Internet Gopher Development Team
Email address: gopher@micro.umn.edu
Telephone: USA (612) 625-1300
Server software available from:
Via Gopher: U of M Gopher
Information About Gopher
Gopher Software Distribution
Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu
/pub/gopher/
Location of more information:
As above.
Latest version number: (please check software distribution)
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
Basic Macintosh Gopher Server and tools.
Approximate number of such servers in use:
Current estimates between 75 and 125.
General comments:
Runs on any Macintosh with 1MB memory or more.
Requires MacTCP. Being revised/rewritten to support Gopher+.
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 8 July, 1993
By: Name: Mark McCahill
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Platform: PC-DOS.
Primary Contact:
Name: The Internet Gopher Development Team
Email address: gopher@micro.umn.edu
Telephone: USA (612) 625-1300
Server software available from:
Via Gopher: U of M Gopher
Information About Gopher
Gopher Software Distribution
Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu
/pub/gopher/
Location of more information:
As above.
Latest version number: 0.91b
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
Basic Gopher server for PC-DOS boxes..
Approximate number of such servers in use:
Current estimates between 25 and 75.
General comments:
Written by Chris McNeil <cmcneil@mta.ca>,
based on Phil Karns net package. The U of M
Gopher team forwards difficult problems to Chris.
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 22 March, 1993
By: Name: Mark McCahill
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Platform: VMS.
Primary Contact:
Name: Mark Van Overbeke
Email address: mark@ummvxm.mrs.umn.edu
Telephone:
Server software available from:
Via Gopher: U of M Gopher
Information About Gopher
Gopher Software Distribution
Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu
/pub/gopher/
Location of more information:
As above.
Latest version number: 0.6
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
Basic VMS Server, shares some code with UNIX server.
Approximate number of such servers in use:
Current estimates between 50 and 75.
General comments:
The VMS server was written and is maintained by Mark Van Overbeke.
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 8 July, 1993
By: Name: Mark McCahill
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Platform: VM/CMS
Primary Contact:
Name: Rick Troth
Email address: TROTH@RICEVM1.RICE.EDU
Telephone:
Server software available from:
Via Gopher: U of M Gopher
Information About Gopher
Gopher Software Distribution
Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu:/pub/gopher/
Brazos.IS.Rice.EDU:/pub/vmcms/
Location of more information:
As above.
Latest version number: 2.4
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
Gopher server for IBM VM/CMS installations.
Approximate number of such servers in use:
Unknown.
General comments:
This server was written and is maintained by Rick Troth.
This server is commonly referred to as the Rice VM/CMS server.
There is also another VM/CMS server: the Vienna VM/CMS server.
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 8 July, 1993
By: Name: Mark McCahill
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Platform: VM/CMS.
Primary Contact:
Name: Gerhard Gonter
Email address: Gerhard.Gonter@WU-Wien.ac.at
Telephone:
Server software available from:
Via Gopher: U of M Gopher
Information About Gopher
Gopher Software Distribution
Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu:/pub/gopher/
Location of more information:
As above.
Latest version number: 2.00.00
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
Gopher server for IBM VM/CMS installations.
Approximate number of such servers in use:
Unknown.
General comments:
This server was written and is maintained by Gerhard Gonter.
This server is commonly referred to as the Vienna VM/CMS server.
There is also another VM/CMS server: the Rice VM/CMS server.
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 8 July, 1993
By: Name: Mark McCahill
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Platform: MVS
Primary Contact:
Name: Steve Bacher
Email address: seb@draper.com
Telephone:
Server software available from:
Via Gopher: U of M Gopher
Information About Gopher
Gopher Software Distribution
Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu:/pub/gopher/
Location of more information:
As above.
Latest version number: 2.1
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
Gopher server for IBM MVS installations.
Approximate number of such servers in use:
Unknown.
General comments:
This server was written and is maintained by Steve Bacher.
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 8 July, 1993
By: Name: Mark McCahill
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Platform: Unix veronica server
Primary Contact:
Name: Steve Foster and Fred Barrie
Email address: gophadm@futique.scs.unr.edu
Telephone:
Server software available from:
Via FTP: veronica.scs.unr.edu:/veronica
Location of more information:
As above.
Latest version number: (please check software distribution)
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
veronica server software
Approximate number of such servers in use:
Unknown.
General comments:
Written and maintained by Steve Foster and Fred Barrie at the University
of Nevada.
Future plans:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Clients:
Date completed or updated: 8 July, 1993
By: Name: Mark McCahill
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Platform: Macintosh
Primary Contact
Name: The Internet Gopher Development Team
Email address: gopher@micro.umn.edu
Telephone: USA (612) 625-1300
Client software available from:
Via Gopher: U of M Gopher
Information About Gopher
Gopher Software Distribution
Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu
/pub/gopher/
Location of more information:
As above.
Latest version number: (please check software distribution)
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
One of the many Macintosh Gopher clients. Requires MacTCP.
General comments:
Macintosh TurboGopher is as of this writing, the fastest
Gopher client available for the Mac. Written by the
Minnesota Gopher Development Team.
Future plans:
Gopher+ support version now in beta test.
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 8 July, 1993
By: Name: Mark McCahill
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Platform: Macintosh
Primary Contact:
Name: Don Gilbert, Biology, Indiana University
- Bloomington
Email address: Software@Bio.Indiana.Edu
Telephone:
Client software available from:
Via Gopher: Indiana University Gopher Server
IUBio Software+Data/GopherApp,
Mac Gopher client
Via FTP: ftp.bio.indiana.edu:/util/gopher/gopherapp/
Location of more information:
As above.
Latest version number: (please check software distribution)
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
One of the many Macintosh Gopher clients. Requires MacTCP.
General comments:
Written and maintained by Don Gilbert.
Future plans:
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 8 July, 1993
By: Name: Mark McCahill
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Platform: Macintosh
Primary Contact:
Name: "Jonzy"
Email address: JONZY@CC.UTAH.EDU
Telephone:
Client software available from:
Via Gopher: gopher.cc.utah.edu in Testing directory
Via FTP: ftp.cc.utah.edu:/pub/gopher/Macintosh/
Location of more information:
As above.
Latest version number: (please check software distribution)
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
One of the many Macintosh Gopher clients. Requires MacTCP.
Has a browser style interface.
Uses customized Telnet application.
General comments:
Written and maintained by "Jonzy".
Future plans:
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 8 July, 1993
By: Name: Mark McCahill
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Platform: UNIX (curses/EMACS based client)
Primary Contact:
Name: The Internet Gopher Development Team
Email address: gopher@micro.umn.edu
Telephone: USA (612) 625-1300
Client software available from:
Via Gopher: U of M Gopher
Information About Gopher
Gopher Software Distribution
Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu
/pub/gopher/
Location of more information:
As above.
Latest version number: (please check software distribution)
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
The UNIX curses-based client.
General comments:
Written and maintained by Paul Lindner.
Future plans:
Version with Gopher+ capablilty now in beta test.
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 8 July, 1993
By: Name: Mark McCahill
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Platform: UNIX (simple client does not use CURSES)
Primary Contact:
Name: Sean Fuller
Email address: fuller@aedc-vax.af.mil
Telephone:
Client software available from:
Via Gopher: U of M Gopher
Information About Gopher
Gopher Software Distribution
Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu
/pub/gopher/
Location of more information:
As above.
Latest version number: 0.3
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
sgopher is a simple gopher client for inetd/batch/online; it does not
require much of the terminal other than it be 80X24 characters. It can be
run stand alone or it can be launched from inetd. It doesn't use termcap or
curses. Sgopher outputs the \r\n pair at the end of line and requires a
<return> after each command to support more terminal types.
General comments:
Runs on VMS, IRIX, Ultrix, AIX, Solaris 2.x, Solaris 1.x
Future plans:
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 8 July, 1993
By: Name: Mark McCahill
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Platform: Xgopher: UNIX XWindows based client
Primary Contact:
Name: Allan Tuchman
Email address: tuchman@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu
Telephone:
Client software available from:
Via Gopher: U of M Gopher
Information About Gopher
Gopher Software Distribution
Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu
/pub/gopher/
Location of more information:
As above.
Latest version number: (please check software distribution)
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
Makes use of the X interface.
General comments:
Written and maintained by Allan Tuchman.
Future plans:
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 8 July, 1993
By: Name: Mark McCahill
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Platform: Xgopher: UNIX XWindows based client
Primary Contact:
Name: Andrew Scherpbier
Email address: xvgopher@gopher.sdsu.edu
turtle@sciences.sdsu.edu
Telephone:
Client software available from:
Via Gopher: U of M Gopher
Information About Gopher
Gopher Software Distribution
Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu
/pub/gopher/
Location of more information:
As above.
Latest version number: (please check software distribution)
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
Makes use of the X interface... displays a way cool chewing gopher icon
while information is being downloaded.
General comments:
XView based gopher client.
Future plans:
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 8 July, 1993
By: Name: Mark McCahill
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Platform: NeXT: NeXTstep client
Primary Contact:
Name: The Internet Gopher Development Team
Email address: gopher@micro.umn.edu
Telephone: USA (612) 625-1300
Client software available from:
Via Gopher: U of M Gopher
Information About Gopher
Gopher Software Distribution
Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu
/pub/gopher/
Location of more information:
As above.
Latest version number: (please check software distribution)
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
Makes full use of the NeXT interface.
General comments:
Initial version written by Max Tardiveau.
Now maintained by Paul Lindner.
Future plans:
-------------------------
Date completed or updated: 8 July, 1993
By: Name: Mark McCahill
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Platform: DOS TurboVision w/Clarkson packet drivers.
Primary Contact:
Name: The Internet Gopher Development Team
Email address: gopher@micro.umn.edu
Telephone: USA (612) 625-1300
Client software available from:
Via Gopher: U of M Gopher
Information About Gopher
Gopher Software Distribution
Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu
/pub/gopher/
Location of more information:
As above.
Latest version number: (please check software distribution)
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
Character-based graphics and windows under DOS. Uses either Clarkson
Packet drivers (CRWYN packet drivers) and a built-in TCP/IP protocol
stack or Ftp, Inc.'s protocol stack (PC/TCP).
General comments:
Written and maintained by Daniel Torrey.
Future plans:
Gopher+ support now in beta test.
Support for Novell's Lan Workplace for DOS planned for Fall.
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 8 July, 1993
By: Name: Mark McCahill
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Platform: VMS.
Primary Contact:
Name: Mark Van Overbeke
Email address: mark@ummvxm.mrs.umn.edu
Telephone:
Client software available from:
Via Gopher: U of M Gopher
Information About Gopher
Gopher Software Distribution
Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu
/pub/gopher/
Location of more information:
As above.
Latest version number: 0.6
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
General comments:
The VMS client was written and is maintained by Mark Van Overbeke.
Future plans:
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 8 July, 1993
By: Name: Mark McCahill
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Platform: VMS.
Primary Contact:
Name: The Internet Gopher Development Team
Email address: gopher@micro.umn.edu
Telephone: USA (612) 625-1300
Client software available from:
Via Gopher: U of M Gopher
Information About Gopher
Gopher Software Distribution
Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu
/pub/gopher/
Location of more information:
As above.
Latest version number: 1.12
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
Identical to Unix gopher1.12. Works on a VMS 5.5-2 system running MultiNet
3.1B. UCX and Wollongong are also supported.
General comments:
A port of the University of Minnesota Unix client to VMS.
Future plans:
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 8 July, 1993
By: Name: Mark McCahill
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Platform: VM/CMS.
Primary Contact:
Name: Rick Troth
Email address: TROTH@RICEVM1.RICE.EDU
Telephone:
Client software available from:
Via Gopher: U of M Gopher
Information About Gopher
Gopher Software Distribution
Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu
/pub/gopher/
Location of more information:
As above.
Latest version number: (please check software distribution)
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
Gopher client for IBM VM/CMS installations.
General comments:
This client was written and is maintained by Rick Troth.
This client is commonly referred to as the Rice VM/CMS client.
There is also another VM/CMS client: the Vienna VM/CMS client.
Future plans:
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 8 July, 1993
By: Name: Mark McCahill
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Platform: VM/CMS.
Primary Contact:
Name: Gerhard Gonter
Email address: Gerhard.Gonter@WU-Wien.ac.at
Telephone:
Client software available from:
Via Gopher: U of M Gopher
Information About Gopher
Gopher Software Distribution
Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu
/pub/gopher/
Location of more information:
As above.
Latest version number: (please check software distribution)
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
Gopher client for IBM VM/CMS installations.
General comments:
This client was written and is maintained by Gerhard Gonter.
This client is commonly referred to as the Vienna VM/CMS client.
There is also another VM/CMS client: the Rice VM/CMS client.
Future plans:
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 8 July, 1993
By: Name: Mark McCahill
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Platform: DOS with PC/TCP.
Primary Contact:
Name: Steven E. Newton
Email address: snewton@oac.hsc.uth.tmc.edu
Telephone:
Client software available from:
Via FTP: oac.hsc.uth.tmc.edu:/public/dos/misc/
Location of more information:
As above.
Latest version number: (please check software distribution)
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
Gopher client for DOS with PC/TCP
General comments:
Written and maintained by Steven E. Newton
Future plans:
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 8 July, 1993
By: Name: Mark McCahill
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Platform: DOS with PC-NFS.
Primary Contact:
Name: Stan Barber
Email address: sob@TMC.EDU
Telephone:
Client software available from:
Via FTP: bcm.tmc.edu:/nfs/gopher.exe
Location of more information:
As above.
Latest version number: (please check software distribution)
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
Gopher client for DOS with PC-NFS
General comments:
Written and maintained by Stan Barber
Future plans:
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 8 July, 1993
By: Name: Mark McCahill
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Platform: DOS Novell LWP Gopher Client
Primary Contact:
Name: Jeremy T. James
Email address: blackp@med.umich.edu
Telephone:
Client software available from:
Via FTP: lennon.itn.med.umich.edu:pub/gopher
Location of more information:
As above.
Latest version number: (please check software distribution)
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
DOS Novell LWP Gopher Client
General comments:
Written and maintained by Jeremy T. James
Future plans:
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 8 July, 1993
By: Name: Mark McCahill
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Platform: Windows 3.1 with Winsock or PC/NFS.
Primary Contact:
Name: Martyn Hampson
Email address: m.hampson@ic.ac.uk
Telephone:
Client software available from:
Via Gopher: U of M Gopher
Information About Gopher
Gopher Software Distribution
Via FTP: lister.cc.ic.ac.uk
/pub/wingopher
Location of more information:
As above.
Latest version number: (please check software distribution)
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
Gopher client for Windows; uses either Winsock DLL or PC/NFS network
interface.
General comments:
Written and maintained by Martyn Hampson.
Future plans:
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 8 July, 1993
By: Name: Mark McCahill
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Platform: Windows with Winsock and ToolBook.
Primary Contact:
Name: Kevin Gamiel
Email address: kgamiel@kudzu.cnidr.org
Telephone:
Client software available from:
Via Gopher: U of M Gopher
Information About Gopher
Gopher Software Distribution
Via FTP: sunsite.unc.edu
/pub/micro/pc-stuff/ms-windows/winsock/gophbook.zip
Location of more information:
As above.
Latest version number: 1.0
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
Gopher client for Windows; uses Asymetrix's ToolBok to paint the screen
and speaks to the network via a Winsock DLL.
General comments:
Written and maintained by Kevin Gamiel
Future plans:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Demonstration sites :
List of sites which are willing to act as demonstration
sites for this application.
site name ip address login as serving area
----------------------------------------------------------------
consultant.micro.umn.edu 134.84.132.4 gopher North America
gopher.uiuc.edu 128.174.33.160 gopher North America
panda.uiowa.edu 128.255.40.201 panda North America
info.anu.edu.au 150.203.84.20 info Australia
gopher.chalmers.se 129.16.221.40 gopher Sweden
tolten.puc.cl 146.155.1.16 gopher South America
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Documentation:
Title: (1) Gopher Protocol and
(2) Gopher+ Proposed Extensions
Location details:
Via Gopher: U of M Gopher
Information About Gopher
Gopher Software Distribution
Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu
/pub/gopher/
Title: RFC 1436 The Internet Gopher Protocol
(a distributed document search and retrieval
protocol)
Via FTP: nic.ddn.mil
/rfc/rfc1436.txt
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography:
The Whole Internet, Ed Kroll, O'Reilly, 1992
The Internet Gopher, "ConneXions", July 1992, Interop.
Exploring Internet GopherSpace "The Internet Society News", v1n2 1992,
The Internet Gopher Protocol, Proceedings of the Twenty-Third
IETF, CNRI, Section 5.3
Internet Gopher, Proceedings of Canadian Networking '92
The Internet Gopher, INTERNET: Getting Started, SRI
International, Section 10.5.5
Tools help Internet users discover on-line treasures, Computerworld,
July 20, 1992
TCP/IP Network Administration, O'Reilly.
Balakrishan, B. (Oct 1992) "SPIGopher: Making SPIRES databases
accessible through the Gopher protocol". SPIRES Fall '92
Workshop, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Information:
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
HYTELNET
Date template updated or checked: 8th July, 1993
By: Name: Peter Scott
Email address: aa375@freenet.carleton.ca
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
NIR Tool Name: HYTELNET
Brief Description of Tool:
HYTELNET is a terminate-and-stay-resident hypertext browser, which
gives a user full instructions for logging into telnet-accessible
sites on the Internet i.e. library catalogs, campus-wide information
systems, bulletin boards, directory services, gophers, etc. The
browser does not make remote connections. A Unix/VMS version, which
does make remote connections, has been written by Earl Fogel,
Computing Services, University of Saskatchewan. Write
fogel@skyfox.usask.ca for details.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Contact(s):
Name: Peter Scott
Email address: aa375@freenet.carleton.ca
Postal Address: 324 8th Street East
Saskatoon, Sask, Canada S7H 0P5
Telephone: 306-966-5920
Fax: 306-966-6040
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Help Line:
Name: Peter Scott
Email address: aa375@freenet.carleton.ca
Telephone: 306-966-5920
Level of support offered:
o volunteer
Hours available: 8:00 a.m - 3:30 p.m CST
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Related Working Groups:
None
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sponsoring Organisation / Funding source:
None
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists: HYTELNET Updates Distribution
Address: hytel-l@kentvm.kent.edu
Administration: By listowner Peter Scott aa375@freenet.carleton.ca
Description:
To inform members of new versions of the software, and to keep users
informed of new/changed/defunct Telnet-accessible sites
To subscribe send e-mail message to listserv@kentvm.kent.edu with
no subject, and sub hytel-l firstname lastname as the body of the
message.
Archive: None
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
News groups: bit.listserv.hytel-l
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Protocols:
What is supported:
What it runs over: DOS
Other NIR tools this interworks with:
Future plans: Possible translation into gopher format
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Servers:
None.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Clients:
Date completed or updated: 8 July, 1993
By: Name: Peter Scott
Email address: aa375@freenet.carleton.ca
Platform: DOS
Primary Contact
Name: Peter Scott
Email address: aa375@freenet.carleton.ca
Telephone: 306-966-5920
Client software available from:
access.usask.ca in
pub/hytelnet/pc as hytelnXX.zip, where XX = latest version number.
Location of more information: finger scottp@jester.usask.ca
Latest version number: 6.5 (Issued June 23, 1993)
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
General comments:
Future plans:
To contine to produce updated versions in current form.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Demonstration sites :
The Unix/VMS version can be accessed via telnet to access.usask.ca
(login: hytelnet)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Documentation: None
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography:
HYTELNET as software for accessing the Internet: a personal
perspective on the development of HYTELNET.
Electronic Networking, Vol. 2, No. 1 Spring 1992 pp 38-44
Hypertext...Information at your fingertips.
In: Designing Information: new roles for librarians.
Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1993
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Information:
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
NETFIND
Date template updated or checked: 12th October, 1993
By: Name: Mike Schwartz
Email address: schwartz@cs.colorado.edu
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
NIR Tool Name: Netfind
Brief Description of Tool:
Given the name of a person on the Internet and a rough description
of where the person works, Netfind attempts to locate information
about the person. People can be specified by first, last, or login
name. Their place of work can be described by name and/or the
city/state/country.
Netfind provides textual information about people, when it is
able to locate such information. It is not a directory in the
usual sense of the word. Rather, it searches for people using a
number of Internet services and heuristics about how to locate
user information. Because of the techniques it uses, Netfind
can locate information about more people than any other Internet
user directory - over 5 million people in over 9,000 domains
worldwide when last measured.
You can use the University of Colorado Netfind server by telnet to
bruno.cs.colorado.edu: login as "netfind" (with no password). Help
screens providing more detailed instructions and technical
information are available there. There is currently no way for
non-Internet users to access Netfind (e.g., using an email
interface).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Contact(s):
Name: Mike Schwartz
Email address: schwartz@cs.colorado.edu
Postal Address:
Department of Computer Science
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309-0430
Telephone:
Declined. (Note: Netfind is currently a volunteer service.
We do not have staff resources to support telephone
inquiries.)
Fax:
Declined.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Help Line (for major center as well as each client):
There are an increasing number of Netfind servers being set up at
various Network Information Centers (including the U.S. Internic).
However, since Netfind is provided as a volunteer service at this
time, there is no help line.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Related Working Groups:
Gopher, NIR, IIIR, IRTF-RD.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sponsoring Organisation / Funding source:
None. Netfind was originally a research prototype. It is offered
as-is, on an unsupported basis. From time to time the original
developers make improvements, but it is not currently funded.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists:
Address: netfind-users@cs.colorado.edu
Administration: netfind-users-request@cs.colorado.edu
Description: mailing list for user changes and updates.
