A Status Report on Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups Draft version 3.1 24th March 1993 Produced by the Joint IETF/RARE/CNI Networked Information Retrieval - Working Group (NIR-WG) Editors: Jill Foster Jill.Foster@newcastle.ac.uk George Brett ghb@concert.net Peter Deutsch peterd@bunyip.com 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 year and a half we have seen a wide spread 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 have recently begun to focus 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" and to update it at least two to three times 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. Since the last report, much work has been 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). 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, ease of use (from the user's point of view), how to make information available using it, documentation, demonstration sites, etc. It was intended that the main part of this should have been completed by the main individual responsible for the tool. Sections of the template 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 NCSA Mosaic for X Prospero Veronica WAIS WHOIS World Wide Web (not updated) X.500 White Pages 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 Z39.50 Interoperability Testbed CNIDR Clearinghouse for Networked Information Discovery and Retrieval IETF IDS IIIR NIR joint IETF/RARE WG NISI OSI-DS URI WNILS OCLC USMARC RARE ISUS In addition, Appendix C contains a list of the relevant email lists. 4. Updating Information Updates on, and additions to the information contained in this report are welcomed by the editors. Send updates using the appropriate template (from Appendix A or Appendix B of this report) to: Jill Foster Email RFC 822: Jill.Foster@newcastle.ac.uk Email X.400: C=gb; ADMD= ; PRMD=uk.ac; O=newcastle; S=Foster; G=Jill; The current templates and this report may be retrieved from the UK Mailbase Server: 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 Via anonymous ftp to: mailbase.ac.uk (use your email address as the password) file: /pub/nir/tool.template file: /pub/nir/group.template file: /pub/nir/nir.status.report 5. Overview of the types of NIR Tool ****** This section to be supplied by Peter Deutsch - and will explain briefly the taxonomy of NIR tools (indexing tools etc) with examples of each. *** For example: Taxonomy of NIR Tools: Resource Discovery Class Discovery Instance location (indexing) Access Information Management 6. NIR Tools This section contains detailed information about the various NIR Tools. It is ordered alphabetically. It is intended that an "evaluation" exercise will be carried out for the various NIR tools. This will be written up in a separate document and will include reviews and user comments, the general pros and cons of the particular NIR tool and its strengths and weaknesses. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ALEX Date template updated or checked: 19th March 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". ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Evaluation: "Great idea!" "I probably won't ever use FTP again." "Thanks for a really useful tool." =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ARCHIE Date template updated or checked: 22 March, 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. WAIS support is provided in the most recent release and it is expected that additional collections of information will be maintained and served using WAIS tools for access in the near future. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. Donations to help fund 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: 22 March, 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 archive on "archie.ans.net".. Latest version number: archie 3.0 Brief Scope and Characteristics: This is the first 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 20 (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 "bunyip.com" or the banner message when logging into any of the archie telnet clients for more details. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Clients: Date completed or updated: 22 March, 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: 22 March, 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: 22 March, 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: 22 March, 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: 22 March, 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. Access details: - telnet to any of the above sites - login as user `archie' - type `help' at the prompt to get started. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Documentation: Document Title: What is archie Location details: anonymous FTP from archie.ans.net Site: bunyip.com 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: bunyip.com 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: bunyip.com 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: 22 March 1993 By: Name: Mark McCahill Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu --------------------------------------------------------------------------- NIR Tool Name: Gopher Brief Description of Tool: The internet Gopher protocol is a client/distributed-server document search and retrieval protocol 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, 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 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 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: [Not archived] --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 (and archie for gopherspace) NNTP via NNTP gateway Finger (subset of gopher) X.500 via X.500 gateway Future plans: Gopher+ protocol extensions implementations are now in beta-test --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Servers: Date completed or updated: 22 March, 