Archive: None.
Address: netfind-servers@cs.colorado.edu
Administration: schwartz@cs.colorado.edu
Description: mailing list for sites running Netfind servers.
Archive: None.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
News groups : None.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Protocols:
What is supported: NVT ASCII. At present no formal protocol is used.
We are currently implementing a client/server protocol, which
will allow better clients and more efficient servers.
What it runs over: TCP/IP.
Other NIR tools this interworks with:
DNS, SMTP, finger, Gopher, WAIS
Future plans:
Many. Telnet to the server and see the "Future Directions" menu under
the "Frequently Asked Questions" help menu.
In addition to the above list, we are currently exploring
possibilities to integrate the Netfind seed database gathering
mechanisms into the Fremont framework, to make the process more
scalable, and to support other types of information (e.g., to help
with mapping the Internet).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Servers:
Date completed or updated: July 7, 1993
By: Name: Mike Schwartz
Email address: [If different from that of the Primary
contact listed below]
Platform: SunOS 4.1 or more recent. Uncertain whether Netfind will
run on Solaris.
Primary Contact:
Name: See above.
Email address: See above.
Telephone: See above.
Server software available from: ftp.cs.colorado.edu, in the
directory pub/cs/distribs/netfind.
Location of more information: in above directory.
Latest version number: 3.46.
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
This version of Netfind incorporates a number of improvements,
including timeouts for slow reads, longer timeout values for
read/connect operations (to accommodate international searches), more
precisely limited searches, better use of MX and other search
information, better Restrictions mechanism, and more clear help/FAQ
information.
Approximate number of such servers in use:
14 public servers; hundreds or thousands of private stand-along
clients.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Clients :
The Netfind client is available in the same release as the server.
See above.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Demonstration sites :
Site name: bruno.cs.colorado.edu
The current list is:
archie.au (AARNet, Melbourne, Australia)
bruno.cs.colorado.edu (University of Colorado, Boulder)
dino.conicit.ve (Nat. Council for Techn. & Scien. Research, Venezuela)
ds.internic.net (InterNIC Directory and DB Services, Herndon, Virginia)
lincoln.technet.sg (Technet Unit, Singapore)
macs.ee.mcgill.ca (McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada)
malloco.ing.puc.cl (Catholic University of Chile, Santiago)
monolith.cc.ic.ac.uk (Imperial College, London, England)
mudhoney.micro.umn.edu (University of Minnesota, Minneapolis)
netfind.oc.com (OpenConnect Systems, Dallas, Texas)
netfind.vslib.cz (Liberec University of Technology, Czech Republic)
nic.nm.kr (Korea Network Information Center, Taejon, Korea)
nic.uakom.sk (Academy of Sciences, Banska Bystrica, Slovakia)
redmont.cis.uab.edu (University of Alabama at Birmingham)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Documentation:
There are two primary sets of information available about Netfind.
The first is a set of help information, available in the anonymous FTP
distribution as well as from the help screens available from any
Netfind server. This information includes a rather complete set of
Frequently Asked Questions, as well as user help information and
pointers to other related information. The second is a
pre-publication version of a technical paper about Netfind - available
by anonymous FTP and e-mail from ftp.cs.colorado.edu in the file
pub/cs/techreports/schwartz/PostScript/White.Pages.ps.Z (compressed
PostScript) or in the file
pub/cs/techreports/schwartz/ASCII/White.Pages.txt.Z (compressed
ASCII).
The technical paper is currently somewhat dated, as we have made a
number of improvements to Netfind since it was published. We are
currently writing a more up-to-date technical paper about techniques
used by Netfind (particularly those for gathering the seed database),
hopefully to be finished over Summer 1993.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography:
Netfind is one prototype developed by the Networked Resource Discovery
Project, at the University of Colorado - Boulder. A bibliography and
set of project papers is available by anonymous FTP from
ftp.cs.colorado.edu, in pub/cs/techreports/schwartz. This directory
contains a file called "README" that contains a project overview and
bibliography. The files in this directory are also available via an
electronic mail interface. For more information, send a mail message
to infosrv@ftp.cs.colorado.edu, containing the message body (not
subject line) "send HELP" (without quotes).
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
PROSPERO
Date template updated or checked: 7 July, 1993
By: Name: Steven Augart
Email address: info-prospero@isi.edu
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
NIR Tool Name: Prospero
Brief Description of Tool:
The Prospero directory service supports a user centered view of files
scattered across the Internet. It can be used to organize references
to files as if they were on your local system, without the need to
physically move them.
Prospero provides access to existing directories and indices that
can be used to find files of interest that are available from
Internet archive sites. Among the indices available is the archie
database and a gateway to all Gopher menus, files, and searches. We
hope to have WAIS indices and World Wide Web documents online in the
near future.
Prospero also provides a mechanism to make directories and indices
available to end-users and applications in a format that allows
information from different sources to integrated into a coherent
whole.
Prospero does not interpret the data that it organizes. It does
provide mechanisms to retrieve the data, but the display and use of
the data is up to the users application. Prospero is intended to serve as
infrastructure that integrates information from a variety of sources and
supports a variety of user applications
Prospero allows fine grained authorization of requests to
all objects, including directories and indices. Prospero supports
the authentication of clients through four mechanisms: (a) simple
client assertion of the user's identity; (b) a trusted port
mechanism similar to that used by the Berkeley UNIX R commands; (c)
a simple cleartext passwording mechanism; (d) Kerberos (version 5).
The maintainer of an ACL chooses which of these mechanisms he or she
wishes to accept as proof of the client's identity.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Contact(s):
Name: Info Prospero (preferred contact address)
Email address: info-prospero@isi.edu
Name: Clifford Neuman
Email address: bcn@isi.edu
Postal Address:
U.S.C. Information Sciences Institute
4676 Admiralty Way
Marina del Rey, CA 90292-6695
U.S.A.
Telephone: (310) 822-1511
Name: Steven Augart
Email address: swa@isi.edu
Postal Address:
U.S.C. Information Sciences Institute
4676 Admiralty Way
Marina del Rey, CA 90292-6695
U.S.A.
Telephone: (310) 822-1511
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Help Line (for major center as well as each client)
Name: Info Prospero
Email address: info-prospero@isi.edu
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Related Working Groups:
IETF IAFA WG
IETF URL WG
IETF URI WG
IETF NIR-WG
IRTF Resource Discovery WG
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sponsoring Organisation / Funding source:
Information Sciences Institute, University of Southern California
The design and implementation was supported in part by the National
Science Foundation (Grant No. CCR-8619663), the Washington Technology
Center, Digital Equipment Corporation, and the Advanced Research Projects
Agency under NASA Cooperative Agreement NCC-2-539.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists:
Address: info-prospero@ISI.EDU
Administration: info-prospero-request@ISI.EDU
Description:
This mailing list is really two one-way mailing lists.
Send mail to INFO-PROSPERO to obtain information about
Prospero, papers, or the release. Mail to
INFO-PROSPERO will not be passed on to subscribers.
INFO-PROSPERO is also the list to which we will send
status updates and information on how to obtain new
releases.
Archive:
Via anonymous FTP to PROSPERO.ISI.EDU as
/pub/prospero/mail/info-prospero.arc
Via Prospero in the "#/INET/EDU/ISI/GUEST/prototype" virtual
system as /sites/isi.edu/pub/prospero/mail/info-prospero.arc.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Address: prospero@ISI.EDU
Administration: prospero-request@ISI.EDU
Description:
This mailing list is for general discussion of Prospero, for
announcements of new sites that have come on board, and for
announcements of directories that people have created to organize the
information already accessible.
Archive:
Via anonymous FTP to PROSPERO.ISI.EDU as
/pub/prospero/mail/prospero.arc
Via Prospero in the "#/INET/EDU/ISI/GUEST/prototype" virtual
system as /sites/isi.edu/pub/prospero/mail/prospero.arc.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
News groups:
NONE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Protocols:
What is supported:
Prospero directory service requests are formatted
according to the Prospero protocol.
Prospero does not have its own file retrieval
protocol. Files may be automatically retrieved using
FTP, NFS, AFS, and GOPHER. Loginable services may also be
accessed via TELNET.
What it runs over:
Directory service requests are layered on top of
UDP, with our own (included) reliable message delivery
layer.
Other NIR tools this interworks with:
Archie, Gopher, & Wais.
Future plans:
We are working on a gateway to allow Prospero clients
to make directory queries to Gopher and WAIS servers
which do not speak the Prospero protocol.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Servers:
Date completed or updated: 7 July, 1993
Platform: UNIX
Primary Contact:
Name: Clifford Neuman and Steven Augart
Email address: info-prospero@isi.edu
Telephone: (310) 822-1511
Server software available from:
Via anonymous FTP: PROSPERO.ISI.EDU, /pub/prospero/prospero.tar.Z
Via Prospero: /releases/prospero/prospero.tar.Z, in the
"#/INET/EDU/ISI/GUEST/prototype" virtual system.
Note that the name prospero.tar.Z refers to the most stable release
(currently Beta version 5.1). If you want the latest version of
the server (which includes the Gopher gateway), you should retrieve
it by version number; the name for the latest version is
prospero-alpha.5.2.tar.Z
Location of more information:
Contained within the release.
Latest version number:
Alpha Version 5.2
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
The server allows the maintainer to make directory information
available about selected portions of the server's filesystem, such as
anonymously FTPable files. The server also is used to publish
information from other databases, such as Archie. The server also
allows users and maintainers to store their own customized organizing
views of the namespace. Release Alpha.5.2 of the server includes a
gateway feature which treats all Gopher servers as a Prospero
database.
Approximate number of such servers in use:
50
General comments:
Future plans:
A collaborator is currently working on a server to export Prospero
directories via the Gopher protocol. We have a prototype NFS server
that makes Prospero queries, but it is not yet ready to release.
We plan to develop a gateway similar to the existing Gopher gateway
feature for World Wide Web. There is also active work being done on
exporting WAIS indices through Prospero in a way similar to the way
the archie database is exported.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Clients:
Date completed or updated: 7th July, 1993
Platform: UNIX
Primary Contact
Name: Clifford Neuman and Steven Augart
Email address: info-prospero@isi.edu
Telephone: (310) 822-1511
Client software available from:
Via anonymous FTP: PROSPERO.ISI.EDU, /pub/prospero/prospero.tar.Z
Via Prospero: /releases/prospero/prospero.tar.Z, in the
"#/INET/EDU/ISI/swa" virtual system.
Note that the name prospero.tar.Z refers to the most stable release
(currently Beta version 5.1). If you want the latest version of
the clients (which includes the Prospero menu browser), you should
retrieve it by version number; the name for the latest version is
prospero-alpha.5.2.tar.Z
Latest Version number:
Alpha Version 5.2
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
We provide two client interfaces. The older one is a command-line
client, which can be configured to use the same syntax to navigate
through the Prospero namespace that a user uses to navigate through
the UNIX filesystem. ("cd", "ls", etc.) The newer one is a menu-based
file and directory browser similar to the UNIX Gopher client.
General comments:
Archie clients also make queries in the Prospero namespace, so all
Archie clients are Prospero clients too. They are better described in
the Archie report.
Future plans:
We are working on enhancing the menu browser client to allow users to
remotely customize and update virtual systems. We plan to develop a
Prospero hypertext browser.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Demonstration sites :
A guest virtual system is available on PROSPERO.ISI.EDU. However, to
use it, you must compile the Prospero command-line client on your own
machine. Instructions for using it come with the Prospero
distribution.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Documentation:
All of these papers are available via anonymous FTP from
PROSPERO.ISI.EDU. They may additionally be obtained through
Prospero itself by preceding the 'Full file name:' given below with
'/sites/isi.edu' and looking in the '#/INET/EDU/ISI/GUEST/prototype'
virtual system.
Document Title: The Prospero Protocol, version 5
Location details:
Site: PROSPERO.ISI.EDU
Full file name: /pub/prospero/doc/prospero-protocol.PS.Z
Document Title: Prospero User's Manual
Location details:
Site: PROSPERO.ISI.EDU
Full file name: /pub/prospero/doc/prospero-user-manual.PS.Z
Document Title: Prospero Library Manual
Location details:
Site: PROSPERO.ISI.EDU
Full file name: /pub/prospero/doc/prospero-library-manual.PS.Z
Document Title: Prospero Menu-based Browser API Manual
Location details:
Site: PROSPERO.ISI.EDU
Full file name: /pub/prospero/doc/prospero-menu-api.PS.Z
Document Title: Description of Prospero Documents and Papers
Location details:
Site: PROSPERO.ISI.EDU
Full file name: /pub/prospero/papers/README-prospero-documents
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography:
A bibliography listing all publicly available Prospero
documents and papers is available via anonymous FTP from
PROSPERO.ISI.EDU as /pub/prospero/README-prospero-documents
The following papers are also available via anonymous FTP
from PROSPERO.ISI.EDU:
Prospero: /papers/subjects/operating-systems/prospero/prospero-bii.ps.Z
Anonymous FTP: /pub/papers/prospero/prospero-bii.ps.Z
(POSTSCRIPT)
@INPROCEEDINGS{prosperobii,
AUTHOR = "Neuman, B. Clifford and Augart, Steven Seger",
TITLE = "Prospero: A Base for Building Information Infrastructure",
BOOKTITLE = "Proceedings of INET'93",
YEAR = 1993,
MONTH = "August"}
For the readers of this report, this is the first paper you probably
want to read about Prospero. This paper describes how Prospero can
be used to integrate internet information services, including
Gopher, WAIS, Archie, and World Wide Web. The paper will be
presented at INET'93 in August.
Prospero: /papers/subjects/operating-systems/prospero/prospero-oir.ps.Z
Anonymous FTP: /pub/prospero/papers/prospero-oir.ps.Z
(POSTSCRIPT)
@ARTICLE{oir,
AUTHOR = "Neuman, B. Clifford",
TITLE = "Prospero: A Tool for Organizing {I}nternet Resources",
JOURNAL = "Electronic Networking: Research, Applications and Policy",
MONTH = "Spring",
YEAR = 1992,
VOLUME = 2,
NUMBER = 1}
This is the first paper we give to more general computer science
audiences to read. It's also a good first paper to look at. It
gives a good overview of Prospero and what it does. It also
describes a bit about the Virtual System model, of which Prospero is
a prototype implementation. Describes what Prospero does, not how
it does it.
Anonymous FTP: /pub/prospero/papers/prospero-gfsvsm.ps.Z
(POSTSCRIPT)
@INPROCEEDINGS{gfsvsm,
AUTHOR = "Neuman, B. Clifford",
TITLE = "The {P}rospero {F}ile {S}ystem: A Global File System
based on the {V}irtual {S}ystem {M}odel",
BOOKTITLE = "Proceedings of the Workshop on File Systems",
YEAR = 1992,
MONTH = "May"}
This is a good third paper to read about Prospero. This one is
targeted more toward system implementors. It provides more
implementation details than the paper on organizing Internet
resources, but less of the vision of how Prospero can be used together
with other systems.
Prospero: /papers/subjects/operating-systems/prospero/prospero-smlic.ps.Z
Anonymous FTP: /pub/papers/prospero/prospero-smlic.ps.Z
(POSTSCRIPT)
@INPROCEEDINGS{prosperosmlic,
AUTHOR = "Neuman, B. Clifford and Augart, Steven Seger and
Upasani, Shantaprasad",
TITLE = "Using Prospero to Support Integrated
Location-Independent Computing",
BOOKTITLE = "Proceedings of the Usenix Symposium on Mobile and
Location-Independent Computing",
YEAR = 1993,
MONTH = "August"}
This paper describes how the Prospero Directory Service can be used to
solve the server selection problem and the user location problem. The
paper will be presented in August at the Usenix Symposium on Mobile
and Location-Independent Computing.
Anonymous FTP: /pub/prospero/papers/UW-CS-89-01-07.PS.Z
(POSTSCRIPT)
@TECHREPORT{vsmldos,
AUTHOR = "Neuman, B. Clifford",
TITLE = "The {V}irtual {S}ystem {M}odel for Large Distributed
Operating Systems",
INSTITUTION = "Department of Computer Science, University of Washington",
YEAR = 1989,
MONTH = "April",
NUMBER = "89-01-07"}
This describes the initial vision for the Virtual System
Model, the model on which Prospero is based. Much of the material in
this paper appears in greater detail in other papers.
Anonymous FTP: /pub/prospero/papers/UW-CSE-90-05-01.PS.Z
(POSTSCRIPT)
@TECHREPORT{vsmtp,
AUTHOR = "Neuman, B. Clifford",
TITLE = "The {V}irtual {S}ystem {M}odel: A Scalable Approach to
Organizing Large Systems (A Thesis Proposal)",
INSTITUTION = "Department of Computer Science and Engineering,
University of Washington",
YEAR = 1990,
MONTH = "May",
NUMBER = "90-05-01"}
for a long time this was the best description of Prospero, but
all the information in this document appears in more recent papers and
the dissertation itself.
Anonymous FTP: /pub/prospero/papers/prospero-closure.ps.Z
(POSTSCRIPT)
@ARTICLE{nfclosure,
AUTHOR = "Neuman, B. Clifford",
TITLE = "The Need for Closure in Large Distributed Systems",
JOURNAL = "Operating Systems Review",
MONTH = "October",
YEAR = 1989,
VOLUME = 23,
NUMBER = 4,
PAGES = "28--30"}
This paper describes the reasons that operating systems need to
support closure, that is they need to make it clear which name space
is to be used when resolving names. While closure is one of the
important features of Prospero, the concept should be applied in other
operating systems too.
Prospero:
/papers/subjects/operating-systems/prospero/prospero-neuman-thesis.ps.Z
Anonymous FTP: /pub/prospero/papers/prospero-neuman-thesis.ps.Z
(POSTSCRIPT)
@PHDTHESIS{phdneuman,
AUTHOR = "Neuman, B. Clifford",
TITLE = "The {V}irtual {S}ystem {M}odel: A Scalable Approach to
Organizing Large Systems",
SCHOOL = "University of Washington",
MONTH = "June",
YEAR = 1992,
NOTE = "Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Technical Report 92-06-04"}
This is Clifford Neuman's Ph.D. Dissertation. It is currently the
definitive work on Prospero and the Virtual System Model. Includes
an obsolete version of the Prospero User's Manual and of the Prospero
Protocol Specification.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Information:
We provide three documented library interfaces to Prospero in order to
make client writing easy.
The PFS and PCOMPAT libraries are documented in the library reference
manual. The PFS library allows one to directly make Prospero requests
and parse the results and to manipulate Prospero objects as
abstractions. The PCOMPAT library is an interface to the PFS library
which uses the same interface as the UNIX filesystem; one can link
many existing programs with the PCOMPAT library in order to get it to
resolve names in the Prospero namespace. It is not as portable as the
PFS library and does not provide as much functionality.
The third library interface is the menu-browser API library. It is
documented in the menu-based browser API manual and is used by our
menu-based browser.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
VERONICA
Date template updated or checked: October 19, 1993
By: Name: Steven Foster
Email address: foster@veronica.scs.unr.edu
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
NIR Tool Name: veronica
Brief Description of Tool:
veronica: Very Easy Rodent-Oriented Net-wide Index to Computerized
Archives.
veronica is the comprehensive title-index of the world's gopher
servers. Because of veronica, the Gopher web is a
search-and-retrieval system as well as a browsing system. veronica is
popular because the ubiquitous Gopher client can both access the
search server, and provide immediate access to the discovered
resources. Taking advantage of Gopher's linked menus, and of the
policy of open access at most gopher sites, veronica finds and indexes
almost all items on publicly-accessible gopher servers.
As of September, 1993, veronica holds indexes to more than 3300 gopher
servers on approximately 2500 internet hosts. In September 1993 the
public-access veronica sites served an estimated 500,000 queries.
Most queries are resolved in less than ten seconds. Five server sites
offer searches to the internet community, and several other
institutions run servers for internal access.
veronica is easily accessed via any Gopher client. It offers various
types of searches, ranging from single-keyword searches to boolean
queries of indefinite complexity.
A veronica search originates with a user's request for a search,
submitted from a gopher client. The searches may include boolean
operators ( AND, OR, NOT, and parentheses ) and several options to
control the number of items returned, and to restrict the search to
certain gopher types. The result of a veronica search is a set of
gopher-type data items, which is returned to the gopher client as a
gopher menu. Each item on this menu contains the user's desired
keyword or keywords in the item title.
The user can access any of the gopher items by selecting from the
returned menu. Items on this menu may be drawn from many gopher
servers. Because veronica is accessed through gopher clients, it
provides immediate access to all types of data supported by the gopher
protocol and the client implementation.
The veronica service comprises two functions:
1). Harvesting menu data from gopher servers, and preparing it for use;
2). Offering searches of that database to gopher clients.
These two functions are not necessarily provided by the same host
computer. Currently collection and preparation of data are done
at University of Nevada, and datasets are distributed to the other
veronica servers.
The veronica service infrastructure has been fairly stable since July,
1993, with six server machines offering searches for the internet
community. These servers are supported by the participating
institutions: NYSERNET, PSI, SERRA, CNIDR, University of Koeln, and
the University of Nevada System Computing Services. Several
additional servers offer searches with access limited to internal
users; in this class are servers at MSU, SUNET, and the Australian
University system.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Contact(s):
Name: veronica development team
Email address: veronica@veronica.scs.unr.edu
Postal Address: VERONICA development team
SCS Computer Center Building mailstop 270
University of Nevada, Reno
Reno,
NV 89557-0023
Telephone: USA (702) 784-4292 or (702) 784-6557
Fax: USA (702) 784-1108
Name: Fred Barrie
Email address: barrie@cs.unr.edu
Postal Address: SCS Computer Center Building mailstop 270
University of Nevada, Reno
Reno,
NV 89557-0023
Telephone: USA (702) 784-4292 or (702) 784-6557
Fax: USA (702) 784-1108
Name: Steven Foster
Email address: foster@nevada.edu
Postal Address: SCS Computer Center Building mailstop 270
University of Nevada, Reno
Reno,
NV 89557-0023
Telephone: USA (702) 784-4292 or (702) 784-6557
Fax: USA (702) 784-1108
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Help Line:
Name: veronica development team
Email address: veronica@veronica.scs.unr.edu
Telephone: no telephone support available
Level of support offered: all users
Hours available: irregular response latencies to email queries,
based on schedule of developers.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Related Working Groups: GOPHER, FACETS
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sponsoring Organisation / Funding source:
University and Community College System of Nevada Computer Services,
and University of Nevada, Reno. Additional support has been
provided by CNIDR, Pandora Systems, Inc., and Pacific Bell Co.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists:
Address: gopher-news@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Address: veronica-news@veronica.scs.unr.edu
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
News groups:
Name: veronica discussion happens on comp.infosystems.gopher
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Protocols:
What is supported: Gopher protocol, Gopher+ protocol
What it runs over: TCP
Other NIR tools this interworks with: Gopher, WAIS, ftp
Future plans: Implement extensions with Gopher+.
Support for URN/URL standards.
Per-site updates of indexes.
Subject-area-specific indexes.
Indexes for USENET news and LISTSERV articles.
Automated server load-levelling.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Servers:
Date completed or updated: October 19, 1993
By: Name: Steven Foster
Email address: foster@nevada.edu
Platform: UNIX
Primary Contact:
Name: veronica development team
Email address: veronica@veronica.scs.unr.edu
Telephone: USA (702) 784-4292 or (702) 784-6557
Server software available from:
Via ftp: veronica.scs.unr.edu
veronica-code/
veronica-data/
veronica-data.tar.Z
Location of more information:
Via Gopher: veronica.scs.unr.edu
veronica/
veronica-faq
how-to-compose-veronica-queries
Via Gopher: gopher.cnidr.org
veronica
veronica-faq
how-to-compose-veronica-queries
Via ftp: veronica.scs.unr.edu
veronica-code/
veronica-docs/
Latest version number: 0.5
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
Two modules: a data-collection module and a data-server module.
1. Data-collector runs on any Unix computer that does TCP
and compiles perl. This has not been distributed yet.
Data collection, data preparation, and indexing are being
done at veronica.scs.unr.edu. The harvester "walks" all
advertised gopher servers, and any newly-discovered servers.
Almost all redundant links are removed, leaving the
( hopefully ) canonical reference for each item.
Indexes are built at Nevada, and the indexed dataset is
distributed to server sites.
2. Server module.
Servers run on unix computers and answer to gopher-type-7
requests. Boolean keyword logic is implemented. See file
"how-to-compose-veronica-queries". Several options allow
retrieval of items with specified gopher-types, retrieval
of a file of links containing the search results, and
override for the default limit on number of results returned,
which is 200 items.
Server software runs on most flavors of unix, requires dbm
and perl, and requires about 700 MB of data on disk, with
considerable /tmp space available.
Server software is available to any site which wants to run
a server. Server sites are encouraged to offer the service
to the net at large.
Approximate number of such servers in use: eleven.
General comments: Basic veronica service has been fairly stable
since July 1993. Indexing is quite efficient, and
most queries are resolved in ten seconds or quicker.
More than 500,000 queries were resolved in September,
1993.
Though veronica is well-accepted at this level
of service, we are undertaking significant upgrade
efforts during Winter 93-94. We plan to index many
of the Gopher+ attributes, install a Gopher+ query
interface, and possibly provide increased
interoperability with WWW-compliant clients.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Clients:
Date completed or updated: October 19, 1993
By: Name: Steven Foster
Email address: foster@nevada.edu
Platform: veronica is accessed through any of the gopher
clients.
Primary Contact: As for gopher clients.
Client software available from: As for gopher clients.
Location of more information:
Via Gopher: gopher.tc.umn.edu, port 70
1/Information About Gopher
Future plans: veronica will interoperate with Gopher+ clients,
allowing queries to be composed by ASK blocks.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Demonstration sites :
Site name: UCCSN veronica server
Access details: gopher to veronica.scs.unr.edu, port 70.
Open "veronica" folder; choose one of the
search types available.
Site name: University of Minnesota Gopher server
Access details: gopher to gopher.tc.umn.edu, port 70.
Other Gopher and Information Servers
Search Gopherspace with veronica.
choose one of the search types available.
Site name: NYSERNET veronica server
Access details: gopher to nysernet.org, port 70.
Open "Search the Internet" folder;
choose one of veronica searches.
Site name: SERRA veronica server
Access details: gopher to gopher.unipi.it, port 70.
Open "University of Pisa - Services" folder;
choose the veronica search.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Documentation:
Document Title: veronica FAQ: Common Questions and answers about
veronica, a title search and retrieval system for
use with the internet gopher.
Location details:
Via Gopher:
Site: veronica.scs.unr.edu, port 70.
veronica
veronica FAQ
Full file name: veronica-faq
Site: gopher.micro.umn.edu, port 70.
Other Gopher and Information services
Search Gopherspace with veronica
veronica FAQ
Full file name: veronica-faq
Site: gopher.cnidr.org, port 70.
veronica
veronica FAQ
Full file name: veronica-faq
Via anonymous ftp:
Site: veronica.scs.unr.edu
veronica-docs/veronica-faq
Document Title: How to Compose veronica Search Queries.
Location details:
Via Gopher:
Site: veronica.scs.unr.edu, port 70.
veronica
How to Compose veronica Search Queries.
Full file name: how-to-query-veronica
Site: gopher.cnidr.org, port 70.
veronica
How to Compose veronica Search Queries.
Full file name: how-to-query-veronica
Via anonymous ftp:
Site: veronica.scs.unr.edu
veronica-docs/how-to-query-veronica
Document Title: About veronica.
Location details:
Via Gopher:
Site: veronica.scs.unr.edu, port 70.
veronica
About veronica
Full file name: veronica-about
Site: gopher.micro.umn.edu, port 70.
Other Gopher and Information services
Search Gopherspace with veronica
About veronica
Full file name: veronica-about
Site: gopher.cnidr.org, port 70.
veronica
About veronica
Full file name: veronica-about
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography:
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
[Editor's note: the next two sections are to be merged by WAIS Inc. and CNIDR]
WAIS
Date template updated or checked: 18th October, 1993
By: Name: Dia Cheney
Email address: Dia@wais.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
NIR Tool Name: WAIS
Brief Description of Tool:
WAIS - The Wide Area Information Servers system - is an electronic
publishing software set which allows you to search out and retrieve
multimedia information from databases anywhere in the world. This
information can be drawn from data stored on your own desktop, in your
organization mainframe or in a supercomputer on another continent.
WAIS software includes user interfaces for most platforms, and server
software that provides automatic indexing of databases.
WAIS was developed by Thinking Machines Corporation of Cambridge,
Massachusetts in collaboration with Apple Computer, Inc., Dow Jones &
Company, and KPMG Peat Marwick. With over 100 databases and 5,000
users worldwide, WAIS is rapidly becoming a standard for information
distribution within the Internet environment. Much of the software is
currently available for free use.
What does WAIS do?
WAIS allows multimedia information to be stored anywhere on any
platform. Using your interface of choice, WAIS enables you to find
personal, corporate and public information. The information is
accessible regardless of format: text, formatted documents, pictures,
spreadsheets, graphics, sound, or video.
WAIS recognizes natural language queries the search and retrieval of
relevant information is made using your native language. To date, we
have used English, French, Italian, and Latin! The most relevant
documents, regardless of size, can be sent back to the server in their
entirety to further refine your search (telling the server, "Find me
more like this document.") Proven searches can be automatically
repeated, monitoring and alerting you to new information as it becomes
available.
How does WAIS work?
WAIS uses a single computer-to-computer protocol (NISO Z39.50). Each
WAIS server reads your question and based on its words, searches the
full text of the database for the most relevant documents, and ranks
them using automatic word weighting. Servers need not fully
understand your query; the retrieval process is based on a search
method called relevance feedback. Thinking Machines provides an
implementation of Z39.50 to help vendors develop interfaces and
servers.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Contact(s):
Name: Than Lee
Email address: info@wais.com
Postal Address: 1040 Noel Drive, Menlo Park CA 94025 (USA)
Telephone: 415-617-0444
Fax: 415-327-6513
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Help Line:
Name: George Brett
Email address: ghb@concert.net
Telephone: ?
Level of support offered: all users of public domain tools
Hours available: 9-5 EST
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Related Working Groups:
Z39.50 protocol group
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sponsoring Organisation / Funding source:
NSF is funding the CNIDR (George Brett)
DARPA is funding Thinking Machines
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists:
Address: wais-discussion@wais.com
Administration: wais-discussion-request@wais.com
Description:
Moderated, digested biweekly posting about WAIS and Electronic
publishing subjects. Please submit interesting material.
Archive: /pub/wais/mail-archives/wais-discussion/issue-*@wais.com
and wais-discussion-archive WAIS server
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists:
Address: wais-talk@wais.com
Administration: wais-talk-request@wais.com
Description:
Implementors forum on WAIS. This is for talking about nitty gritty
details of protocols and implementations.
Archive: /pub/wais/mail-archives/wais-talk@wais.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
News groups:
Name: comp.infosystems.wais
Description: Variable quality information on WAIS.
Archive: wais-talk-archive WAIS server
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Protocols:
What is supported: z39.50
What it runs over:
The freeware runs over tcp/ip. Production versions have worked
over x.25 and modems as well.
Other NIR tools this interworks with:
Gopher and WWW have been used as front ends to WAIS.
Future plans:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Servers: Freeware Unix
Date completed or updated: 18th November, 1992
By: Name: Brewster Kahle
Email address: brewster@think.com
Platform: Most Unix variations
Primary Contact:
Name: Jonathan Goldman
Email address: jonathan@think.com
Telephone: 415-329-9300
Server software available from:
/pub/freeware/*@wais.com via anonymous ftp
Location of more information:
Latest version number: 8-b5
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
server and client code for WAIS.
Approximate number of such servers in use:
70 with making 325 databases
General comments:
Give it a shot, but remember that it is freeware.
------------------
Servers: Connection Machine WAIS server
Date completed or updated: 18th November, 1992
By: Name: Brewster Kahle
Email address: Brewster@wais.com
Platform: Connection Machine Model 2
Primary Contact:
Name: Ottavia Bassetti
Email address: ottavia@wais.com
Telephone: 617-234-1000
Server software available from: Thinking Machines Corp.
245 First Street
Cambridge, MA 02145
Location of more information:
Latest version number:
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
Software that runs on CM2 Connection Machines to make them into WAIS
servers.
Approximate number of such servers in use:
10
General comments: Requires CM2 super computer.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Clients:
Date completed or updated: 18th November, 1992
By: Name: Brewster Kahle
Email address: brewster@wais.com
Platform: NeXT
Primary Contact:
Name: Paul Burchard
Email address: burchard@math.utah.edu
Telephone:
Client software available from:
/pub/wais/feeware/next@wais.com via anonymous FTP
Location of more information:
Latest version number: 1.9
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
General comments: NeXT client and server
Future plans:
------------------
Date completed or updated: 8th October, 1993
By: Name: Brewster Kahle
Email address: brewster@wais.com
Platform: EIWAIS 1.52
Primary Contact:
Name: Kevin Gourley
Email address: pc-shareware@einet.net
Telephone:
Client software available from:
/pub/wais/freeware/windows@wais.com via anonymous FTP
Location of more information:
Latest version number: Version 1.52
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
General comments:
Future plans:
--------------------------
Date completed or updated: 18th November, 1992
By: Name: Brewster Kahle
Email address: Brewster@wais.com
Platform: telnet access (vt100)
Primary Contact:
Name: John Curran
Email address: jcurran@nnsc.nsf.net
Telephone:
Client software available from:
/pub/wais/freeware/unix-src/wais-8-65.1-swais-patches@wais.com
Location of more information:
telnet to quake.think.com log in as wais.
Latest version number:
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
General comments:
Future plans:
------------------
Date completed or updated: 1st October, 1993
By: Name: Brewster Kahle
Email address: brewster@wais.com
Platform: MacWAIS 1.25
Primary Contact:
Name: John Hardin
Email address: mac-shareware@einet.net
Telephone:
Client software available from:
/pub/wais/feeware/mac@wais.com via anonymous FTP
Location of more information:
Latest version number: 1.25
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
General comments:
Future plans:
------------------
Date completed or updated: 18th November, 1992
By: Name: Brewster Kahle
Email address: Brewster@wais.com
Platform: Mac Hypercard
Primary Contact:
Name: Francois Schiettecatte
Email address: francois@wais.com
Telephone:
Client software available from:
/pub/wais/freeware/mac/HyperWais*@wais.com
Location of more information:
Latest version number:
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
General comments:
Future plans:
------------------
Date completed or updated: 18th November, 1992
By: Name: Brewster Kahle
Email address: Brewster@wais.com
Platform: VMS
Primary Contact:
Name: Jim Fullton
Email address: Fullton@rhumba.oit.unc.edu
Telephone:
Client software available from:
Location of more information:
Latest version number:
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
General comments:
Future plans:
------------------
Date completed or updated: 18th November, 1992
By: Name: Brewster Kahle
Email address: Brewster@wais.com
Platform: DOS
Primary Contact:
Name: Jim Fullton
Email address: Fullton@rhumba.oit.unc.edu
Telephone:
Client software available from:
Location of more information:
Latest version number:
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
General comments:
Future plans:
------------------
Date completed or updated: 18th November, 1992
By: Name: Brewster Kahle
Email address: Brewster@wais.com
Platform: DOS
(Clarkson packet driver and Erick Englke's WATT/TCP)
Primary Contact:
Name: Faeiz Hindi
Email address: hindi@eniac.seas.upenn.edu
Telephone:
Client software available from:
/pub/tcpip/pcwais.zip@hilbert.wharton.upenn.edu
Location of more information:
Latest version number:
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
General comments:
Future plans:
------------------
Date completed or updated: 18th November, 1992
By: Name: Brewster Kahle
Email address: Brewster@wais.com
Platform: AVS
Primary Contact:
Name: Steve Thorpe
Email address: thorpe@ncsc.org
Telephone:
Client software available from:
DATA/awais/*@avs.ncsc.org
Location of more information:
Latest version number:
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
General comments:
Future plans:
------------------
Date completed or updated: 18th November, 1992
By: Name: Brewster Kahle
Email address: Brewster@wais.com
Platform: RS6000
Primary Contact:
Name: Dennis Shiao
Email address: shiao@ans.net
Telephone:
Client software available from:
/pub/freeware/rs6000/wais-8-b3-dist.tar.Z@wais.com
Location of more information:
Latest version number:
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
General comments: client and server
Future plans:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Demonstration sites :
List of sites which are willing to act as demonstration
sites for this application.
Site name: quake.think.com
Access details: telnet quake.think.com
login as wais.
(this is the worst of all possible interfaces since it is just a
dumb terminal interface)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Documentation:
o current overview
- "WAIS Server, WAIS Workstation, and WAIS Forwarder Technical
Description", Release 1.0, July, 1993.
Available via anonymous ftp:
/pub/wais-inc-doc/tech-desc-msword.sea.hqx@ftp.wais.com
- "Interfaces for Distributed Systems of Information Servers", Brewster
Kahle, Harry Morris, Jonathan Goldman (Thinking Machines Corporation),
Thomas Erickson (Apple Computer), John Curran (NSF Network Service
Center), March, 1992. (formally named "Interfaces for Wide Area
Information Servers")
Available via anonymous ftp:
/pub/wais-inc-doc/Interfaces.txt@ftp.wais.com
or WAIS server wais-discussion-archives.src
o instructions to information providers
See the documentation in the release:
/pub/freeware/unix-src/wais-8-65.1.tar.z@wais.com
or the wais-docs.src WAIS server.
o user manuals
The Mac interface WAIStation has a user manual. The unix
commands have man pages.
o training materials
- tutorials
- canned demos
- Macintosh demostration screen-movie: Steve Cisler of Apple put together
a short screen-recorder movie for seeing some of what WAIStation
does.
Available via anonymous FTP:
/pub/wais-docs/WAIStation-Canned-Demo.sit.hqx@wais.com
- sample session (screen dumps)
- "WAIStation, A User Interface for WAIS", February 1991, Thinking
Machines technical report TMC-203.
User interface documentation with screen shots.
- videos
Available in special circumstances. Contact info@wais.com.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography:
- "WAIS Bibliography", WAIS Inc, (last update) September 1993.
Available via anonymous ftp:
/pub/wais/wais-inc-doc/bibliography.txt@wais.com or
WAIS server wais-discussion-archive.src
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Information: None
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
freeWAIS
Date template updated or checked: 3rd July, 1993
By: Name: Jane Smith
Email address: Jane.Smith@cnidr.org
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
NIR Tool Name: freeWAIS
Brief Description of Tool:
Many enhancements and fixes to the current wais-8-b5 release have been
incorporated into freeWAIS 0.1. freeWAIS 0.n is designed to be the
drop-in backwards compatibility module for an application
currently in development, will include support for Z39.50-92.
The current WAIS protocol extensions to Z39.50-88 are incompatible
with Z39.50-92, but freeWAIS 0.1 will provide the necessary backwards
compatibility so queries may be answered from either client set.
Some features:
Boolean searches (AND,OR,NOT)
Stemming (optional - may be turned on/off at compile time)
Better content in source structures - the top 20 or so words in a
database are included in the .src file to improve location.
Dual directory-of-servers registration - quake.think.com and
cnidr.org to provide some redundancy.
Literal and partial word searches
Access control
Thesaurus support for individual databases
Better intermediate file merging
Better document scoring
A summary of fixes and enhancements may be found in
ftp://ftp/cnidr.org/pub/NIDR.tools/freeWAIS-0.1/RELEASE-NOTES
If you are interested in discussing wais, freeWAIS, or Z39.50, three
discussion lists exist for these purposes:
wais-talk@think.com - Z39.50-88 compliant versions
zip@cnidr.org - Z39.50-92 compliant application (unnamed)
z3950iw@nervm.bitnet - Z39.50 protocol
Send standard subscription requests (subscribe listname Firstname
Lastname) to:
listname-request@site.domain
as in
zip-request@cnidr.org
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Contact(s):
Name: George Brett
Email address: George.Brett@cnidr.org
Postal Address: MCNC Center for Communications
PO Box 12889, 3021 Cornwallis Road
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2889
Telephone: 919-549-1499
Fax: 919-549-1405
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Help Line:
Name: freeWAIS
Email address: freeWAIS@cnidr.org
Telephone: 919-549-1499
Level of support offered: bug reports only
Hours available: 9-5 EST
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Related Working Groups:
Z39.50 protocol group (NISO - National Information Standards
Organization) Integration of Internet Information Resources (IETF -
Internet Engineering Task Force)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sponsoring Organisation / Funding source:
National Science Foundation
MCNC Center for Communications
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists:
Address: zip@cnidr.org
Administration: zip-request@cnidr.org
Description:
Technical discussion of Z39.50-compliant wide area information systems
applications developments.
Archive: ftp:ftp.cnidr.org//pub/NIDR.tools/zip
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists:
Address: freeWAIS@cnidr.org
Administration: not applicable
Description:
Mailing list for reporting bugs in freeWAIS
Archive: None
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists:
Address: wais-discussion@think.com
Administration: wais-discussion-request@think.com
Description:
Moderated, digested biweekly posting about WAIS and Electronic
publishing subjects. Please submit interesting material.
Archive: /pub/wais/wais-discussion/issue-*@quake.think.com
and wais-discussion-archive WAIS server
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists:
Address: wais-talk@think.com
Administration: wais-talk-request@think.com
Description:
Implementors forum on WAIS. This is for talking about nitty gritty
details of protocols and implementations.
Archive: wais-talk-archive WAIS server
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
News groups:
Name: comp.infosystems.wais
Description: Variable quality information on WAIS.
Archive: wais-talk-archive WAIS server
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Protocols:
What is supported: z39.50-1988 with extensions
What it runs over:
tcp/ip
Other NIR tools this interworks with:
WAIS 8-b5
Gopher and WWW have been used as front ends to WAIS
freeWAIS required for WWW client direct access to WAIS servers.
Future plans:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Servers: freeWAIS
Date completed or updated: 3rd June, 1992
By: Name: Jane Smith
Email address: Jane.Smith@cnidr.org
Platform: Most Unix variations
Primary Contact:
Name: Jim Fullton
Email address: Jim.Fullton@cnidr.org
Telephone: 919-248-9247
Server software available from:
ftp:ftp.cnidr.org//pub/NIDR.tools/freeWAIS
gopher:gopher.cnidr.org//NIDR Tools/Software and Protocols/freeWAIS
Location of more information:
Latest version number: 0.1
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
server and client code for freeWAIS.