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 1100. General comments: The defacto standard workhorse Gopher server. Paul Lindner is the architect and keeper of this server. ------------------- Date completed or updated: 22 March, 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 50 and 100. General comments: Runs on any Macintosh with 1MB memory or more. Requires MacTCP. Being revised/rewritten to support Gopher+. ------------------- Date completed or updated: 22 March, 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 , 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: (please check software distribution) 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: 22 March, 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: (please check software distribution) 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: 22 March, 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: (please check software distribution) 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: 22 March, 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: (please check software distribution) 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: 22 March, 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: 22 March, 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 bversion now in beta test. ------------------- Date completed or updated: 22 March, 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: 22 March, 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: 22 March, 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: 22 March, 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: 22 March, 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: 22 March, 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. General comments: Written and maintained by Daniel Torrey. Future plans: ------------------- 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: 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: General comments: The VMS client was written and is maintained by Mark Van Overbeke. Future plans: ------------------- Date completed or updated: 22 March, 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: 22 March, 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: 22 March, 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: 22 March, 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: 22 March, 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: -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Evaluation: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= HYTELNET Date template updated or checked: 13th March, 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: None ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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: 13rd March, 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: 6.4 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 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Other Information: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- NETFIND Date template updated or checked: 13th March, 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 any 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. 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. What it runs over: TCP/IP. Other NIR tools this interworks with: DNS, SMTP, finger, Gopher Future plans: Many. Telnet to the server and see the "Future Directions" menu under the "Frequently Asked Questions" help menu. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Servers: Date completed or updated: March 13, 1993 By: Name: Mike Schwartz Email address: [If different from that of the Primary contact listed below] Platform: SunOS 4.1 or more recent 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: 3.35. Brief Scope and Characteristics: This version of Netfind incorporates a number of improvements to the search algorithm and data presented to the user, as well as the available documentation. Approximate number of such servers in use: 5-10. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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) lincoln.technet.sg (Technet Unit, Singapore) 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) redmont.cis.uab.edu (University of Alabama at Birmingham) nic.uakom.cs (Academy of Sciences, Slovakia) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 plan to write a more up-to-date technical paper about Netfind by Summer 1993. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bibliography: 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.MFS" 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). =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= NCSA MOSAIC for X Date template updated or checked: 17 March, 1993 By: Name: Marc Andreessen Software Development Group National Center for Supercomputing Applications Email address: marca@ncsa.uiuc.edu --------------------------------------------------------------------------- NIR Tool Name: XMOSAIC Brief Description of Tool: 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, 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. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Primary Contact(s): 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 Fax: n/a --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help Line: Name: Marc Andreessen Email address: marca@ncsa.uiuc.edu Telephone: 217 244 0765 Level of support offered: o volunteer (currently) Hours available: --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Related Working Groups: None --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sponsoring Organisation / Funding source: National Center for Supercomputing Applications --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mailing Lists: Currently Mosaic falls under the umbrella of www-talk@info.cern.ch. Administration: None Archive: None --------------------------------------------------------------------------- News groups: None ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Protocols: What is supported: Natively, Mosaic talks HTTP, Gopher, FTP, NNTP, NCSA DTM, 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 Other NIR tools this interworks with: Practically all of them. 