Approximate number of such servers in use:
unknown
General comments:
freeWAIS 0.1 is basically WAIS 8-b5 with bells and whistles added.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Clients:
Date completed or updated: 3rd June, 1993
By: Name: Jane Smith
Email address: Jane.Smith@cnidr.org
Platforms: DOS
Macintosh
NeXT
Unix
VMS
Windows
Windows NT
x
Primary Contact:
Name: Kevin Gamiel
Email address: Kevin.Gamiel@cnidr.org
Telephone: 919-248-1911
Client software available from:
ftp:sunsite.unc.edu://pub/wais
gopher:sunsite.unc.edu://Sunsite Archives/Browse All Sunsite Archives/
Location of more information:
Latest version number:
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
General comments:
Future plans:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Demonstration sites :
List of sites which are willing to act as demonstration
sites for this application.
Site name: quake.think.com
Access details: telnet quake.think.com
login as wais.
(this is the worst of all possible interfaces since it is just a
dumb terminal interface)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Documentation:
o current overview
- "Wide Area Information Servers", (overview sheet) Brewster Kahle,
Thinking Machines. Also in NSF Network News, Number 11, March 1992.
One page overview of the Internet release of WAIS.
Available via anonymous ftp:
/pub/wais/wais-discussion/overview.txt@quake.think.com or
WAIS server wais-discussion-archive.src
o instructions to information providers
See the documentation in the release:
/wais/wais-8-*.tar.Z@think.com or the wais-docs.src WAIS server.
o user manuals
The Mac interface WAIStation has a user manual. The unix
commands have man pages.
o training materials
- tutorials
- canned demos
- Macintosh demostration screen-movie: Steve Cisler put together
a short screen-recorder movie for seeing some of what WAIStation
does.
Available via anonymous FTP:
/wais/WAIStation-Canned-Demo.sit.hqx@think.com
- sample session (screen dumps)
- "WAIStation, A User Interface for WAIS", February 1991, Thinking
Machines technical report TMC-203.
User interface documentation with screen shots.
Available via anonymous ftp:
/pub/wais/doc/waistation_users_guide.txt@quake.think.com or WAIS
server wais-docs.src
- videos
Available in special circumstances. Contact Barbara@think.com.
- etc.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography:
- "WAIS Bibliography", Barbara Lincoln Brooks, Thinking Machines,
October, 1992. (This list).
Available via anonymous ftp:
/pub/wais/wais-discussion/bibliography.txt@quake.think.com or
WAIS server wais-discussion-archive.src
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Information: None
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
WHOIS
Date template updated or checked: 23 March 1993
By: Name: Joan Gargano
Email address: jcgargano@ucdavis.edu
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
NIR Tool Name: Whois
Brief Description of Tool:
As currently defined, NICNAME/WHOIS services is a TCP transaction based
query/response server, running on a few specific central machines, that
provides netwide directory service to internet users. Since the WHOIS
service was defined in 1985, it has evolved into a distributed service.
The DDN Network Information Center, maintains the central NICNAME
database and server, providing online look-up of individuals, network
organizations, DDN nodes, and other information of interest to those
involved in management of the Internet. In addition, many sites now
maintain local directory servers with information about individuals,
departments and services at that specific site. Typically these directory
servers are network accessible. Because these servers are local, there are
now wide variations in the type of data stored, access, search schemes, and
interface. In general, however, the whois servers provide ascii text
responses to queries which conform to the RFC 954 specifications.
A template and instructions for submitting information to the DDN
directory can be retrieved via anonymous ftp in:
nic.ddn.mil:templates/user-template.txt
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Contact(s): The DDN Network Information Center
Name: Hostmaster
Email address: hostmaster@nic.ddn.mil
Postal Address: Government Systems, Inc.
14200 Park Meadow Dr., Suite 200
Chantilly, VA 22021
Telephone: (703)742-4777
Fax: (703)742-4811
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Help Line (for major center as well as each client):
Name: Hostmaster
Email address: hostmaster@nic.ddn.mil
Telephone: (703)742-4777
Level of support offered:
o funded
o all users
Hours available:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Related Working Groups:
Whois and Network Information Lookup Service (WNILS)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sponsoring Organisation / Funding source:
National Science Foundations
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists:
Address: ietf-wnils@ucdavis.edu
Administration: ietf-wnils-request
Description:
This mailing list is used by the IETF Whois and Network Information
Lookup Service (WNILS) working group which is defining enhancements to
whois.
Archive: ucdavis.edu:/archive/ietf-wnils
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
News groups:
None.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Protocols:
What is supported: TCP/whois
What it runs over: TCP/IP networks
Other NIR tools this interworks with:
Future plans: Enhancements through whois++
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Servers:
Date completed or updated: 23 March 1993
By: Name: Joan Gargano
Platform: Unix
Primary Contact: DDN Network Information Center
Name: Hostmaster
Email address: hostmaster@nic.ddn.mil
Telephone: (703)742-4777
Server software available from:
nic.ddn.mil:netprog
-----------------
Date completed or updated: 23 March 1993
By: Name: Joan Gargano
Platform: 386BSD Unix
Primary Contact: Univ. of California, Berkeley
Name: Computer Science Research Group
Email address:
Telephone:
Server software available from:
agate.berkeley.edu:/pub/386BSD/386bsd-0.1/filesystem/usr/bin
-----------------
Date completed or updated: 23 March 1993
By: Name: Joan Gargano
Platform: IBM RS6000
Primary Contact:
Name:
Email address:
Telephone:
Server software available from:
uvaarpa.virginia.edu:/pub/rs6000
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Clients:
Clients are available from the sources listed for server software.
VMS clients are available from TVG/Multinet
Most TCP/IP networking packages for personal computers
include a whois client.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Demonstration sites :
Site name: nic.ddn.mil
Access details:
Using a whois client,
whois -h nic.ddn.mil "name"
where "name" is the name of a person.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Documentation:
Document Title: RFC 954
Location details:
Site: nic.ddn.mil:/rfc
Full file name: rfc954.txt
Document Title: Specifications for WHOIS Services
Location details:
Site: gopher.ucdavis.edu
Full file name: /pub/IETF/WNILS/Discussion.Paper
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography:
RFC 954
Specifications for WHOIS Services, a working paper presented
to the IETF Whois Birds of a Feather. Available via
anonymous ftp gopher.ucdavis.edu:/pub/IETF/WNILS/Discussion.Paper
and gopher to gopher.ucdavis.edu:/IETF/WNILS
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Information:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Evaluation:
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
World-Wide Web
Date template updated or checked: 2nd July, 1993
By: Name: Tim Berners-Lee
Email address: timbl@info.cern.ch
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
NIR Tool Name: World-Wide Web
Brief Description of Tool:
The WWW project merges the techniques of information retrieval and
hypertext to make an easy but powerful global information system.
The project is based on the philosophy that much academic information
should be easily available anywhere. It aims to allow information
sharing within internationally dispersed teams, and the dissemination
of information by support groups. Originally aimed at the High Energy
Physics community, it has spread to other areas and attracted much
interest in user support, resource discovery and collaborative work
areas. It is currently the most advanced information system deployed
on the Internet.
READER VIEW
The WWW world consists of documents, and links. Indexes are special
documents which, rather than being read, may be searched. The result
of such a search is another ("virtual") document containing links to
the documents found. A simple protocol (" HTTP ") is used to allow a
browser program to request a keyword search by a remote information
server.
The web contains documents in many formats. Those documents which are
hypertext, (real or virtual) contain links to other documents, or
places within documents. All documents, whether real, virtual or
indexes, look similar to the reader and are contained within the same
addressing scheme.
To follow a link, a reader clicks with a mouse (or types in a
number if he or she has no mouse). To search and index, a reader
gives keywords (or other search criteria). These are the only
operations necessary to access the entire world of data.
INFORMATION PROVIDER VIEW
The WWW browsers can access many existing data systems via existing
protocols (FTP, NNTP) or via HTTP and a gateway. In this way, the
critical mass of data is quickly exceeded, and the increasing use of
the system by readers and information suppliers encourage each other.
Providing information is as simple as running the W3 server and
pointing it at an existing directory structure. The server
automatically generates the a hypertext view of your files to guide
the user around.
To personalize it, you can write a few SGML hypertext files to give an
even more friendly view. Also, any file available by anonymous FTP,
or any internet newsgroup can be immediately linked into the web. The
very small start-up effort is designed to allow small contributions.
At the other end of the scale, large information providers may provide
an HTTP server with full text or keyword indexing. This may allow
access to a large existing database without changing the way that
database is managed. Such gateways have already been made into
Oracle(tm), WAIS, and Digital's VMS/Help systems, to name but a few.
The WWW model gets over the frustrating incompatibilities of data
format between suppliers and reader by allowing negotiation of
format between a smart browser and a smart server. This should
provide a basis for extension into multimedia, and allow those who
share application standards to make full use of them across the
web.
This summary does not describe the many exciting possibilities
opened up by the WWW project, such as efficient document caching.
the reduction of redundant out-of-date copies, and the use of
knowledge daemons. There is more information in the online project
documentation, including some background on hypertext and many
technical notes.
GETTING STARTED
You can try the simple line mode browser by telnetting to info.cern.ch
(no user or password. From UK JANET, use the Gateway ). You can try
a full screen interface "Lynx" by telnetting to ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu,
login in as "www". You can also find out more about WWW in this way.
These are the least sophisticated browsers -- remember that the
window-oriented ones are much smarter! It is much more efficient to
install a browser on your own machine, and you have many more
facilities.
If you have an X-windows based workstation, just FTP to
FTP.NCSA.UIUC.EDU and get the binary of NCSA's "Mosaic" browser in
directory /Web/xmosaic. Download it, uncompress it, set it
executable, and run it. It will tell you all you need to know.
If you have an MSDOS machine with Windows, get the "Cello" browser
from FATTY.LAW.CORNELL.EDU.
[Editor's note: Mosaic is now available for PCs and Apple Macs.]
The line mode browser is currently available in source form by
anonymous FTP from node info.cern.ch [currently 128.141.201.74] if you
take both files
/pub/www/src/WWWLibrary_v.vv.tar.Z.
/pub/www/src/WWWLineMode_v.vv.tar.Z.
(v.vv is the version number - take the latest.)
Also available is a hypertext editor for the NeXT (in
/pub/www/bin/next), the MidasWWW and ViolaWWW browsers for X11, an
alpha-test Mac browser, and and a basic server
(/pub/www/src/WWWDaemon_v.vv.tar.Z). Documentation, including the
latest list of software available , is readable using www. A plain
text version of the installation instructions is included in the tar
file!
Printable (postscript) documentation and articles are in
/pub/www/doc.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Contact(s):
Name: Tim Berners-Lee
Email address: timbl@info.cern.ch
Postal Address: CERN, 1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland
Telephone: +41(22)767 3755
Fax: +41(22)767 7155
Name: Robert Cailliau
Email address: cailliau@cernnext.cern.ch
Postal Address: CERN, 1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland
Telephone: +41(22)767 5005
Fax: +41(22)767 7155
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Help Line (for www technical or political issues):
Name: www support
Email address: www-bug@info.cern.ch
Telephone: none.
Telnet: info.cern.ch for information.
Level of support offered:
o funded for High-Energy Physics users
o volunteer for others who have read the online
information already.
While CERN collaborates with all NIR and W3 development
anywhere, CERN cannot provide user support for non-HEP end users.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Related Working Groups: NIR, URL, IIIR
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Sponsoring Organisations / Funding source: NO FUNDING SOURCE
Bodies providing developpment effort include
HEP labs (CERN, CH; SLAC: CA, USA; FNAL, IL, USA, NIKHEF, NL; etc),
National Center for SuperComputer Applications (NCSA, IL, USA)
O'Reilly Associates, (ORA, CA, USA)
Clearinghouse for Networked Information Discovery and Retrieval
(CNIDR, NC,USA)
Other sources welcomed!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroup:
Name: comp.infosystems.www
Description: General technical discussion, announcements
of new software, information sources, etc.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists:
1. Address: www-talk@info.cern.ch for CONTRIBUTIONS ONLY
Administration: listserv@info.cern.ch (robot)
www-talk-request@info.cern.ch (human)
Description: Technical discussion, W3 related.
Experts to experts. General questions to
comp.infosystems.www, please.
Archive: Not currently served, but kept.
-------------------
2. Address: www-announce@info.cern.ch
NOT FOR GENERAL USE - serious low-volume
announcements only
Administration: listserv@info.cern.ch (robot)
www-announce-request@info.cern.ch (human)
Description: Low volume summary announcemements
of product releases, etc.
Archive: Not currently public
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Protocols:
What is supported: HTTP
FTP
anonymous FTP
Gopher
NNTP
WAIS (compile time option)
Local mounted file access
Telnet sessions
Rlogin sessions
What it runs over: TCP/IP
DECnet option.
Other NIR servers W3 clients interworks with:
Techinfo, Hyper-G both via gatewaya.
Built-in capability in clients for others above
Archie access via WWW "WARCHIE" archie server
with direct hypertext pointers to FTP sites.
Future plans: Collaborative work features,
Hypertext editors for information organisation
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
HTTP Servers:
Platform: unix, VMS, VM/XA, VM/CMS
Primary Contact www-bug@info.cern.ch
Server software available from:
ftp://info.cern.ch/pub/www/src
Location of more information:
http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/Daemon/User/Guide.html
Latest version number: 2.07
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
* Fast stateless file server runs over TCP/IP.
* Suitable for rapind documentation navigation.
* Multimedia server allows multiple file formats to be used.
* File format selected for transmission based on client capabilities.
* Logging
Approximate number of such servers in use: 150
General comments:
Some servers serve many databases.
Many tools available for serving different sorts
of information
Gnu info
teX
SGML
man pages
etc as hypertext.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other servers:
For more information use WWW to access
http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/Daemon/Overview.html
Servers include:
NCSA server A server for files, written in C, public domain.
Runs on top of a gopher-style database just like
"gopherd".
NCSA recommend NCSA httpd, available at
ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu in /Mosaic/ncsa_httpd
Perl server from Marc VanHeyningen at Indiana University.
Written in perl .
Plexus Tony Sander's version of Marc VH's.
Authorization by IP address, etc
Many fancy features.
MacHTTPD Server for the Macintosh
REXX for VM A server consisting of a small C program which
passes control to a server written in REXX.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mail Server:
Platform: unix
Primary Contact www-bug@info.cern.ch
Server software available from:
ftp://info.cern.ch/pub/www/src/WWWMailRobot_*.tar.Z
Location of more information:
http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/MailRobot/Overview.html
Latest version number: 1.0
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
Mailing list subscription/unsubscription handling
Return of documents given URL
Restricts length of data returned.
Allows access to ANY document by URL unless restrictions
are imposed (FTP, news, etc, included). Quite generic.
When hypertext messages are retrieved, the links are
numbered like [1] and a list of URLs of referenced documents
is appended to the document.
Send message containing HELP for details.
Approximate number of such servers in use: 1 (-3?)
General comments
Extends potential readership of W3 information to anyone
with email, so an important step for universal readership.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE: A full list of client software is kept in
http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/Clients.html
and is not repeated here, as the list is constantly
changing. Around 14 different clients. Only the most basic
and Mosaic are covered here.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Editor's note: the following need to be merged better]
Client: Line Mode Browser
Date completed or updated: 29th October, 1992
By: Name: Tim Berners-Lee
Email address: timbl@info.cern.ch
Platform: X (sun4, sgi, rs6000, decstation, etc)
Primary Contact:
By: Name: Tim Berners-Lee
Email address: timbl@info.cern.ch
Client software available from:
ftp://info.crn.ch/pub/www/src
Location of more information:
http://info.cern.ch./hypertext/WWW/LineMode/Browser.html
and linked documents
Latest version number: 90730
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
The LineMode Browser is suitable for use on dumb terminals, requiring
no control sequences except for carriage return and line feed. It is
also of course useable from terminal emulators in workstation windows.
It can also be used as a text formatter, as part of a mail server, and
as a general information retrieval tool.
History list, Back/Next/Previous/Home navigation, ability to print or
save documents (or pipe to shell commands on unix).
General comments:
Very stable product which has many uses apart from interactive use.
Source release requires W3 library product.
Public Domain.
Future plans:
Future enhancements to include tracing of many links. Curses
full-screen operation not yet released.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Demonstration sites :
telnet info.cern.ch or telnet 128.141.201.74 (SWITZERLAND)
telnet eies2.njit.edu or telnet 128.235.1.43 (USA [NJ])
telnet vms.huji.ac.il or telnet 128.139.4.3 (ISRAEL)
telnet info.funet.fi or telnet 128.214.6.100 (FINLAND)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Documentation:
All the W3 documentation available is in the web. Some is also dumped
off into postscript. Here are the URLs of entry points into the web
for the subjects requested:
** To retrieve any document by URL, use WWW (www <url> for example) or
** send mail containing the command "send " followed by the URl to
** listserv@info.cern.ch
o current overview
http://info.cern.ch./hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html
o executive summary
http://info.cern.ch./hypertext/WWW/Summary.html
o instructions to information providers
http://info.cern.ch./hypertext/WWW/Provider/Overview.html
o Frequently Asked Questions
http://info.cern.ch./hypertext/WWW/FAQ/List.html
o user manuals
See under individual products.
ftp://info.cern.ch/pub/www/doc/*.txt
o training materials
Illustrated talk on WWW including transparencies: see
ftp://info.cern.ch/pub/www/doc
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Client: NCSA MOSAIC for X
[Editor's note; this ection to be integrated better here]
Date completed or updated: 24th June, 1993
By: Name: Marc Andreessen
Email address: marca@ncsa.uiuc.edu
Platform:
X Window System (Unix) -- Sun, DEC, IBM, SGI, HP, others.
Primary Contact:
Name: Marc Andreessen
Email address: marca@ncsa.uiuc.edu
Postal Address: National Center for Supercomputing Applications
605 E. Springfield
Champaign, IL 61820
Telephone: 217 244 0765
Client software available from:
ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu in /Web/Mosaic.
Location of more information:
ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu in /Web/mosaic, and online, within Mosaic.
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosaic/Docs/help-about.html
Latest version number: 1.1
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
NCSA Mosaic for the X Window System is a client interface to a wide
variety of networked information systems, including World Wide Web,
Gopher, WAIS, FTP, Usenet News, Archie, Techinfo, X.500, Hytelnet,
Telnet, NCSA Data Management Facility, CSO ph/qi and others. It
offers a Motif-based point-and-click X interface with support for
plaintext, formatted text, and embedded images; hyperlinks can also
refer to images, video sequences, audio clips, PostScript files, etc.
Mosaic also offers substantial interaction and collaboration
facilities, including global history tracking, text and voice
annotations, group/community-wide annotations, and more.
General comments:
1.1 was released June '93 and is stable. 2.0 is targeted for
release August '93.
Future plans:
Enhancement of the NCSA Mosaic environment to support advanced
networked information systems and collaboration capabilities;
development of clients on other architectures; research and
development into intelligent agent-style user assistance
mechanisms and novel navigation and representation strategies for
dense, dynamic, distributed information spaces. (This is all
dependent upon funding, of course.) Mac and Microsoft Windows 3.1
versions are expected to be released in fall of 1993.
Sponsoring Organisation / Funding source:
National Center for Supercomputing Applications
Protocols:
What is supported:
Natively, Mosaic talks HTTP, Gopher, FTP, NNTP, NCSA DTM, CSO ph/qi
and directly to local filesystems. Through public gateways Mosaic
talks to WAIS, Hytelnet, Archie, Techinfo, X.500, and others.
What it runs over:
TCP/IP
Client software available from:
ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu in /Web/Mosaic.
Location of more information:
ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu in /Web/mosaic, and online, within Mosaic.
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosaic/Docs/help-about.html
Latest version number: 1.1
General comments:
1.1 was released June '93 and is stable. 2.0 is targeted for
release August '93.
Future plans:
As described above.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Documentation: (Mosaic)
o current overview
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosaic/Docs/help-about.html
o instructions to information providers
http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/Provider/Overview.html
o Frequently Asked Questions
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosaic/Docs/mosaic-faq.html
o user manuals
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosaic/Docs/mosaic-docs.html
o training materials
- tutorials
- canned demos
- sample session (screen dumps)
- videos
- etc.
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/demoweb/demo.html
o miscellaneous documents
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosaic/Docs/help-about.html
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
[General WWW bilbiography]
Bibliography:
o For latest list, see:
http://info.cern.ch./hypertext/WWW/Bibliography.html
Bibliography for the World Wide Web
WORLD-WIDE WEB BIBLIOGRAPHY
The following lists papers and articles anout the W3 initiative and
related matters which you may want to pick up for background reading
or quote as references. You can of course also quote any page you
read with w3 by its document address.
See also: W3 manuals available in printed form
Papers
INTRODUCTION TO W3
T.J. Berners-Lee, R. Cailliau, J-F Groff, B. Pollermann, CERN,
"World-Wide Web: The Information Universe", published in
"Electronic Networking: Research, Applications and Policy", Vol. 2
No 1, pp. 52-58 Spring 1992, Meckler Publishing, Westport, CT, USA.
The global hypertext dream comes true in practice.
Pick up the preprint in postscript form by anonymous FTP to
info.cern.ch, in /pub/www/doc/, filename ENRAP_9202.ps.
CHEP92: SHORT OVERVIEW AND STATUS
T.J. Berners-Lee and R. Cailliau, CERN, "The World-Wide Web", in
proceedings of the conference "Computing in High Energy Physics",
Annecy, France, 1992. To be published as a CERN yellow report.
A short overview of the Web and in particular the software
available at the time. Four pages, four figures.
Preprint abailable in postscript form by anonymous FTP from
info.cern.ch as /pub/www/doc/chep92www.ps.
TECHNICAL OVERVIEW: PROTOCOLS AND DATA FORMATS.
Berners-Lee, T.J, R. Cailliau and J.-F. Groff, The World-Wide Web,
Computer Networks and ISDN Systems 25 (1992) 454-459.
Noth-Holland.
Describes the W3 initiaitive, protocols and data formats, how
people have made data available for the web.
As presented at Joint European Networking Conference , Innsbruck,
Austria, 1992.
TECHNICAL OVERVIEW OF W3 FOR SYSTEM MANAGERS
T.J. Berners-Lee, R. Cailliau, J-F Groff, B. Pollermann, CERN,
"World-Wide Web: An Information Infrastructure for High-Energy
Phsyics", Presented at "Articicial Inteligence and Software
Engineering for High Energy Physics" in La Londe, France, January
1992. Proceedings to be published by World Scientific, Singapore,
ed. D Perret-Gallix.
Aimed at system managers and software engineers. 9 pages. The W3
architecture diagram, a usage graph, and some examples of hypertext
formats, etc.
Pick up the preprint in postscript form by anonymous FTP to
info.cern.ch, in /pub/www/doc/, filename www-for-hep.ps.
(Writenow , postscript )
Manuals
These manuals on WWW products are available by anonymmous FTP from
info.cern.ch.
See the list of manuals.
Universal Resource Locators etc
URLS
Universal Resource Locators is the IETF name for a WWW document
address. URLs are defined in draft document discussed at Nov 92
IETF working group. Draft document available by anonymoud FTP from
info.cern.ch in /pub/ietf as url3.ps or url3.txt (postscript or
plain text).
Supercedes the following paper:
UDIS
Naming and addressing discussed, UDI proposal. Produced for the
March92 IETF. Also an OSI-DS draft. 14 pages. Pick it up in
postscript form or plain ASCII by anonymous FTP from info.cern.ch
in /pub/www/doc as file udi1.ps or udi1.txt.
(postscript, plain text , writenow )
W3, WAIS AND X500
Discussion of convergence, what W3 needs from the WAIS and x500
protocols.
Also an OSI-DS draft. You can pick it up in postscript form by
anonymous FTP from info.cern.ch in /pub/www/doc as file
wais-x500-w3.ps.
Books
THE WHOLE INTERNET
t
Krol, Ed, "The Whole INTERNET User's Guide and Catalog".
Sebastopol CA, O'Reilly Associates, 1992. ISBN=1-56592-025-2. S
A book all about using the internet, for professionals but not =
necessarily computer professionals. Has a chapter on WWW
specifically, and an appendix with a list of some resources
available on the net. The bit about WWW was written in the early X
stages and so may seem a little out dated.
D
Non-technical and magazine articles B
ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING AND VISIONS OF HYPERTEXT
-
A forum article in "Physics World", Vol.5 No 6, June 1992,
pp14-16. Institute Of Physics Publishing, Bristol, UK. N
Tim Berners-Lee discusses the impact of global hypertext on B
academic publishing.
THE FRUITFUL, TANGLED TREES OF KNOWLEDGE
"The Economist", June 20th-26th 1992, pp99-102. A four-page feature
on the potential of computer networks, mentioning WAIS and WWW
briefly.
CONNECTIONS ARTICLE (TITLE?)
Summary article on WWW 1992. ConneXions--The Interoperability
Report, Interop Company, 480 San Antonio Road, Suite 100, Mountain
View, CA 94040
SUNWORLD: "CAUGHT IN THE WEB"
Article in January 1993 issue of "SunWorld", Page 67. Basic
summary of W3. Scanned image . Spotted by Paul Kunz.
TWA IN-FLIGHT MAGAZINE
Article in May 1993 mentions W3 we are told... but we don't have a
copy. Spotted by Judy Richards.
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Article May 1993 ?? mentions the web. Spotted by Louise Addis.
X.500 provides a set of mechanisms to allow distributed location of,
maintenance of, and access to a large set of data. However, current
servers force a heirarchical view on the location of the data, so
it may not be suitable for all applications. Also, the X.500 directory
is today unable to provide access to information at a rate which
would allow 'real-time' applications (such as keeping routing information
in the directory).
Also, there is a great effort underway to reduce the startup costs of
X.500 access by providing a lightweight X.500 access protocol for
client-server applications. This work is detailed in the internet
draft 'Lightweight Directory Access Protocol' by Yeong, Howes, and
Hardcastle-Kille. This protocol is expected to make the cost of entry
for a service provider much less that it has been.
Information Types Supported:
X.500 allows information to be served in an attribute:value paradigm,
with related attributes grouped into 'objects'. Each entry in the
directory can be described by multiple objects. Attributes can have
values which are text strings, dereferenceable file names, or text-
encoded photographs, and experimentation is underway to keep digitally
encoded sounds in the directory.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Contact(s):
Name: The PARADISE Project
Email address: helpdesk@paradise.ulcc.ac.uk
Name: The White Pages Pilot Project
Email address: wpp-manager@psi.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Help Line (for major center as well as each client):
X.500 encompasses a great number of clients and as a distributed
system does not have a central help line. Please see the
Documentation section for pointers to servers, clients, and associated
help lines.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Related Working Groups:
IETF's OSI-DS (OSI Directory Services)
IETF's IDS (Integrated Directory Services)
OSI Implementor's Workshop's DS-SIG (Directory Services-SIG)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sponsoring Organisation / Funding source:
Not Applicable
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists:
Address: osi-ds@cs.ucl.ac.uk
Administration: osi-ds-request@cs.ucl.ac.uk
Description: Mail list for OSI-DS working group.
Archive: Anonymous FTP, cs.ucl.ac.uk
-------------------
Address: ietf-ids@merit.edu
Administration: ietf-ids@merit.edu
Description: Mail list for IDS working group.
Archive: Anonymous FTP, merit.edu
-------------------
Address: dssig@ics.uci.edu
Administration: dssig-request@ics.uci.edu
Description: Mail list for OIW DS-SIG group
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Protocols:
What is supported: X.500
What it runs over: Applications run on full ISO stack down to transport
over TCP/IP + RFC1006, CONS, CLNS, or X.25(80)
Other NIR tools this interworks with: Gateways to Gopher.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Servers:
A full list of servers and clients is available in FYI 11, RFC 1292,
"A guide to available X.500 Implementations". See the Documentation
section for the location of this document. However, the most widely
deployed server is listed here for convenience.
QUIPU
Date completed or updated: 21 October, 1993
By: Name: Chris Weider
E-Mail: clw@merit.edu
Platform: BSD 4.2, 4.3; AT&T System V; SunOS; AIX
Primary Contact:
Name: Steve Hardcastle-Kille
E-Mail: S.Kille@isode.com
Telephone: +44-71-223-4062
Location of more information:
RFC 1292
Latest Version Number: 8.0 (public domain)
IC R1 (ISODE consortium version)
Approximate number of such servers in use: 400
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Documentation:
Document Title: FYI 11, RFC 1292, "Catalog of Available X.500
Implementations", R. Lang, R. Wright.
Location details: Available for anonymous FTP from nic.ddn.mil
Site:
Full file name: RFC-1292.txt
Document Title: FYI 13, RFC 1308, "Executive Introduction to directory
services using the X.500 protocol", C. Weider, J. K. Reynolds
Location details: Available for anonymous FTP from nic.ddn.mil
Site:
Full file name: RFC-1308.txt
Document Title: FYI 14, RFC 1309, "Technical Overview of Directory Services
using the X.500 protocol", C. Weider, J. K. Reynolds, S. Heker.
Location details: Available for anonymous FTP from nic.ddn.mil
Site:
Full file name: RFC-1309.txt
Document Title: FYI 21, RFC 1491, "A Survey of Advanced Usages of X.500",
C. Weider, R. Wright.
Location details: Available for anonymous FTP from nic.ddn.mil
Site:
Full file name: RFC-1491.txt
Document Title: RFC 1487, "Lightweight Directory Access Protocol", W. Yeong,
T. Howes, and S. Hardcastle-Kille
Location details: Available for anonymous FTP from nic.ddn.mil
Site:
Full file name: RFC-1487.txt
These documents contain pointers to the rest of the literature.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
7. NIR Groups
This section contains information about the various groups working in
the area of networked information retrieval. The groups are listed
alphabetically within their overall groupings (CNI, IETF, RARE, etc).
See Section 3.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
CNI Groups
Date template updated or checked: 22nd March, 1993
By: Name: Jane Smith
Email address: Jane.Smith@cnidr.org
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
NIR Group Name: Coalition for Networked Information (CNI)
Sponsoring Organisation: Association of Research Libraries
(ARL), CAUSE, and EDUCOM
Working subgroups:
Name of subgroup: Modernization of Scholarly Publishing
Transformation of Scholarly Communication
Directories and Resource Information Services
Architectures and Standards
Legislation, Code, Policies and Practices
Access to Government Information
Teaching and Learning
Management and Professional and User Education
Mailinglist-Address:
Description of main group:
The Coalition for Networked Information was founded in March 1990 to
help realize the promise of high performance networks and computers
for the advancement of scholarship and the enrichment of intellectual
productivity. The Coalition is a partnership of the Association of
Research Libraries (ARL), CAUSE, and EDUCOM. ARL is dedicated to
equitable access to, and effective use of, recorded knowlege in
support of teaching, research, scholarship, and community service, and
CAUSE and EDUCOM are dedicated to different aspects of the
introduction, use, and management of information technology and
related resources in research and education in general and higher
education in particular. The Coalition pursues its mission with the
assistance of a task force that provides a common vehicle by which
nearly 178 institutions and organizations are exploring a shared
vision of how information management must change in the 1990s to meet
the social and economic opportunities and challenges of the 21st
century. Members of the Coalition Task Force include, among others,
higher education institutions, publishers, network service providers,
computer hardware, software, and systems companies, library netowrks
and organizations, and public and state libraries, a truly diverse
collaboration of institutions and organizations.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Contact(s):
Name: Paul Evan Peters
Email address: paul@cni.org
Postal Address: Coalition for Networked Information
21 Dupont Circle, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20036
USA
Telephone: 202-296-5098
Fax: 202-unknown
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists: None
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
News groups: None
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Document Archive:
Location details:
Site: ftp.cni.org
Directory: /*
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Official Publications: None
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography: None
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Information: None
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Date template updated or checked: 22nd March, 1993
By: Name: Jane Smith
Email address: Jane.Smith@cnidr.org
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
NIR Group Name: Architectures and Standards
Sponsoring Organisation: Coalition for Networked Information (CNI)
Working subgroups
Name of subgroup: Z39.50 Interoperability Testbed
Mailinglist-Address:
Description of main group:
Program priorities are 1) to facilitate a consistent and complete
mechanism for linking bibliographic, abstracting, and indexing files
to files of their associated source materials; 2) a single standard
for the transmission of bitmapped image files; 3) protocols for
handing networked requests for delivery of source materials; 4)
mechanisms for interorganizational authentication, accounting, and
billing; and 5) to integrate lessons drawn from the experience of
pilot projects that exercise networked printing utilities and 6) to
provide an "interoperability workshop" to specify, implement, and test
advanced functions of Z39.50 to accelerate the pace and to ensure the
quality of standardization efforts in this area.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Contact(s):
Name: Clifford Lynch
Email address: calur@uccmvsa.bitnet
Postal Address: Off. of the President
Unv. of California
300 Lakeside Dr., 8th Flr.
Oakland, CA 94612-3350
USA
Telephone: 415-987-0522
Fax: 415-839-3573
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists: None
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
News groups: None
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Document Archive: None
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Official Publications: None
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography: None
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Information: None
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Date template updated or checked: 22nd March, 1993
By: Name: Jane Smith
Email address: Jane.Smith@cnidr.org
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
NIR Group Name: Directories and Resource Information Services
Sponsoring Organisation: Coalition for Networked Information (CNI)
Working subgroups:
Name of subgroup: TopNode for Networked Information Resources,
Services, and Tools
Mailinglist-Address: cnidir@cni.org
Description of main group:
This group recognizes the need for open systems, standards, and,
therefore, interoperable products and services based upon a
distributed architecture of servers that draw upon a common or at
least comparable set of data elements. It plans to create a (printed
and networked) directory of directories and resource information
services that provides qualitative (consumer) as well as descriptive
information. The group supports the Library of Congress effort to
enhance the MARC formats to account for the cataloging requirements of
networked resources and services and the National Science Foundation
effort to procure a new NSFNet Network Information Center.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Contact(s):
Name: George Brett
Email address: George.Brett@cnidr.org
Postal Address:
Clearinghouse for Networked Information Discovery and Retrieval
Center for Communications at MCNC
PO Box 12889, 3021 Cornwallis Road
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2889
USA
Telephone: 919-248-1886
Fax: 919-248-1405
---------------------
Name: Peggy Seiden
Email address: pseiden@skidmore.edu
Postal Address:
Scribner Library
Skidmore College
North Broadway
Saratoga Springs, NY 12866
Telephone: 518-584-5000 ext. 2126
Fax:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists:
Address: cni-directories@cni.org
Administration: listserv@cni.org
SUB cni-directories Lastname Firstname
Archive: ftp.cni.org:/CNI/forums/cni-directories/*
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
News groups: None
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Document Archive:
Location details
Site: ftp.cni.org
Directory: /CNI/forums/cni-directories/*
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Official Publications: None
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography: None
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Information: None
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Date template updated or checked: 22nd March, 1993
By: Name: Jane Smith
Email address: Jane.Smith@cnidr.org
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
NIR Group Name: TopNode for Networked Information Resources,
Services, and Tools
Sponsoring Organisation: Coalition for Networked Information (CNI)
Directories and Resource Information
Services Program
Working subgroups:
Name of subgroup:
Mailinglist-Address:
Description of main group:
(from ARL Newsletter #164 -- September 9, 1992)
The Coalition's TopNode Project is creating a directory of
directories, catalogs, and aids of networked information resources,
services, and tools. The project is intended to facilitate the
network navigational duties, responsibilities, and tasks of staff in
libraries, computer centers, networking offices, and other similar
operations. The primary product of the TopNode project will be a set
of records describing these networked information resources, records
that can be loaded into a wide range of database management systems.
Based on their response to a Call for Statements of Interest and
Experience, Indiana University and Merit Network, Inc. were chosen to
lead the development effort on the Coalition TopNode project. Pete
Percival, Manager, Academic Information Environment at Indiana
University and Craig Summerhill, Coalition Systems Coordinator, have
completed the design for the database structure which is being built
on the Coalition's Internet fileserver using BRS/SEARCH. Based on
earlier work of the leaders of the Directories and Resource
Information Services Working Group, George Brett II of the University
of North Carolina General Administration and Peggy Seiden of Skidmore
College Library, Percival and Summerhill have developed a data
structure that they believe to be both flexible and responsive to the
needs of the many interested parties who have been consulted.
Under the direction of Gary Charbonneau of the Indiana University
Libraries, records are being created and prepared for loading. A
thesaurus of added descriptor terms is being maintained. As of
mid-August, close to 200 records had been verified and had received
descriptive cataloging.
When the database is complete, libraries will be alerted and
encouraged to mount the TopNode records into their online catalogs.
Records will be available from the Coalition. In addition, MERIT will
use the TopNode database in an experiment to test the viability of the
X.500 directory format standard for providing yellow pages-type
services (e.g. with subject access). After its initial release, the
database will be maintained by Indiana University libraries on the
Coalition server; BRS has assisted in the development of procedures
for online data entry.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Contact(s):
Name: Pete Percival
Email address: percival@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu
Postal Address: Indiana State University
Telephone:
Fax:
------------------
Name: Craig Summerhill
Email address: craig@cni.org
Postal Address:
Coalition for Networked Information
1527 New Hampshire Ave., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20036
USA
Telephone: 202-296-5098
Fax: 202-unknown
------------------
Name: Gary Charbonneau
Email address:
Postal Address: Indiana University
Telephone:
Fax:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists: None
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
News groups: None
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Document Archive:
Location details
Site: ftp.cni.org
Directory: /CNI/projects/topnode/*
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Official Publications: None
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography: None
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Information: None
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
CNIDR
Date template updated or checked: 8th July, 1993
By: Name: Jane Smith
Email address: Jane.Smith@cnidr.org
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
NIR Group Name: Clearinghouse for Networked Information
Discovery and Retrieval
Sponsoring Organisation: National Science Foundation,
Center for Communications at MCNC
Working subgroups:
Name of subgroup:
Mailinglist-Address:
Description of main group:
Several user-friendly client-server software tools have been
developed recently for locating and retrieving information
published on computer platforms reachable over wide-area data
communications networks like the Internet. Among them, freeWAIS
(freely available wide-area information system), the Internet
Gopher, archie, and the WorldWide Web (WWW) have become popular.
freeWAIS, archie, and Gopher indicate where information of
interest is likely to reside and then assist the user in locating
specific information. WWW permits a user to thread a path through
the network by selecting tagged hypertext items.
While focused on the evolution of wide-area information retrieval
systems, the Clearinghouse for Networked Information Discovery
and Retrieval (CNIDR) works closely with developers of other
tools toward providing compatibility, consistency, and, to the
extent possible, convergence of the tools.
Specific activities are to provide a central focus and forum for
networked information discovery and retrieval (NIDR) tools and to
minimize the divergence of individual implementations by
providing a repository for the collection, evaluation, and
distribution of protocol-compliant releases and enhanced
versions.
CNIDR participates in standards and policy associations such as
the Internet Engineering Task Force and the Coalition for
Networked Information, with the goal of increasing consensus
among developers and exploring appropriate uses of networked
information. CNIDR also actively promotes the use of networked
information discovery and retrieval tools at many national and
international conferences to inform and educate implementors and
end users.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Contact(s):
Name: George Brett
Email address: George.Brett@cnidr.org
Postal Address:
Clearinghouse for Networked Information Discovery and Retrieval (CNIDR)
Center for Communications at MCNC
PO Box 12889, 3021 Cornwallis Road
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2889 USA
Telephone: 919-248-1886
Fax: 919-248-1405
------------------
Name: Jane Smith
Email address: Jane.Smith@cnidr.org
Postal Address:
Clearinghouse for Networked Information Discovery and Retrieval (CNIDR)
Center for Communications at MCNC
PO Box 12889, 3021 Cornwallis Road
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2889 USA
Telephone: 919-248-9213
Fax: 919-248-1405
------------------
Name: Jim Fullton
Email address: Jim.Fullton@cnidr.org
Postal Address:
Clearinghouse for Networked Information Discovery and Retrieval (CNIDR)
Center for Communications at MCNC
PO Box 12889, 3021 Cornwallis Road
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2889 USA
Telephone: 919-248-9247
Fax: 919-248-1405
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists:
Address: info@cnidr.org
Administration: none.
Description:
e-mail sent to this address will receive an automated response containing
more information about current CNIDR activities.
Archive: none
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists: zip@cnidr.org
Address: zip@cnidr.org
Administration: zip-request@cnidr.org
sub zip Lastname Firstname
Description:
Technical discussion of Z39.50-92 application development. Subscribers
receive brief overview of project and information on how to access
archives.
Archive: ftp://ftp.cnidr.org/NIDR.tools/zip
gopher://gopher.cnidr.org/NIDR Tools/Discussion/Online Discussion
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
News groups: None
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Document Archive: ftp.cnidr.org
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Official Publications: None
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography: None
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Information: info@cnidr.org
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
IETF Groups
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is the protocol
engineering, development and standardisation arm of the Internet
Architecture Board (IAB) : It has grown to be a large open
international community of network designers, operators, vendors and
researchers concerned with the evolution of the Internet protocol
architecture and the smooth operation of the Internet.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
IDS
Date template updated or checked: 21 October, 1993
By: Name: Chris Weider
Email address: clw@merit.edu
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
NIR Group Name: Integrated Directory Services (IDS)
Sponsoring Organisation: Internet Engineering Task Forces (IETF)
Working subgroups: NONE
Description of main group:
The Integrated Directory Services Working Group (IDS) is chartered to
facilitate the integration and interoperability of current and future
directory services into a unified directory service. This work will
unite directory services based on a heterogeneous set of directory
services protocols (X.500, WHOIS++, etc.). In addition to specifying
technical requirements for the integration, the IDS group will also
contribute to the administrative and maintenance issues of directory
service offerings by publishing guidelines on directory data
integrity, maintenance, security, and privacy and legal issues for
users and administrators of directories.