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.) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Servers: Date completed or updated: By: Name: Email address: Platform: Primary Contact: Name: Email address: Telephone: Server software available from: The NCSA Mosaic client, as described above, can access information on a wide variety of servers and gateways. There is no "Mosaic server", yet. People interested in setting up servers specifically for use with Mosaic may be interested in the World Wide Web server software at info.cern.ch. Location of more information: Latest version number: Brief Scope and Characteristics: Approximate number of such servers in use: General comments: --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Clients: Date completed or updated: 17th March, 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 Telephone: 217 244 0765 Client software available from: ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu in /Web/xmosaic. Location of more information: ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu in /Web/xmosaic, and online, within Mosaic. http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu:80/mosaic-docs/help-about.html Latest version number: 0.10 Brief Scope and Characteristics: As described above. General comments: Beta 0.10 release was March 13. New versions are generally released every 7-14 days, until 1.0, which is targeted for early April. Future plans: As described above. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Demonstration sites : None, as this is an X client and we even distribute binaries. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Documentation: o current overview http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu:80/mosaic-docs/help-about.html o instructions to information providers http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/Provider/Overview.html o Frequently Asked Questions http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu:80/mosaic-docs/mosaic-faq.html o user manuals http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu:80/mosaic-docs/mosaic-docs.html o training materials - tutorials - canned demos - sample session (screen dumps) - videos - etc. http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu:80/mosaic-docs/mosaic-docs.html o miscellaneous documents http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu:80/mosaic-docs/help-about.html Document Title: Location details: Site: Full file name: Given above. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bibliography: None, yet. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Other Information: We welcome, and appreciate, all kinds of feedback. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Evaluation: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= PROSPERO Date template updated or checked: 21st April, 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. We hope to have WAIS indices and Gopher directories 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 supports the authentication of clients and allows fine grained authorization of requests to directories and indices. 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 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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: There has not yet been any demand to make the archive publicly accessible, but we will do so upon request. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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: There has not yet been any demand to make the archive publicly accessible, but we will do so upon request. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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: 2nd April, 1992 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/swa" virtual system. Location of more information: Contained within the release. Latest version number: Alpha Version 5.0b 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. Approximate number of such servers in use: 50 General comments: -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Clients: Date completed or updated: 21st October, 1992 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. Latest Version number: Alpha Version 5.0b. Brief Scope and Characteristics: This is a command-line client, which uses the same syntax to navigate through the Prospero namespace that a user uses to navigate through the UNIX filesystem. ("cd", "ls", etc.) 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 developing a client based on the popular Gopher menu browser. This client will allow users to remotely customize and update virtual systems. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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: Document Title: The Prospero Protocol, version 5 Location details: Site: PROSPERO.ISI.EDU Full file name: /pub/prospero/doc/prospero-protocol-v5.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: 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-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 a useful first paper to read. 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 second 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. 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 the Prospero User's Manual. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Evaluation: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= VERONICA Date template updated or checked: 18 March, 1993 By: Name: Steven Foster Email address: foster@futique.scs.unr.edu --------------------------------------------------------------------------- NIR Tool Name: veronica Brief Description of Tool: veronica: Very Easy Rodent-Oriented Net-wide Index to Computerized Archives. veronica is a service that maintains an index of titles of gopher items, and provides keyword searches of those titles. A veronica search originates with a user's request for a search, submitted via a gopher client. The result of a veronica search is a set of gopher-type data items, which is returned to the gopher client as a gopher-compliant menu, customized by the user's keyword specification. The user can access any of the resultant data items by selecting from the returned menu. Items on this menu may be drawn from many gopher servers. These are functional gopher items, immediately accessible via the gopher client. Because veronica is accessed via gopher clients, it provides access to all types of data supported by the gopher protocol and the client implementation. A veronica server typically searches the menus of hundreds of gopher servers, perhaps all the gopher servers that are announced to the Internet. Currently ( 3-18-93 ), veronica provides an index to 1126 gopher servers. At present, there are no "veronica clients" per se; veronica is accessed through normal gopher clients. veronica is tightly integrated with the gopher protocol. 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. Notice that these are NOT full-text searches of data at gopher-server sites, just as archie does not index the contents of ftp sites, but only the names of files at those sites. veronica indexes the TITLES on all levels of the menus, for most gopher sites in the Internet. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Primary Contact(s): Name: veronica development team Email address: veronica@veronica.scs.unr.edu Postal Address: 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: 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@cs.unr.edu Postal Address: 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 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sponsoring Organisation / Funding source: University and Community College System of Nevada Computer Services, and University of Nevada, Reno. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mailing Lists: Address: veronica discussion happens on gopher-news@boombox.micro.umn.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+. Adopt unique document-ID standards. Enhanced boolean keyword features. Distribute the database more widely. Subject-area-specific indexes. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Servers: Date completed or updated: March 18, 1993 By: Name: Steven Foster Email address: foster@cs.unr.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/ Location of more information: Via Gopher: veronica.scs.unr.edu veronica Via Gopher: gopher.cnidr.org veronica Via ftp: veronica.scs.unr.edu veronica/ Latest version number: 0.2 Brief Scope and Characteristics: Two modules: a data-collection module and a data-server module. Data-collector runs on any Unix computer that does TCP and compiles perl. Server module in two flavors: a. NeXT-based (NeXTStep 3.0) indexing. b. WAIS-based indexing runs on any Unix box that will compile WAIS. Server answers gopher query-type at a not-well-known port. Approximate number of such servers in use: four. General comments: Server architecture is changing rapidly; see the announcements posted ( as above ) for updates. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Clients: Date completed or updated: March 18, 1993 By: Name: Steven Foster Email address: foster@cs.unr.edu Platform: veronica is accessed through any of the gopher clients. Primary Contact: As for gopher clients. Name: Email address: Telephone: Client software available from: As for gopher clients. Location of more information: Via Gopher: veronica.scs.unr.edu veronica Via Gopher: gopher.cnidr.org veronica Via ftp: veronica.scs.unr.edu veronica/ Future plans: veronica will interoperate with Gopher+ clients. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Demonstration sites : Site name: University of Minnesota Gopher server Access details: gopher to gopher.micro.umn.edu, port 70. Other Gopher and Information Servers Search Gopherspace with veronica. choose one of the search types available. 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: CNIDR veronica server Access details: gopher to gopher.cnidr.org, port 70. Open "veronica" folder; choose one of the search types available. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Documentation: Document Title: 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 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: A Student's Guide to Unix; Harley Hahn; McGraw-Hill; 1993. Internet World; Daniel Dern; InterOp ; 1993. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Other Information: --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Evaluation: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= WAIS Date template updated or checked: 23rd March, 1993 By: Name: Brewster Kahle Email address: Brewster@think.com [Editor's note. Brewster checked this - but with the new WAIS Inc. - I believe the contact addresses might have changed to "@wais.com" rather than "think.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: Barbara Brooks Email address: Barbara@think.com Postal Address: 1040 Noel Drive, Menlo Park CA 94025 (USA) Telephone: Fax: --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help Line: Name: George Brett Email address: ghb@concert.net Telephone: ? Level of support offered: all users Hours available: 9-5 EST --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Related Working Groups: Z39.50 protocol group --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sponsoring Organisation / Funding source: NSF is funding the CNIDR (Geroge Brett) DARPA is funding Thinking Machines --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 What it runs over: The freeware just runs over tcp/ip, but product 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: /wais/*@think.