Membership is open, and is not limited to IETF attendees. A full
charter for this group is available for anonymous FTP from nic.ddn.mil
as ids-charter.txt.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Contact(s):
Name: Chris Weider, Chair
Email address: clw@merit.edu
Postal Address:
Pod G, Industrial Technology Institute
2901 Hubbard
Ann Arbor, MI 48105
Telephone: (313) 747-2730
Fax: (313) 747-3185
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists:
Address: ietf-ids@merit.edu
Administration: ietf-ids-request@merit.edu
Archive: Anonymous FTP to merit.edu, ids/archive
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Document Archive:
Location details:
Site: nic.ddn.mil
Directory: internet-drafts. All IDS documents start with either
draft-ietf-disi or draft-ietf-ids.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Official Publications:
None.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography:
Wright, Russ, and Ruth Lang, A catalog of available X.500 implementations,
FYI 11, RFC 1292, November 1991 (currently under revision with estimated
completion August 1993)
Weider, Chris, and Russ Wright, A survey of advanced usages of X.500,
Internet Draft, June 1993. Available as
draft-ietf-ids-survey-01.txt from any Internet Draft server.
Marine, A, X.500 Pilot Projects, June 1993. Available as
draft-ietf-ids-pilots-00.txt from any Internet Draft server.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
IIIR
Date template updated or checked: 21 October, 1993
By: Name: Chris Weider
Email address: clw@merit.edu
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
IETF Groups
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is the protocol
engineering, development and standardisation arm of the Internet
Architecture Board (IAB): It has grown to be a large open
international community of network designers, operators, vendors and
researchers concerned with the evolution of the Internet protocol
architecture and the smooth operation of the Internet.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
NIR Group Name: Integration of Internet Information Resources (IIIR)
Sponsoring Organisation: Internet Engineering Task Forces (IETF)
Working subgroups: None
Description of main group:
The IIIR group was chartered in September 1992 to facilitate
interoperability between and integration of the various Internet
information services (Archie, Gopher, WAIS, etc.), just as the IETF
was founded to facilitate the integration of various LANs running
different protocols. It will develop, specify, and align protocols
to integrate the services into a single "virtually unified information
service" (VUIS).
Also, where necessary for interoperability, IIIR will create technical
documentation for protocols used for information services in the
internet.
Membership is open, and is not limited to IETF attendees. A full
charter for this group is available via anonymous FTP from
nic.ddn.mil as iiir-charter.txt
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Contact(s):
Name: Chris Weider, Chair
Email address: clw@merit.edu
Postal Address:
Pod G, Industrial Technology Institute
2901 Hubbard
Ann Arbor, MI 48105
Telephone: (313) 747-2730
Fax: (313) 747-3185
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists:
Address: iiir@merit.edu
Administration: iiir-request@merit.edu
Archive: Anonymous FTP, iiir/archive
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Document Archive:
Documents are available for anonymous FTP from any Internet Draft
server, such as nic.merit.edu or nic.ddn.mil. All IIIR document file
names start with the string 'draft-ietf-iiir-'.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Official Publications:
None.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography:
Weider, Chris, and Peter Deutsch, 'A vision of an integrated Internet
information service', Internet Draft, March 1993. Available as
draft-ietf-iiir-vision-00.txt from any Internet Draft server.
Weider, Chris, 'Resource Transponders', Internet Draft, March 1993.
Available as draft-ietf-iiir-transponder-00.txt from any Internet
Draft server.
Ankelesaria, et al, 'The Internet Gopher Protocol', RFC 1436, March 1993.
Available from any RFC repository.
Berners-Lee, Tim. 'Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)', Internet Draft,
March 1993. Available as draft-ietf-iiir-html-00.ps from any Internet
Draft server.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Information:
This is a new area, one with lots of interesting open problems and
the potential to help shape the future of information services on the
Internet. Even if you can't make the IETF meetings, you are
strongly encouraged to join the group and contribute.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
NIR
Date template updated or checked: 28th October, 1993
By: Name: Jill Foster
Email address: Jill.Foster@newcastle.ac.uk
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
NIR Group Name: Networked Information Retrieval Working Group (NIR-WG)
Sponsoring Organisation: Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
RARE (Association of European Research Networks)
Working subgroups:
None
Description of main group:
There are many organizations and associations that have begun to focus
on the proliferating resources and tools for networked information
retrieval (NIR). The Networked Information Retrieval Group will be a
cooperative effort of three major players in the field of NIR: IETF,
RARE, and the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) specifically
tasked to collect and disseminate information about the tools and to
discuss and encourage cooperative development of current and future
tools such such as the archie servers, the Wide Area Information
Servers (WAIS), the Internet Gopher, and the WorldWide Web (WWW).
The NIR Working Group intends to increase the useful base of
information about networked information retrieval (NIR) tools,
their developers, interested organizations, and other activities
that relate to the production, dissemination, and support of NIR
tools.
Membership is open and is not limited to attendees of the quarterly
IETF meetings; the mailing list is open to all. The NIR-WG charter
is available via anonymous ftp from the various IETF repositories as
nir-charter.txt.
Goals:
To disseminate information about NIR tools and those groups working on
them. The information in the NIR Status report will be updated and
new entries added as appropriate once per year. This report will be
submitted as an RFC.
Current work includes discussing the criteria for evaluating the major
NIR tools available.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Contact(s):
Name: Jill Foster
Email address: Jill.Foster@newcastle.ac.uk
Postal Address: Computing Service
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU
U.K.
Telephone: +44 91 222 8250
Fax: +44 91 222 8765
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Contact(s):
Name: George Brett
Email address: ghb@concert.net
Postal Address:
Clearinghouse for Networked Information Discovery and Retrieval
Center for Communications - MCNC
PO Box 12889 3021 Cornwallis Road
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2889
U.S.A.
Telephone: 919-248-1886
Fax: 919-248-1405
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists:
Address: nir@mailbase.ac.uk
Administration: Auto subscriptions to: mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk
"subscribe nir firstname lastname"
Human admin to: nir-request@mailbase.ac.uk
Description:
Archive: mailbase.ac.uk//~/pub/lists/nir/files
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
News groups:
None
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Document Archive:
Location details
Site: mailbase.ac.uk
Directory: /pub/lists/nir/files
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Information:
This Working Group formed jointly in the User Services and
Applications Areas of the Internet Engineering Task Force.
The RARE (Reseaux Associes pour la Recherche Europeenne) ISUS WG
(Information Services and User Support Working Group) is
represented by NIR-WG co-chair Jill Foster. NIR-WG information
is also posted to the mailing list for the ISUS WG at
"wg-isus@rare.nl".
CNI (Coalition for Networked Information) is represented by
NIR-WG co-chair George Brett. More information about CNI may be
obtained via anonymous ftp files from ftp.cni.org.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
NISI
Date template updated or checked: 13 October 1993
By: Name: April Marine
Email address: april@atlas.arc.nasa.gov
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
NIR Group name: Network Information Services Infrastructure (NISI)
Working Group
Sponsoring Organisation: IETF
Description of main group:
The NISI Working Group will explore the requirements for common,
shared Internet-wide network information services. The goal is to
develop an understanding for what is required to implement an
information services "infrastructure" for the Internet.
Membership is open. Charter is online in the various IETF repositories
as nisi-charter.txt.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Contact(s):
Name: April Marine
Email address: april@atlas.arc.nasa.gov
Postal Address: Network Applications and Information Center
NASA Ames Research Center
M/S 204-14
Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000
USA
Telephone: 415 604-0762
Fax: 415 604-0978
Name: Patricia G. Smith
Email address: psmith@merit.edu
Postal Address: Merit Network, Inc
1075 Beal Avenue
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2112
Telephone: 313 936 3000
Fax: 313 747 3745
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists:
Address: nisi@merit.edu
Administration: nisi-request@merit.edu
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Official Publications: Internet-Drafts and FYI RFCs
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography:
RFC 1302: Building a Network Information Services Infrastructure
RFC 1355: Privacy and Accuracy Issues in Network
Information Centre Databases
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
OSI-DS
Date template updated or checked: 21 October, 1993
By: Name: Chris Weider
Email address: clw@merit.edu
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
NIR Group Name: OSI Directory Services (OSI-DS)
Sponsoring Organisation: Internet Engineering Task Forces (IETF)
Working subgroups: NONE
Description of main group:
The OSI-DS group's mission is to enable building a global Directory
Service based on X.500 and to facilitate its deployment on the
Internet. The primary focus is on developing agreements and technical
specifications needed to make this happen. The WG will not be
directly concerned with piloting and service activities, but will
liase with such activities.
Membership is open, and is not limited to IETF attendees. A full
charter for this group is available for anonymous FTP from nic.ddn.mil
as osids-charter.txt.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Contact(s):
Name: Steve Hardcastle-Kille, Chair
Email address: kille@isode.com
Postal Address:
ISODE Consortium
P.O. Box 505
SW11 1DX London
England
Telephone: +44-71-223-4062
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists:
Address: ietf-osi-ds@cs.ucl.ac.uk
Administration: ietf-osi-ds-request@cs.ucl.ac.uk
Archive: Anonymous FTP, bells.cs.ucl.ac.uk
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Document Archive:
Location details:
Site: bells.cs.ucl.ac.uk
Directory:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Official Publications: None.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography:
The COSINE and Internet X.500 Schema, P. Barker, S. Kille, RFC-1274.
Replication and Distributed Operations Extensions to Provide an
Internet Directory Usign X.500, S. Hardcastle-Kille, RFC-1276
Requirements to provide an Internet Directory using X.500. S. Hardcastle-
Kille, RFC-1275
A Strategic Plan for Deploying an Internet X.500 Directory Service,
S. Hardcastle-Kille et al, RFC-1340
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
URI
Date template updated or checked: 21 October, 1993
By: Name: Chris Weider
Email address: clw@merit.edu
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
NIR Group Name: Uniform Resource Identifiers (uri)
Sponsoring Organisation: Internet Engineering Task Forces (IETF)
Working subgroups: NONE
Description of main group:
The Uniform Resource Identifiers Archives Working Group is chartered to
define a set of standards for the encoding of system independent
Resource Location and Identification information for the use of
Internet information services. There are three classes of information
being standardized in this group:
1) Uniform Resource Locators (URLs), which specify a standardized
method for encoding location and access information to resources
across multiple information systems,
2) Uniform Resource Names (URNs), which specify a standardized method
for encoding a unique resource identifier for a given content, and
3) Uniform Resource Citations (URCs), which specify a standardized
method for encoding information about a given instantiation of
a content.
The URLs allow an information service to give a user access and location
information for a resource. The URN allows an information service to
determine if the contents of two information resources are the same or
not. The URC allows an information service to select which of a number
of different encodings of a resource are appropriate for a given user's
retrieval capabilities, and may contain such things as file size and
compression techniques.
Membership is open, and is not limited to IETF attendees. A full charter
for this group is available for anonymous FTP from nic.ddn.mil as
uri-charter.txt.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Contact(s):
Name: Jim Fullton, co-chair
Email address: fullton@concert.net
Postal Address:
Center for Communications
P.O. Box 12889
3021 Cornwallis Road
Research Triangle Park
North Carolina 27709-2889
Telephone: (919) 248-1499
Fax: (919) 248-1405
Name: Alan Emtage, co-chair
Email address: bajan@bunyip.com
Postal Address:
Bunyip Information Systems, Inc.
266 Blvd. Neptune
Dorval QUEBEC H9S 2L4 CANADA
Telephone: (514) 875-8611
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists:;
Address: uri@bunyip.com
Administration: uri-request@bunyip.com
Archive: archives.cc.mcgill.ca:~/pub/uri-archive
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Document Archive:
Location details:
Site: nic.ddn.mil
Directory: internet-drafts. All documents will start with the
string draft-ietf-uri.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Official Publications:
NONE
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography:
Berners-Lee, Tim, 'Uniform Resource Locators', Internet Draft, March
1993.
Available as draft-ietf-uri-url-00.ps from any Internet Draft server.
Weider, Chris and Peter Deutsch, 'Uniform Resource Names', Internet
Draft, May 1993. Available as draft-ietf-uri-resource-names-00.txt from
any Internet Draft server.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
WNILS
Date template updated or checked: 22nd March, 1993
By: Name: Jane D. Smith
Email address: Jane.Smith@cnidr.org
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
NIR Group Name: Whois and Network Information Lookup Service (WNILS)
Sponsoring Organisation: Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
Working subgroups:
Name of subgroup:
Mailinglist-Address:
Description of main group:
This description is the current WNILS-WG charter.
The Network Information Center (NIC) maintains the central NICNAME
database and server, defined in RFC 954, providing online look-up of
individuals, network organizations, key nodes, and other information
of interest to those who use the Internet. Other distributed
directory information servers and information retrieval tools have
been developed and it is anticipated more will be created. Many sites
now maintain local directory servers with information about
individuals, departments and services at that specific site.
Typically these directory servers are network accessible. Because
these servers are local, there are now wide variations in the type of
data stored, access methods, search schemes, and user interfaces. The
purpose of the Whois and Network Information Lookup Service (WNILS)
working group is to expand and define the standard for WHOIS services,
to resolve issues associated with the variations in access and to
promote a consistent and predictable service across the network.
Goals and Milestones:
Done Review and approve the charter making any changes deemed necessary.
Examine the particular functional needs for expanded whois directory
service. Begin work on a framework for recommendations. Assign
writing assignments for first draft of document.
Nov 92 Post the Whois and Network Information Lookup Service Recommendations
document as an Internet Draft.
Dec 92 Submit the Whois and Network Information Lookup Service
Recommendations document to the IESG (Internet Engineering Steering
Group) as an Informational document.
Dec 92 Post a revised WHOIS protocols specification as an Internet Draft.
Dec 92 Submit the revised WHOIS protocol documents to the IESG as Draft
Standards.
5/15/93 Submit the Whois and Network Information Lookup Service
Recommendations document to the IESG as an Informational
document.
6/11/93 Submit the WHOIS++ protocol and index service documents
to the IESG as an Internet Draft.
6/11/93 Submit the revised WHOIS++ protocol and index service
documents to the IESG as Draft Standards.
Membership is open to attendees of the quarterly IETF meetings; the
mailing list is open to all. The WNILS-WG charter can be obtained via
anonymous ftp from the Document Archive sites listed in the Networked
Information Retrieval Working Group (WNILS-WG) template.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Contact(s):
Name: Joan Gargano
Email address: jcgargano@ucdavis.edu
Postal Address:
Advanced Networked and Scientific Applications (ANSA)
Information Technology
University of California, Davis
Davis, California 95616
U.S.A
Telephone: (916)752-2591
Fax:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists:
Address: ietf-wnils@ucdavis.edu
Administration: ietf-wnils-request@ucdavis.edu
subscribe ietf-wnils Firstname Lastname
Description:
Archive: ucdavis.edu:/pub/archive
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
News groups:
None.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Document Archive:
Location details
Gopher: gopher.ucdavis.edu 70
FTP: gopher.ucdavis.edu:/pub/IETF/WNILS
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Information:
This Working Group formed jointly in the User Services and
Applications Areas of the Internet Engineering Task Force. Applications
Area Director Russ Hobby can be contacted via e-mail at
"rdhobby@ucdavis.edu" and User Services Area Director Joyce Reynolds at
"jkrey@isi.edu".
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
IRTF-RD
Date template updated or checked: 27 September 1993
By: Name: Mike Schwartz
Email address: schwartz@cs.colorado.edu
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
NIR Group Name:
Internet Research Task Force Research Group on Resource
Discovery and Directory Service (IRTF-RD)
Sponsoring Organisation: Internet Society
Working subgroups: None
Description of main group:
The IRTF-RD group is focused on problems of scale that will arise in
resource discovery systems in the next 3-5 years. We divide these
scaling problems into three dimensions: volume of information, size of
the user base, and information diversity.
Our goal is to explore techniques for dealing with these problems
through a set of interrelated prototypes demonstrating advances in
each of these dimensions. Briefly, our current approaches are:
- deal with information diversity through a coordinated set
of techniques to gather, transform, and manage entropy of data
- deal with user scale through large scale replication
- deal with information volume using a combination of
views, space efficient indexing, and customization w.r.t.
vocabulary, search methods, and personal user history
We expect these approaches to evolve significantly over time.
Membership is this group is closed. We will consider new members,
with two constraints. First, the group must be kept small and focused
to make substantive progress - at most 4 or 5 members seems
appropriate at this time. Second, prospective members must be active
resource discovery researchers, who will bring clear strengths to the
group. Prospective members should send a vitae and a one page
position paper describing what they propose to do to advance the
group's efforts, addressed to the group chair.
The group currently consists of:
Mic Bowman (Pennsylvania State University)
Peter Danzig (University of Southern California)
Udi Manber (University of Arizona)
Mike Schwartz (University of Colorado - Boulder; chair)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Contact(s):
Name: Mike Schwartz
Email address: schwartz@cs.colorado.edu
Postal Address:
Department of Computer Science
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309-0430
Telephone: +1 303 492 3902
Fax: Declined.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists:
The IRTF-RD group has no formal mailing list or archive.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
News groups:
The IRTF-RD group has no news groups.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Document Archive:
The IRTF-RD group has no document archive, although our paper(s) and
prototype(s) will be available from the members' FTP archives (see
below).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Official Publications:
Occasional updates in the Internet Monthly Report.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography:
C. Mic Bowman, Peter B. Danzig and Michael F. Schwartz.
Research Problems for Scalable Internet Resource Discovery.
Technical Report CU-CS-643-93, Department of Computer Science,
University of Colorado, Boulder, March 1993. To appear,
Proceedings of INET '93. Available by anonymous FTP from
ftp.cs.colorado.edu in the file
pub/cs/techreports/schwartz/PostScript/RD.ResearchProblems.ps.Z
(compressed PostScript) or in the file
pub/cs/techreports/schwartz/ASCII/RD.ResearchProblems.txt.Z
(compressed ASCII).
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Z39.50 Implementors Group
Date template updated or checked: 15th October 1993
By: Name: Mark Needleman
Email address: mhn@stubbs.ucop.edu
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
NIR Group name: Z39.50 Implementors Group
Description of main group:
The Z39.50 Implementors group (ZIG) is a volunteer organization
consisting of representatives of most of the organizations in the
United States and Canada that are actively engaged in implementing the
Z39.50 protocol. This includes the United States Library of Congress,
The National Library of Canada, the major bibliographic utilities,
many library automation vendors, and other information service
providers. The group is a volunteer effort whose meetings are open at
no charge to all. The group meets about 3 times a year and conducts
its activities extensively on its mailing list which is also open to
any interested party.
The group was originally formed to deal with interoperability issues
among the Z39.50 implementations that were beginning to emerge in 1989
and 1990 but the group has since expanded its role and has now become
the primary forum in which new features and versions of the Z39.50 are
developed.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Contact(s):
Z39.50 Implementors Group
Name: Mark Hinnebusch (Chair)
Email address: fclmth@nervm.nerdc.ufl.edu (Internet)
FCLMTH@NERVM (Bitnet)
Postal address: Florida Center For Library Automation
Suite 320
2002 NW 13th Street
Gainesville, FL 32609
Telephone: (904) 392-9020
Fax: (904) 392-9185 (fax)
------------------------
Z39.50 Maintenance Agency
Name: Ray Denenberg
Email address: RAY@RDEN.loc.gov
Postal address: Library of Congress
Network Development and MARC Standards Office
Collections Services
Washington, DC 20540
Telephone: (202) 707-5795
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists:
Z39.50 Implementors Group (ZIG)
Address: Z3950IW@nervm.nerdc.ufl.edu (Internet)
Z3950IW@NERVM (Bitnet)
Administration/Subscriptions: listserv@nervm.nerdc.ufl.edu (Internet)
LISTSERV@NERVM (Bitnet)
Archive: Anonymous FTP and/or Gopher: sally.fcla.ufl.edu
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Documentation and References for the Z39.50 Protocol
American National Standard Information Retrieval Application
Service Definition and Protocol Specification for Open Systems
Interconnection Version 2, National Information Standards
Organization, July 1992
Mark Hinnebusch "A Primer on Z39.50 Parts 1-8", Academic and
Library Computing Volume 9, Numbers 2-9, February-October 1992,
Meckler Corporation, Westport CN. (ISSN 1055-4769)
Mark Hinnebusch "The Z39.50 Explain Service", Campus Wide
Information Systems, Volume 10, Number 1, January/February 1993,
Meckler Corporation, Westport, CT. (ISSN 1065-0741)
Michael Buckland and Clifford Lynch. "THE LINKED SYSTEMS PROTOCOL
AND THE FUTURE OF BIBLIOGRAPHIC NETWORKS AND SYSTEMS,"
Information Technology and Libraries 6:2 (June 1987), pp. 83-88.
Michael Buckland and Clifford Lynch. "NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL
IMPLICATIONS OF THE LINKED SYSTEMS PROTOCOL FOR ONLINE
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL SYSTEMS," Cataloging and Classification Quarterly
8:3/4 (Spring 1988), pp. 15-33.
Clifford Lynch. "INTERSYSTEM LINKING AND DISTRIBUTED DATABASE
TECHNOLOGY: A COMPARISON OF TWO APPROACHES TO THE CONSTRUCTION OF
NETWORK-BASED INFORMATION UTILITIES," Proceedings of the Fourth
Integrated Online Library Systems Meeting, New York, New York,
May 10-11, 1989. (Medford, NJ: Learned Information, Inc., 1989),
pp. 107-112.
Clifford A. Lynch "LIBRARY AUTOMATION AND THE NATIONAL RESEARCH
NETWORK," EDUCOM Review (Fall 1989), pp. 21-28.
Clifford A. Lynch. "ACCESS TECHNOLOGY FOR NETWORK INFORMATION
RESOURCES," CAUSE/EFFECT (Summer 1990), pp. 15-20.
Clifford A. Lynch; Cecilia M. Preston. "INTERNET ACCESS TO
INFORMATION RESOURCES," Annual Review of Information Science and
Technology (ARIST) Volume 25. (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press,
1990), pp. 264-312.
Clifford A. Lynch. "THE CLIENT-SERVER MODEL IN INFORMATION
RETRIEVAL," Interfaces for Information Retrieval and Online
Systems: The State of the Art Martin Dillon, ed. (Westport, CT:
Greenwood Press, 1991); pp. 301-318.
Clifford A. Lynch. "INFORMATION RETRIEVAL AS A NETWORK
APPLICATION," Library Hi Tech 8:4, Issue 32 (1990), pp. 59-74.
Clifford A. Lynch. "THE Z39.50 INFORMATION RETRIEVAL PROTOCOL:
AN OVERVIEW AND STATUS REPORT," Computer Communications Review
21:1 (Sigcomm) (January 1991), pp. 58-70.
Clifford A. Lynch. THE Z39.50 PROTOCOL: QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.
Produced as a pamphlet by Data Research Associates (1991).
Dennis Lynch "Z39.50 Extended Services" Campus Wide Information Systems
Volume 10, Number 3 May/June 1993, Meckler Corporation, Westport, CT
(ISSN 1065 0741)
Mark H Needleman. "The Z39.50 Protocol: An Implementor's Perspective",
Resource Sharing and Information Networks Volume 8 Number 1, 1992, The
Haworth Press Inc, Binghamton, NY (ISSN 0737-7797)
Kunze, John A. "Nonbibliographic Applications of Z39.50." The
Public-Access Computer Systems Review 3, no. 5 (1992): 4-30.
(Refereed Article.) To retrieve this article, send the following
e-mail message to LISTSERV@UHUPVM1 or LISTSERV@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU:
GET KUNZE PRV3N5 F=MAIL.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Information:
Brief Description of the Z39.50 Protocol
Z39.50 is a US ANSI standard protocol for information retrieval. It
uses a client server model that allows clients ( or origins in Z39.50
terminology) to search servers (targets in Z39.50 usage) and retrieve
records from remote databases. The type and format of the data
retrieved is not constrained by the protocol but is agreed to by the
origin and the target. There is a mechanism that allows popular
record syntax's to be registered and then referred to by well known
identifiers. Z39.50 is an OSI application layer protocol; that is, it
is designed to make use of the OSI presentation layer protocol. It
may be used with or without the presentation protocol, and below that,
it is irrelevant (to the Z39.50 protocol) what protocols are used.
Most implementations of Z39.50 currently run directly over TCP/IP.
User's view:
Users (either human or electronic) run client software to connect with
servers to retrieve information using the Z39.50 protocol. Many
clients already exist at least in prototype version today and more are
being written. Most of the major library automation vendors have
announced that they will be supporting Z39.50 in either client or
server mode or both. Many of the major information vendors either
currently have or are working on implementations of Z39.50 for their
systems. There are also a couple of Z39.50 implementations that are
expected to be put in the public domain at some point. The recently
announced FREEWAIS software incorporates Z39.50 Version 2 into it (
the older version used a variant of the 1988 version 1 protocol). The
Library of Congress acts as the maintenance agency for Z39.50 and can
be contacted for a list of registered Implementors.
Z39.50 provides a protocol mechanism for accessing remote information
sources. It defines the model for the interaction between two sides,
a client and a server. It makes no assumptions or presumptions about
how the data is actually organized in the server, nor about how the
data is presented to the end user by the client.
The model postulates one or more databases on the remote system that
can be searched using attributes from defined search attribute sets,
creating a result set. Records can be retrieved from the result set
using agreed upon record formats.
Information types supported:
The Z39.50 protocol was designed as a general purpose search and
retrieval mechanism that could be used with a wide variety of data
types. The MARC format (a format used for cataloging library material
among other things) and a search attribute set suitable for
bibliographic and similar types of data are registered within the
current version of the standard. It is assumed that, as the protocol
begins to be used by other communities and for other types of data,
other attribute sets and record syntax's will be developed. This
process has already begun and a generic record syntax and attribute
set are already under development, as well as some others,
specifically those supporting chemical structures, general science and
technology, and business information. The design philosophy behind
Z39.50 is that it will be used with other standards such as
Postscript, SGML, ODIF (and others), to communicate a wide variety of
data types, including full text, images, and many others.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
RARE Groups
RARE (Reseaux Associes pour la Recherche Europeenne) is the
Association of European Networking Organizations and their users.
RARE's aim is to overcome national boundaries in research networking
by creating a harmonized computer communications infrastructure for
the European research community. At this point in time RARE has over
40 members, most of which are national networking organizations
providing networking services to their national research and education
community.
RARE's technical programme is carried out by volunteers working in a
number of Working Groups.
For further information on RARE contact:
RARE Secretariat
Singel 466-468
NL-1017 AW AMSTERDAM
Telephone number +31 20 639 1131
Fax number +31 20 639 3289
E-mail address RFC8222
raresec@rare.nl
E-mail address X.400
C=nl; ADMD=400net; PRMD=surf; O=rare; S=raresec;
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
RARE ISUS
Date template updated or checked: 28th October, 1993
By: Name: Jill Foster
Email address: Jill.Foster@newcastle.ac.uk
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
NIR Group Name: RARE Information Services and User Support Working Group
Sponsoring Organisation:
RARE (Reseaux Associes pour la Recherche Europeenne)
Working subgroups (of relevance to nir):
Name of subgroup: MMIS Task Force
Mailinglist-Address: mmis@mailbase.ac.uk
Name of subgroup: NIR Task Force
Mailinglist-Address: nir@mailbase.ac.uk
Name of subgroup: UNITE Task Force
Mailinglist-Address: unite@mailbase.ac.uk
Description of main group:
The Information Services and User Support (ISUS) Working Group
has been established by the RARE Technical Committee as one of
the major working groups in the RARE Technical Programme. ISUS
is concerned with all aspects of networked information services,
group communications and network user support. It is open to all
those involved in working in these areas and should include:
Network User Support Staff: National and European Support Staff
(whether RARE, RIPE, EARN, Eunet etc)
Site Computing Centre Support Staff
Special subject related User Support Staff
Library Staff
Networked Information Providers
Networked Information Service Providers
Application Developers
The ISUS WG mailing list will act both as a forum for discussion
amongst experts in this field and as a means for disseminating
information to the wider community.
The ISUS Working Group has a very broad remit which is broken
down into several sub-areas:
Network User Support
Asynchronous Group Communication
Networked Information Retrieval and Services
Liaison
Current tasks being worked on in the are of NIR include:
o Coordination of NIR services in Europe
o Collection of information related to NIR tools and groups.
This is a joint effort with the IETF and CNI.
o Network Interface to everything (UNITE). This group is starting
to look at the user requirements for a single interface to the
network (network information services, email, bulletin boards,
etc). (unite@mailbase.ac.uk)
o Multimedia Information Services task force (MMIS). This group is
a joint task force of the RARE ISUS Working Group and RARE
Interactive Multimedia Working Group (mmis@mailbase.ac.uk).
charter: anonymous ftp from mailbase.ac.uk
file: /pub/lists/wg-isus/files/isus.charter
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Contact(s):
Name: Jill Foster
Email address: Jill. Foster@newcastle.ac.uk
Postal Address: Computing Service
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU
UK
Telephone: +44 92 222 8250
Fax: +44 92 222 8765
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists:
Address: wg-isus@rare.nl
Administration: Auto subscriptions to: mailserver@rare.nl
"subscribe wg-isus <firstname> <lastname>"
Human admin to: wg-isus-request@rare.nl
Description:
General purpose mailing list for whole ISUS WG.
Archive: Not yet available
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
News groups:
None
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Document Archive:
Location details
Site: raredoc.rare.nl
Directory: /rare
Location details
Site: mailbase.ac.uk
Directory: /pub/lists/wg-isus/files
/pub/lists/nir/files
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Official Publications: RARE Technical Reports
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography:
RARE Technical Report 1: User Support and Information Services
in the RARE Community - a Status Report.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Information:
This group was formed in May 1992 and takes over and expands on the
work of the former RARE WG3 USIS Subgroup. The group conducts most
of its business by email, but meets twice a year before the European
Networking Conferences.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
USMARC/OCLC
Date template updated or checked: 26 October 1993
By: Name: Rebecca Guenther
Email address: rgue@seq1.loc.gov
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Working Group or Organisation: USMARC/OCLC
Name of group: USMARC Advisory Group; OCLC Internet Resources
Cataloging Experiment
Sponsoring Organisations: OCLC, Library of Congress, USMARC
Advisory Group
Working subgroups:
None
Description of main group:
OCLC and the Library of Congress have formed a working group to
consider how libraries can create cataloging records for online
information resources. The group initiated a cataloging
experiment designed to test and verify the applicability of the
cataloging rules and the USMARC format for computer files.
Guidelines have been written for cataloging Internet resources
and are being considered by the American Library Association
committee responsible for maintaining the Anglo- American
Cataloging Rules. Changes to the USMARC format were initiated to
accommodate a subset of these materials (electronic data
resources, such as software, electronic text, bibliographic and
nonbibliographic databases). USMARC format changes which were
approved included an identification of type of file and a field
for location and access of the resource (very much like a URL).
The group has continued its work by looking at how online systems
and services can be accommodated in USMARC. This work will be
done within the USMARC Advisory Group of the American Library
Association, which considers changes to the USMARC formats.
Data elements will be defined with mapping to MARC fields; in
some cases new fields will be proposed. This will be
accomplished in conjunction with efforts by other working groups.
A proposal will be presented in February 1994 to the USMARC
Advisory Group for such changes.
Membership is closed at this point.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Contact(s): Rebecca Guenther rgue@seq1.loc.gov
Name: Rebecca Guenther
Email address: rgue@seq1.loc.gov; rebecca@rgue.loc.gov
Postal address: Network Development and MARC Standards
Office, Library of Congress, Washington, DC 20540
Telephone: 202-707-5092
Fax: 202-707-6269
Name: Erik Jul
Email address: ekj@oclc.org
Postal address: OCLC, Inc. 6565 Franz Rd. Dublin OH
43017-0702
Telephone: 614-764-4364
Fax: 614-764-2344
Name: Priscilla Caplan
Email address: p-caplan@uchicago.edu
Postal Address: University of Chicago Library, 1100 E. 57th St.,
Chicago, IL 60637
Telephone: 312-702-5079
Fax: 312-702-6623
Name: William W. Jones, Jr.
Email Address: jones@acfcluster.nyu.edu
Postal Address: New York University/Elmer Holmes Bobst
Library, Technical and Automated Services Division, 70
Washington Square South, New York, NY 10012
Telephone: 212-998-4070
Fax: 212-995-4070
Nancy Olson
Email Address: nbolson@msus1.msus.edu
Postal Address: Memorial Library, Mankato State
University, Mankato, MN 56001
Telephone: 507-389-5062
Fax: 507-389-5488
Glenn Patton
Email address: gep@oclc.org
Postal address: OCLC, Inc. 6565 Franz Rd. Dublin OH
43017-0702
Telephone: 800-848-5878
FAX: 614-764-0155
Martin Dillon
Email address: mjd@oclc.org
Postal address: OCLC, Inc. 6565 Franz Rd. Dublin OH
43017-0702
Telephone: 614-764-6079
FAX: 614-764-2344
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists
None.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
News groups:
None.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Document Archive:
Archives under USMARC listserv.
Documents available:
93-4.doc (Proposal 93-4: Changes to the USMARC Bibliographic
Format (Computer Files) to Accommodate Online Information
Resources: Document)
93-4.cov (Proposal 93-4: Cover sheet with status information)
dp69.doc (Discussion Paper No. 69: Accommodating Online Systems
and Services within USMARC: Document)
dp69.cov (Discussion Paper No. 69: Cover sheet with status
information)
Location details
Site: listserv@sun7.loc.gov
Send email message with
get usmarc 93-4.doc
get usmarc 93-4.cov
get usmarc dp69.doc
get usmarc dp69.cov
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Official Publications:
"Assessing Information on the Internet: Toward Providing Library
Services for Computer-Mediated Communication". Dublin, OH: OCLC
Online Computer Library Center, 1993. Available in print form
from OCLC, Inc. for $20 or electronically from:
ftp.rsch.oclc.org
/pub/internet_resources_project/report
Filenames: *.ps
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography:
Discussion Paper No. 69: Accommodating Online Systems and
Services in USMARC (Washington: Library of Congress, Network
Development and MARC Standards Office, Apr. 1993.
Proposal 93-4: Changes to the USMARC Bibligraphic Format
(Computer Files) to Accommodate Online Information Resources
(Washington: Library of Congress, Network Development and MARC
Standards Office, Nov. 1992 (rev. Mar. 1993).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Information:
None.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
APPENDIX A
NIR TOOL Template (ver. 5.2)
Purpose and scope:
This template is to be used to collect the information necessary to
identify and track the development of networked information retrieval
tools. It is intended that the main part of this will be completed by
the main individual responsible for the tool. Sections of the
template may require completion by others. This information will be
collected on a regular basis (at least every 3 to 6 months) and will
form the basis of a "snapshot" report on the activities in the area of
networked information retrieval (NIR).
The NIR tools included are defined by enumeration. The IETF/RARE/CNI
NIR-WG welcome suggestions for others to be included.
NIR Tools:
Alex
archie
freeWAIS
gopher
Hytelnet
Netfind
NCSA Mosaic for X
Prospero
Veronica
WAIS (including freeWAIS)
WHOIS
World Wide Web (including Mosaic)
X.500 White Pages
Please complete this template and return it to
Jill.Foster@newcastle.ac.uk (NIR-WG co-chair). Receipt of your
message will be acknowledged.
Please imbed descriptive text by at least one more column than the
heading for that item:
For example:
Brief description of tool:
This is the best application ever seen. It makes finding information
very easy. This is the decription imbedded one more column.
-------------------------x---- cut here ----x----------------------------
Date template updated or checked: (e.g. 02 November, 1992)
By: Name:
Email address:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
NIR Tool Name:
Brief Description of Tool:
Note: This should be a maximum of 100 line description which
should cover the following:
- overview of use, purpose, scope and characteristics
- user's view
- information provider's view
- information types supported (e.g. text, sound, etc)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Contact(s):
[Please duplicate this section for each separate contact]
Name:
[May be the name of a role e.g. nirtool-support or of an
individual]
Email address:
Postal Address:
Telephone:
Fax:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Help Line (for major center as well as each client if available):
Name:
[May be the name of a role e.g. nirtool-support or of an
individual]
Email address:
Telephone:
Level of support offered: [delete as appropriate]
o volunteer
o funded
o for experts only
o all users
Hours available:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Related Working Groups:
[Name only]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sponsoring Organisation / Funding source:
[Name only]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists:
[Duplicate this section for each list]
Address: [Email Address to send contributions]
Administration: [<listname>-request etc.]
Description:
[This is optional - if the group has only one mailing list]
Archive: [Location of message archive for this list]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
News groups:
[Duplicate this section for each news group]
Name:
Description:
[This is optional - if the group has only one news group]
Archive: [Location of message archive for this news group]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Protocols:
What is supported: [e.g. Z39.50]
What it runs over:
Other NIR tools this interworks with:
Future plans:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Servers:
[Duplicate the following for each platform
e.g. Unix, VMS, VM/CMS,....]
[The main contact for this NIR tool should complete at least
"platform" and "contact" for each server known to them.]
Date completed or updated:
By: Name:
Email address: [If different from that of the Primary
contact listed below]
Platform:
Primary Contact:
Name:
Email address:
Telephone:
Server software available from:
Location of more information:
[Such as installation instructions
copyright statements,
warnings & bug reports etc.
Eventually this will be the Unique Resource
Identifiers of the documents]
Latest version number:
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
Approximate number of such servers in use:
General comments:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Clients:
[Duplicate the following for each platform
e.g. MS-DOS PC, MAC, vt100,...]
[The main contact for this NIR tool should complete
"platform" and "contact" for each server known to them.]
Date completed or updated:
By: Name:
Email address: [If different from that of the Primary
contact listed below]
Platform:
Primary Contact:
Name:
Email address:
Telephone:
Client software available from:
Location of more information:
[Such as installation instructions
copyright statements,
warnings & bug reports etc.
Eventually this will be the Unique Resource
Identifiers of the documents]
Latest version number:
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
General comments:
Future plans:
Items included here could include
- optional items to come.
- plans for moving to international standards
- plans for interoperating with other NIR tools
- other functionality to be supported
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Demonstration sites :
List of sites which are willing to act as demonstration
sites for this application.
[Duplicate for each site]
Site name:
Access details:
[e.g.
telnet archie.sura.net
login as archie ]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Documentation:
The following is a list of suggested items to be found in a
document archive. The NIR-WG may be able to help with the
production of some of these if they are not available
initially. Note that the location pointers below could be
replaced in the future by the "Universal Resource Identifier"]
o current overview
o instructions to information providers
o Frequently Asked Questions
o user manuals
o training materials
- tutorials
- canned demos
- sample session (screen dumps)
- videos
- etc.
o miscellaneous documents
[Duplicate the following for each existing document as
necessary]
Document Title:
Location details:
Site:
Full file name:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography:
[A list of a maximum of 10 key papers, books etc on this NIR tool.
Optionally a pointer to a fuller bibliography could be given.]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Information:
[Feel free to add other information that you feel is relevant.
This will be considered for inclusion in the report.]
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
APPENDIX B
NIR Group Template (ver. 5.2)
Purpose and scope:
This template is to be used to collect the information necessary to
identify and track major groups that are working to promote or develop
networked information retrieval. It is intended that this will be
completed by the group representative. This information will be
collected on a regular basis (at least every 3 to 6 months) and will
form the basis of a "snapshot" report on the activities in the area of
networked information retrieval (NIR).
The groups included are defined by enumeration. The IETF/RARE/CNI
NIR-WG welcome suggestions for other groups to be included. [An
appendix of brief descriptions of smaller groups in this field may be
added at a later date].
Groups:
CNI Coalition for Networked Information (CNI)
Architectures and Standards
Directories and Resource Information Services
TopNode for Networked Information Resources, Services,
and Tools
CNIDR Clearing House for Networked Information Discovery
and Retrieval
IETF Integrated Directory Services (IDS)
Integration of Internet Information Resources (IIIR)
Networked Information Retrieval (NIR) joint IETF/RARE WG
Network Information Services Infrastructure (NISI)
OSI-Directory Service (OSI-DS)
Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI)
Whois and Network Information Lookup Service (WNILS)
IRTF Internet Research Task Force Research Group on
Resource Discovery and Directory Service (IRTF-RD)
NISO Z39.50 Implementors Group
RARE Information Services and User Support Working Group
(ISUS)
USMARC/OCLC USMARC Advisory Group; OCLC Internet Resources
Cataloging Experiment (USMARC/OCLC)
Please complete this template for your group or organisation and
return it to Jill.Foster@newcastle.ac.uk (NIR-WG co-chair). Receipt
of your message will be acknowledged.
Please imbed descriptive text by at least one more column than the
heading for that item:
For example:
Description of main group:
This is the most active NIR group. This is the decription imbedded
one more column.
-------------------------x---- cut here ----x----------------------------
Date template updated or checked: (e.g. 02 November, 1992)
By: Name:
Email address:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
NIR Group Name:
Sponsoring Organisation:
Working subgroups:
Name of subgroup:
Mailinglist-Address:
Description of main group:
[Description of the scope and purpose of the group and the
current tasks being worked on. (Recommended maximum of
100 lines.) Please indicate whether membership is open or
closed. Include a pointer to an on-line charter if
appropriate]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Contact(s):
[Please duplicate this section for each separate contact]
Name:
[May be the name of a role e.g. group-secretariat or of an
individual]
Email address:
Postal Address:
Telephone:
Fax:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists:
[Duplicate this section for each list]
Address: [Email Address to send contributions]
Administration: [<listname>-request etc.]
Description:
[This is optional - if the group has only one mailing list]
Archive: [Location of message archive for this list]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
News groups:
[Duplicate this section for each news group]
Name:
Description:
[This is optional - if the group has only one mailing list]
Archive: [Location of message archive for this news group]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Document Archive:
[Duplicate if necessary]
Location details:
Site:
Directory:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Official Publications:
[for example: Journal, Newsletter, Report Series]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography:
[A list of a maximum of 10 key papers, books etc produced by
this group on their NIR work].
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Information:
[Feel free to add other information that you feel is relevant.
This will be considered for inclusion in the report.]
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
APPENDIX C
/* A summary of email lists and newsgroups dealing with */
/* problems in resource discovery... */
/* */
/* email lists in IAFA format: */
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Created-By: Peter Deutsch
Email Address: peterd@bunyip.com
Last Updated: July 20, 1993
Comments: Please send comments, corrections and
additions to the author at the above address.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailinglist-Name: Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Internet
Anonymous FTP Archive working group (IAFA-WG)
mailing list
Address: iafa@cc.mcgill.ca
Administration: iafa-request@cc.mcgill.ca
Description: Discussion list for the IAFA Working Group
concerning the administration of anonymous FTP
archive sites.
Keywords: IETF, IAFA, anonymous, FTP, archive, Internet, archie
Archive: This working group came to completion during the IETF
meeting in November, 1992 and two Internet drafts are
are now circulating. The archive for this mailing list
is currently available on "archives.cc.mcgill.ca"
via anonymous FTP in the file
"pub/mailing-lists/iafa".
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailinglist-Name: Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) WG on
Network Information Retrieval (NIR)
Address: nir@mailbase.ac.uk
Administration: Auto subscriptions to: mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk
"subscribe nir firstname lastname"
Human admin to: nir-request@mailbase.ac.uk
Description: This mailing list was formed after a BOF session at
the San Diego IETF meeting in March, 1992. It is
intended to act as a clearing-house for discussions
of Networked Information retrieval and the active
research projects in this field (eg WAIS, WWW,
Gopher).
Keywords: IETF, URIs, UDIs, URLs, UDLs, resource discovery,
Internet, Gopher, WAIS, WWW, X.500, archie
Archive: The archive for this mailing list is available
via anonymous FTP from the host "mailbase.ac.uk"
in the directory "pub/nir".
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
/* The following lists are devoted to specific NIR-related projects. */
/* Groups are encouraged to make such descriptions available for */
/* their lists. */
Mailinglist-Name: The archie People Mailing List
Address: archie-people@archie.mcgill.ca
Administration: archie-people-request@archie.mcgill.ca
Description: The archie project uses a proactive data gathering
model to construct up-to-date databases of
information gathered from around the net. The
current archie service tracks the contents of
anonymous FTP archives, with additional databases
planned for the coming months.
Keywords: archie, anonymous FTP, resource discovery, Internet
Archive: Currently none.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
/* The following Usenet newsgroups discuss various issues in */
/* resource discovery or specific NIR projects. */
Newsgroup-Name: comp.archives.admin
Mailinglist-Gate: <unknown>
Description: This group discusses problems in administering
Internet archives. It has also been used as an
informal source of announcements for project
releases, a place for new-comers to ask questions,
etc.
Keywords: anonymous FTP, archives, Internet, archie
Archive: <unknown>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroup-Name: comp.infosystems.wais
Mailinglist-Gate: <unknown>
Description: This group was created to host discussions about the
Wide Area Information Service (Server? would
_somebody_ _please_ tell which it is?!!? - peterd :-)
Also included are information and help with the
public domain release available from Thinking
Machine Corp. and setting up your own WAIS server.
Keywords: WAIS, resource discovery, indexing, Internet
Archive: <unknown>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroup-Name: alt.wais
Mailinglist-Gate: <unknown>
Description: This alt. group was created to host discussions
about the Wide Area Information Service. It has been
superceeded by the group "comp.infosystems.wais" and
its use is discouraged.
Keywords: WAIS, resource discovery, indexing, Internet
Archive: <unknown>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroup-Name: comp.infosystems.www
Mailinglist-Gate: <unknown>
Description: This group was created to host discussions about the
World Wide Web distributed hypertext information
services project based at CERN in Switzerland,
including discussion of the many public domain
implementations of WWW clients and servers available.
Keywords: World Wide Web, campus-wide information systems,
resource discovery, indexing, Internet
Archive: <unknown>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroup-Name: comp.infosystems.gopher
Mailinglist-Gate: <unknown>
Description: This group was created to host discussions about the
Gopher distributed information project, based at
University of Minnesota, including discussion of the
many public domain implementations of Gopher clients
and servers available. It has been superceeded by the
group "comp.infosystems.gopher" and its use is
discouraged.
Keywords: Gopher, campus-wide information systems, resource
discovery, indexing, Internet
Archive: <unknown>
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
APPENDIX D
COMING ATTRACTIONS
This section will be used to keep a note of NIR Tools which are
considered by the NIR Group to be sufficiently well developed to
include here, but that are not yet in widespread use.
Items currently included here are:
Hyper-G
Soft Pages
Whois++
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
HYPER-G
Date template updated or checked: 19th October, 1993
By: Name: Frank Kappe
Email address:fkappe@iicm.tu-graz.ac.at
----------------------------------------------------------------------
NIR Tool Name: Hyper-G
Brief Description of Tool:
Hyper-G is the name of an ambitious hypermedia project currently being
developed as a joint effort by a number of institutes of the IIG
(Institutes for Information-Processing Graz) and the Computing and
Information Services Center of the Graz University of Technology and
the Austrian Computer Society.
Hyper-G is designed as a general-purpose, large-scale, multi-user,
distributed hypermedia information system. As such, it combines
concepts of hypermedia, information retrieval systems, documentation
systems with aspects of communication and collaboration, and computer
supported teaching and learning. It also provides seamless
integration of other systems (e.g. World-Wide Web, Gopher, WAIS) that
also operate under the client/server paradigm and allows remote logins
to interactive services.
In addition to hypertext links, Hyper-G allows navigation through
hierarchies, queries (including full text), guided tours, and is
multilingual.
Hyper-G is currently operated at some 10 locations throughout the
world, including a University Information System at the Graz Technical
University. Clients and the server are available without fee for
educational institutions, and are distributed as binaries for a number
of platforms.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Contact(s):
Name: Frank Kappe
Email address:fkappe@iicm.tu-graz.ac.at
Postal Address:Schieszstattg. 4a, A-8010 Graz, AUSTRIA
Telephone: ++43/316/832551-22
Fax:++43/316/824394
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Help Line (for major center as well as each client):
Sorry no help line
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Related Working Groups:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sponsoring Organisation / Funding source:
Austrian Ministry of Science
European Space Agency
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists:
uniinfo@mlist.tu-graz.ac.at
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
News groups:
None
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Protocols:
What is supported: RPC
What it runs over: TCP/IP
Other NIR tools this interworks with: gopher, WAIS, World Wide Web
Future plans: Too numerous to mention.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Servers:
Date completed or updated: 12th October, 1993
By: Name: Gerald Pani
Email address: gpani@iicm.tu-graz.ac.at
Platform: UNIX
Primary Contact:
Name: Gerald Pani
Email address: gpani@iicm.tu-graz.ac.at
Telephone: ++43/316/832551-34
Server software available from: anon-ftp from iicm.tu-graz.ac.at,
in directory pub/Hyper-G/Server
Location of more information: see README in above directory
Latest version number:
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
Approximate number of such servers in use: 13
General comments: Currently available as binary distribution for SUN, DEC, HP,
and SGI workstations.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Clients:
UNIX curses client (a.k.a. VT100 Client)
Date completed or updated: 19th October, 1993
By: Name: Frank Kappe
Email address: fkappe@iicm.tu-graz.ac.at
Platform: UNIX
Primary Contact
Name: Frank Kappe
Email address: fkappe@iicm.tu-graz.ac.at
Telephone: ++43/316/832551-22
Client software available from:
anonymous ftp: iicm.tu-graz.ac.at:/pub/Hyper-G/UnixClient
Location of more information:
Latest version number: 1.41
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
Fairly sophisticated terminal viewer with ~50 commands, multi-language
user interface, history, authoring capabilities (text documents and
links) and the ability to speak to gopher, World-Wide-Web, WAIS and to
start telnet sessions.
General comments:
Future plans:
The terminal viewer will probably remain rather stable in the future.
Our main effort now goes into the development of clients for X-Windows
and MS-Windows.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
MS-Windows Client
Date completed or updated: 10th October, 1993
By: Name: Thomas Dietinger
Email address:
Platform: UNIX
Primary Contact
Name: Thomas DietingerFrank Kappe
Email address: tdieting@iicm.tu-graz.ac.at
Telephone: ++43/316/832551-22
Client software available from:
anonymous ftp: iicm.tu-graz.ac.at:/pub/Hyper-G/pc-client
Location of more information:
Latest version number: 1.37
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
Preliminary version of a Hyper-G client for MS-Windows 3.1 and Windows
NT. Currently mostly identical to the UNIX curses client. An
exception is its ability to elegantly import and export RTF text files
to/from Hyper-G, and its multimedia capabilities.
General comments:
Future plans:
Will become more fancy (menus, icons, buttons...) in the near future.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Demonstration sites :
List of sites which are willing to act as demonstration
sites for this application.
Site name: hyperg.tu-graz.ac.at
Access details: 'rlogin hyperg.tu-graz.ac.at' or
'telnet hyperg.tu-graz.ac.at', login 'info'
(rlogin has the advantage that the terminal size
of xterms is handled correctly (can even be
changed in the middle of a session)
Note: The same information is available through Gopher and WWW gateways.
Gopher: host gopher.tu-graz.ac.at, port 70
WWW: URL=http://www.tu-graz.ac.at:80/ROOT
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Documentation:
Document Title: Most of the documentation is available on-line in the Graz
server. The server distribution include man-pages of the
additional authoring tools and utilities that are supplied wit
the server. The ideas behind Hyper-G are described in a number
of research papers (see Bibliography).
Location details:
Site: iicm.tu-graz.ac.at
Full file name: look in directory /pub/Hyper-G/doc
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography:
Kappe F.: Aspects of a Modern Multi-Media Information System. IIG
Report 308, IIG, Graz University of Technology, Austria, June 1991.
Available by anonymous ftp from
iicm.tu-graz.ac.at:/pub/Hyper-G/doc/report308.ps.Z
Kappe F., Maurer H., Sherbakov N.: Hyper-G - A Universal Hypermedia
System. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp.
39-66 (1993). Also available by anonymous ftp from
iicm.tu-graz.ac.at:/pub/Hyper-G/doc/report333.txt.Z
Kappe F., Pani G., Schnabel F.: The Architecture of a Massively Distributed
Hypermedia System. Internet Research: Electronic Networking Applications and
Policy, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 10-24; Meckler (Spring 1993)
Kappe F., Maurer H.: Hyper-G: A Large Universal Hypermedia System and Some
Spin-Offs; ACM Computer Graphics, experimental special online issue;
available by anonymous ftp from siggraph.org in directory
publications/May_93_online/Kappe.Maurer (May 1993)
Kappe F.: Hyper-G: A Distributed Hypermedia System; Proc. INET '93,
San Francisco, California, pp. DCC-1 - DCC-9 (Aug. 1993).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Information:
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
SOFT PAGES
Date template updated or checked: 14th July, 1993
By: Name: Glenn Mansfield
Email address: glenn@aic.co.jp
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
NIR Tool Name: SoftPages
Brief Description of Tool:
A tool to aid users in the efficient retrieval of documents,
s/w, and the like from servers ( anonymous FTP, FTAM, .. )
connected to the network.
In principle, it uses the X.500 Directory framework to store
information about the network. This includes the network
configuration, the properties of the links that connect the
network elements, location of servers and their
contents. When a user looks for a particular document or s/w
the above information is used to search for the object starting
from the server that is "nearest"(cheapest) to the user.
- user's view
A "single window" view of the public archives connected to
the network. It locates the server that contains the sought
object and is near(/cheap/fast) server.
Query of files based on incomplete name is supported. The
system also supports queries based on keywords.
- information provider's view
The information about the server contents have to be updated
at a single place- namely, the local Directory Service Agent.
The Directory Service Agent makes the information globally
accessible.
It is not necessary to carry out periodic updates on one or
more information servers.
- information types supported (e.g. text, sound, etc)
Since the system supports query on name and keywords (not on
contents) all kinds of information may be supported.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Contact(s):
Name:
Manager, SoftPages Project
Email address:
spp-manager@aic.co.jp
Postal Address:
AIC Sytsems Lab.
Minami Yoshinari 6-6-3
Aoba-ku, Sendai-shi 989-32, Japan
Telephone:
+81-22-279-3310
Fax:
+81-22-279-3640
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Help Line (for major center as well as each client)
Name:
SoftPages Project Support Group
Email address:
spp-support@aic.co.jp
Telephone:
+81-22-279-3310
Level of support offered:
o volunteer
o all users yes
Hours available: Regular working hours
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Related Working Groups:
The SoftPages Project Working Group
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sponsoring Organisation / Funding source:
The project is supported by:
AIC Systems Lab., Sendai, Japan
Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan
The WIDE Project, Japan
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists:
Address:
spp@aic.co.jp
Administration:
spp-request@aic.co.jp
Description:
Technical discussion related to representation of
network information in the directory and its usage
is carried out in this group.
Archive:
Not (yet) available via anonymous FTP.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
News groups:
None
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Protocols:
What is supported:
X.500 DAP
What it runs over:
LDAP over IP
Other NIR tools this interworks with:
Future plans:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Servers:
Date completed or updated: 5th November, 1992
By: Name: Glenn Mansfield
Email address: glenn@aic.co.jp
Platform:
Unix
Primary Contact:
Name:
Manager, SoftPages Project
Email address:
spp-manager@aic.co.jp
Telephone:
+81-22-279-3310
Server software available from:
Any standard X.500 package will do.
We are using the QUIPU package that is included
in the ISODE system
Location of more information:
Latest version number:
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
Approximate number of such servers in use:
General comments:
some new oids need to be assigned for
SoftPages related objects.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Clients:
Date completed or updated: 5th November, 1992
By: Name: Glenn Mansfield
Email address: glenn@aic.co.jp
Platform:
Unix.
Primary Contact:
Name:
Manager, SoftPages Project
Email address:
spp-manager@aic.co.jp
Telephone:
+81-22-279-3310
Client software available from:
will be announced on the mailing list in the
near future
Location of more information:
Latest version number:
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
General comments:
The Prototype is under development and testing.
It is not (yet) available for public use.
Future plans:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Demonstration sites :
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Documentation:
Document Title: README
Location details:
Site: ftp.tohoku.ac.jp
Full file name:pub/spp/README
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography:
"The Soft Pages Project", Th. Johannsen, G.Mansfield,
OSI-DS-39, February 1993.
Location details:
Site: cs.ucl.ac.uk
Full file name:osi-ds/osi-ds-39-00.{txt, ps}
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Information:
"Optimized Document Retrieval - Soft Pages Project", Th. Johannsen,
G.Mansfield, S.Noguchi, Booklet of Abstracts,
The Network Services Conference '92, Pisa, November 1992.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
WHOIS++
Date template updated or checked: 21 October, 1993
By: Name: Chris Weider
Email address: clw@merit.edu
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
NIR Tool Name: whois++ and the whois++ index service
Brief Description of Tool:
whois++ and the whois++ index service are extensions of the WHOIS
protocol. They are designed to a) subsume in a standardized fashion the
many enhancements which have been added to individual WHOIS servers;
b) extend the flexibility of WHOIS by enriching the query syntax, and
c) provide a distributed indexing system to tie the various whois++
servers into a distributed information lookup service.
The protocols describe two logically distinct types of servers that an
information provider can set up. The first type is the base-level
whois++ server. This contains primary information, such as entries
for individual people or entries describing resources available
locally. For example, if one wished to provide a campus directory
through whois++, one would set up a base-level whois++ server that
contained entries for each student. In addition, this base-level
server must be able to generate 'forward knowledge' for the
information it contains. The second type of server collects the
'forward knowledge' generated by a number of base-level servers, and
can take a query sent to it and determine which of the base-level
servers it indexes might contain information relevant for the query.
A single physical server may contain both primary information and
'forward knowledge' for a number of other servers, and an index server
can also index 'forward knowledge' for a number of other index
servers, allowing a hierarchical mesh of index servers to be built.
For more details on the information provider's point of view, see the
'Documentation' section of this template.
The basic information model is centered on the concept of 'templates'.
A template is a collection of attribute:value pairs, where the allowable
attributes are specified by the template type. The whois++ templates
are based on the templates defined by the IAFA working group of the IETF.
The values associated with given attributes are not necessarily limited
to text, they can be digitized sound clips, etc.
Depending on the client she uses, the user will see a connection to the
local whois++ base-level server. The user can ask the server for a list
of templates supported by that server, and can then call up a blank
version of the template so that she can fill in values for the attributes
she knows. Once she has filled in the template as much as she wants, she
issues a query to the server to find all the entries which have these
attribute:value pairs. If she is not satisfied with the responses, she
can then start traversing the index service to locate a server which
can adequately answer her query. In addition, if a user makes frequent
use of the index service, she can set 'bookmarks' which can be
used later to directly contact servers she's found useful in the past,
without having to traverse the index service again.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Contact(s):
Name: Chris Weider
Email address: clw@merit.edu
Postal Address:
Merit Network, Inc.
Industrial Technology Institute, Pod G
2901 Hubbard, Ann Arbor Mi 48105
Telephone: (313) 747-2730
Fax: (313) 747-3185
Name: Peter Deutsch
Email address: peterd@bunyip.com
Postal Address:
Bunyip Information Systems, Inc.
266 Blvd. Neptune
Dorval QUEBEC H9S 2L4
CANADA
Telephone: (514) 875-8611
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Help Line:
Not yet deployed.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Related Working Groups:
Whois Network Information Lookup Service (WNILS) Working Group of the
Internet Engineering Task Forces (IETF)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sponsoring Organisation / Funding source:
None
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists:
Address: ietf-wnils@ucdavis.edu
Administration: ietf-wnils-request@ucdavis.edu
Archive: pub/archive/wnils@ucdavis.edu
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
News groups:
NONE
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Protocols:
What is supported: WHOIS, whois++
What it runs over: TCP/IP
Other NIR tools this interworks with: None yet.
Future plans: Providing resource location services and URN/URL
mappings for GOPHER, ARCHIE, WAIS, and WWW.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Servers:
Only beta versions available at this time (21 October, 1993). Please
contact clw@merit.edu (Chris Weider) for more information.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Clients:
Only beta versions available at this time (21 October, 1993). Please
contact clw@merit.edu (Chris Weider) for more information.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Demonstration sites :
NONE at this time (21 October, 1993)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Documentation:
Document Title: Architecture of the Whois++ Index Service
Location details:
Site: gopher.ucdavis.edu
Full file name: /pub/IETF/WNILS/Architecture.Index.Service
Document Title: Architecture of the WHOIS++ Service
Location details:
Site: gopher.ucdavis.edu
Full file name: /pub/IETF/WNILS/Architecture.Overview
Document Title: Specifications for WHOIS Services
Location details:
Site: gopher.ucdavis.edu
Full file name: /pub/IETF/WNILS/Discussion.Paper
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography:
See the documentation section of this template.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Information:
As this is a coming attraction, we encourage people to get in on the
ground floor. The authors of this protocol see it as potentially
being a key player in any integrated Internet information architecture,
and we can always use more volunteers who want to beta-test code for
us.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
APPENDIX E
Extinct Critters (Tools)
This section will contain information on Tools moved from the main
body of the report as the Tool falls out of common usage.
There are no items currently in this section.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
APPENDIX F
Extinct Critters (Groups)
This section will be used as a historical record of groups which were
once in the main body of the report, but which have since been closed.
Items in this section:
IAFA
Z39.50 Interoperability Testbed
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
IAFA
Date template updated or checked: 8th July 1993
By: Name: Peter Deutsch
Email Address: peterd@bunyip.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailinglist-Name: Internet Anonymous File Archive Working Group
Sponsoring Organisation:
Working subgroups: none.
Description of main group:
This working group came to completion during the IETF meeting in
November, 1992 and two Internet drafts are are now circulating. The
archive for this mailing list is currently available on
"archives.cc.mcgill.ca" via anonymous ftp in the file
"pub/mailing-lists/iafa".
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Contact(s):
Name: Peter Deutsch
Email address: peterd@bunyip.com
Postal address: Bunyip Information Systems
266 Blvd Neptune
Dorval, Quebec H9S 2L4
CANADA
Telephone: (514) 398-3709
Fax: (514) 398-6876
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists:
Address: iafa@cc.mcgill.ca
Administration: iafa-request@cc.mcgill.ca
Description: Discussion list for the IAFA Working Group
concerning the administration of anonymous FTP
archive sites.
Keywords: IETF, IAFA, anonymous, FTP, archive, Internet,
archie
Archive: The archive for this mailing list is currently
available on "archives.cc.mcgill.ca" via
anonymous FTP in the file "pub/mailing-lists/iafa".
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
News groups:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Document Archive:
Location details:
Site: archives.cc.mcgill.ca
Directory: pub/mailing-lists/iafa
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Official Publications:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Information:
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
NIR Group Name: Z39.50 Interoperability Testbed
Sponsoring Organisation: Coalition for Networked Information (CNI)
Architectures and Standards Program
Working subgroups:
Name of subgroup:
Mailinglist-Address:
Description of main group:
Program priorities are 1) to facilitate a consistent and complete
mechanism for linking bibliographic, abstracting, and indexing files
to files of their associated source materials; 2) a single standard
for the transmission of bitmapped image files; 3) protocols for
handing networked requests for delivery of source materials; 4)
mechanisms for interorganizational authentication, accounting, and
billing; and 5) to integrate lessons drawn from the experience of
pilot projects that exercise networked printing utilities and 6) to
provide an "interoperability workshop" to specify, implement, and test
advanced functions of Z39.50 to accelerate the pace and to ensure the
quality of standardization efforts in this area.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Contact(s):
Name: Clifford Lynch
Email address: calur@uccmvsa.bitnet
Postal address:
Off. of the President Unv. of California 300 Lakeside Dr.,
8th Flr. Oakland, CA 94612-3350 USA
Telephone: 415-987-0522
Fax: 415-839-3573
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists:
Address: LISTSERV@NERVM.NERDC.UFL.EDU
Administration: LISTSERV@NERVM.NERDC.UFL.EDU
Description: Implementors' list for low level discussions
of protocol details.
Archive:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
News groups: None
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Document Archive:
Location details:
Site: ftp.cni.org
Directory: /CNI/projects/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Official Publications: None
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography: None
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Information: None
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Foster Expires April 30 1994