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@think.com Platform: Connection Machine Model 2 Primary Contact: Name: Ottavia Bassetti Email address: ottavia@think.com Telephone: 617-234-1000 Server software available from: 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: --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Clients: Date completed or updated: 18th November, 1992 By: Name: Brewster Kahle Email address: brewster@think.com Platform: NeXT Primary Contact: Name: Paul Burchard Email address: burchard@math.utah.edu Telephone: Client software available from: /wais/WAIStation-NeXT-1.9.tar.Z@think.com via anonymous FTP Location of more information: Latest version number: 1.9 Brief Scope and Characteristics: General comments: Future plans: new version due out early 93 ------------------ Date completed or updated: 18th November, 1992 By: Name: Brewster Kahle Email address: Brewster@think.com Platform: telnet access (vt100) Primary Contact: Name: John Curran Email address: jcurran@nnsc.nsf.net Telephone: Client software available from: /public/wais/wais-8-b*.tar.Z@think.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: 18th November, 1992 By: Name: Brewster Kahle Email address: Brewster@think.com Platform: Mac Hypercard Primary Contact: Name: Francois Schiettecatte Email address: francois@welchgate.welch.jhu.edu Telephone: Client software available from: /incoming/HyperWais.sit.hqx@mendel.welch.jhu.edu /incoming/HyperWais.src.sit.hqx@mendel.welch.jhu.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@think.com Platform: VMS Primary Contact: Name: Jim Fullton Email address: Fullton@mdewey.ga.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@think.com Platform: DOS Primary Contact: Name: Jim Fullton Email address: Fullton@mdewey.ga.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@think.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@think.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@think.com Platform: RS6000 Primary Contact: Name: Dennis Shiao Email address: shiao@ans.net Telephone: Client software available from: /pub/misc/wais-8-b3-dist.tar.Z@ftp.ans.net 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 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Evaluation: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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: 28th October, 1992 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 freely available to anyone. 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. 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. Making a web is as simple as writing a few SGML files which point to your existing data. Making it public involves running the FTP or HTTP daemon , and making at least one link into your web from another. In fact, any file available by anonymous FTP can be immediately linked into a 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 Digital's VMS/Help, Technical Univerity of Graz's "Hyper-G", and Thinking Machine's "W.A.I.S." systems. 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. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 major center as well as each client): 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, we cannot provide user support for non-HEP users. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Related Working Groups: NIR, URL --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sponsoring Organisations / Funding source: CERN Also other HEP labs (SLAC, FNAL, NIKHEF, etc), O'Reilly Associates, New Jersey Institute of Technology Other sources welcomed! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 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 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- News groups: cern.www.talk, cern.www.announce (limited distribution, gatewayed from mail lists) (May move into comp.inforsystems) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Protocols: What is supported: HTTP WAIS* FTP anonymous FTP Gopher NNTP Local mounted file access Telnet sessions Rlogin sessions What it runs over: TCP/IP DECnet option. Other NIR servers W3 clients interworks with: *WAIS via gateway. Built-in capability in clients for others above Archie access via WAIS archie server with direct link to FTP sites. Future plans: HTTP: format negotiation (prototype runs now). Graphics, TeX etc presentation Custom application data formats Built-in WAIS handling 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: 0.4 Brief Scope and Characteristics: Fast stateless file server runs over TCP/IP. Suitable for rapind documentation navigation. Approximate number of such servers in use: 40 General comments: Some servers serve many databases. Version 0.5 will allow directories to be exported as hypertext automatically, and shell scripts for indexing and providing virtual hypertext spaces to be embedded in the information space. Many tools available for serving different sorts of information Gnu info teX SGML man pages etc as hypertext. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Client: Viola 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: Name: Pei Y Wei, O'Reilly Associates, Sebastopol, CA, USA Email address: wei@xcf.berkeley.edu Client software available from: ftp://info.crn.ch/pub/www/src ftp://xcf.berkeley.edu/pub/local Location of more information: http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/Status.html and linked documents Latest version number: 90730 Brief Scope and Characteristics: A browser based on the "Viola" hypertext system. Multifont, neat buttons. One text window with "clone" facility. Bookmarks. History list. General comments: Requires X but not Motif. Some quirky behaviour worth tolerating for an oterwise excelent product Future plans: Future enhancements to include graphics and general SGML support (not yet released but in prototype). Demonstration sites : xcf.berkely.edu used to. Ask Pei. It is rather slow to remotely demo X applications. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Client: Erise Browser Date completed or updated: 29th October, 1992 By: Name: Tim Berners-Lee Email address: timbl@info.cern.ch Platform: X (sun4, decstation) Primary Contact Name: Ari Lemmke, HUT, Finland Email address: arl@cs.hut.fi Client software available from: ftp://nic.funet.fi/ @@@ check this when its not busy ftp://info.cern.ch/pub/www/bin/*/erwise Location of more information: http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/Status.html Latest version number: - Brief Scope and Characteristics: A browser based on Motif. Multifont. Multiple text windows. General comments: A few quirks (difficulty of launching) and lack of current support make this a less practical choice. Future plans: None as far as I know. Demonstration sites : None --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Client: MidasWWW 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: Name: Tony Johnson, Boston Univ Email address: TONYJ@scs.slac.stanford.edu Phone +1 (415) 926 2278 Client software available: "within a day or two (29-Oct-92 10:41)". Location of more information: http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/Status.html and linked documents Latest version number: - Brief Scope and Characteristics: A browser based on the "Midas" object oriented Motif widget system. Multifont, neat buttons, Motif look and feel. One text window with "clone" facility. Bookmarks. History list. General comments: Requires Motif. Looks extremely interesting. In use at SLAC since a few months ago, but not on general release quite yet. Ported already to several X platforms. Future plans: Future enhancements to include graphics and document creation and editing. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. 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) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Client: NJIT Full screen browser Date completed or updated: 29th October, 1992 By: Name: Tim Berners-Lee Email address: timbl@info.cern.ch Platform: various Primary Contact: By: Name: James Whitescarver, New Jersey Institute of Technology Email address: jim@eies2.njit.edu Client software available from: Not yet. Location of more information: http://info.cern.ch./hypertext/WWW/LineMode/Browser.html and linked documents Latest version number: "Experimental" Brief Scope and Characteristics: A full-screen version of the line mode browser, with highlighting and cursor control. General comments: Watch the demonstration site for news. Demonstration sites : telnet eies2.njit.edu or telnet 128.235.1.43 (USA [NJ]) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 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 Postcript of tarnsparencies from talks: see ftp://info.cern.ch/pub/www/doc --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bibliography: o For latest list, see: http://info.cern.ch./hypertext/WWW/Bibliography.html The following list 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. 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, 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. The Whole Internet Krol, Ed, "The Whole INTERNET User's Guide and Catalog". Sebastopol CA, O'Reilly & Associates, 1992. ISBN=1-56592-025-2. 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. Technical Overview of W3 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 ) Line Mode Browser user guide A dump of the line mode browser hypertext user guide into plain text. Also available in our anonymous FTP archive, to get you started, as /pub/www/doc/line-mode-guide.txt (plain text) The "W3 Book" If you want technical details, we recommend browsing the web, for the latest versions of all our thoughts we have had time to type in. If you want to take it on the plane, then we occasionally dump a part of the hypertext onto paper. This is the "World-Wide Web Book". See the introductory page for contents overview. Around 50 pages, cut down to handy A4 size (like your PC documentation!). Pick it up in postscript or LateX form by anonymous FTP to info.cern.ch in /pub/www/doc as files the_www_book.ps and the_www_book.tex. Universal Document Identifiers 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. Non-technical articles ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING AND VISIONS OF HYPERTEXT Published in "Physics World", Vol.5 No 6, June 1992. Tim Berners-Lee discusses the impact of global hypertext on academic publishing. THE POTENTIAL OF COMPUTER NETWORKS (TITLE?) "The Economist", June 20th-26th 1992, by ???. A four-page feature on the potential of computer networks, mentioning WAIS and WWW. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Other Information: Seek and ye shall find. And if ye don't, mail someone to fix it. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Evaluation: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= X.500 Date template updated or checked: 1st June, 1993 By: Name: Chris Weider Email address: clw@merit.edu --------------------------------------------------------------------------- NIR Tool Name: X.500 Brief Description of Tool: X.500 is an international standard designed to provide a distributed global directory service. It is primarily used today to provide 'White Pages' services, although other types of services which have directory components (automated mail aliasing, for example) are beginning to be run over X.500. In addition to information about people and organizations, the Directory also contains a pilot K-12 Directory, pilot Information Resource information, and some other non-White Pages information. X.500 contains a number of security features, which are implemented on different paradigms in the various servers. User's View: Users (either human or electronic) run a client program to connect to a local X.500 server. Since X.500 is distributed, it appears that the entire global X.500 directory is available from the local server. From this server connection, the user can add, delete, or modify information held by the Directory, or issue powerful search commands to locate individuals or other information. The first solid version of the X.500 protocol was released in 1988, and has been the subject of much research in the past 5 years. Consequently, there are a large number of clients, for almost every platform, and a healthy number of servers. There are mail interfaces to some parts of the X.500 directory, and there is a X.500 to Gopher gateway. An X.500 interface to archie is currently under development. Information Provider's View: 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: 5th May, 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: 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: 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: "A Survey of Advanced Usages of X.500", C. Weider, R. Wright. Internet Draft, expires September 23, 1993. Location details: Available for anonymous FTP from nic.ddn.mil Site: Full file name: draft-ietf-ids-x500-survey-01.txt Document Title: "Lightweight Directory Access Protocol", W. Yeong, T. Howes, and S. Hardcastle-Kille, Internet Draft, expires June 15, 1993. Location details: Available for anonymous FTP from nic.ddn.mil Site: Full file name: draft-ietf-osids-lightdirect-03.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 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Date template updated or checked: 22nd March, 1993 By: Name: Jane Smith Email address: Jane.Smith@cnidr.org --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= CNIDR Date template updated or checked: 22nd March, 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, the Wide Area Information Server (WAIS), the Internet Gopher, and archie have become popular, and the WorldWide Web (WWW) is poised for popularity once suitable client software is developed and distributed. WAIS, 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 systems, the Clearinghouse for Networked Information Discovery and Retrieval (CNIDR) will work closely with developers of other tools toward providing compatibility, consistency, and, to the extent possible, convergence of the tools. Specific activities will provide a central focus and forum for networked information discovery and retrieval (NIDR) tools and will 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: Administration: Description: Two mailing lists, one for general discussion of CNIDR activities and the other for distribution of announcements and activity summaries, will be ready for use by May 1993. Contact Jane.Smith@cnidr.org for more information about the mailing lists and archives. Archive: --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 freeWAIS development. Subscribers receive brief overview of project and information on how to access archives. Archive: cnidr.org:/home/pub/zip --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 smotth operation of the Internet. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= IDS Date template updated or checked: 18 March, 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: No NIR documents produced yet. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= IIIR Date template updated or checked: 18th March, 1993 By: Name: Chris Weider Email address: clw@merit.edu --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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: No documents produced as of 18th March 1993, however, two have been assigned and will have drafts circulated by April 1, 1993. These will be archived at the site below. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Location details: Site: merit.edu Directory: iiir-drafts --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Official Publications: None --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bibliography: None yet. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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: 23rd March, 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: This description below was extracted from the NIR-WG charter. There are many organizations and associations that have recently 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, to produce documentation that will enable user services organizations to provide better support for NIRtools, to develop materials that will assist the support and training of end users and to evolve in the future as necessary to meet and anticipate changes in the field (i.e., NIR tools, protocols, network topology, etc.) 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 can be obtained via anonymous ftp from the Document Archive sites listed below. Goals and Milestones: Done Jul 92 Review and comment on proposed charter. Discuss Applications Template and Organizational Template. Done Sep 92 Post a draft report containing the Applications and Organizational Templates. Done Oct 92 Post a draft of the NIR Status Report with introductory material and completed templates. Done Nov 92 Review draft document and update templates at RARE ISUS WG meeting and IETF NIR WG meeting. Mar 93 Update entries in NIR Status report on individual tools and groups. Add new entries. Add appendices as agreed. Review updated document at March IETF meeting. Discuss and specify "evaluation" criteria. Apr 93 Discussion of report on mailing list. May 93 Review draft document at RARE ISUS WG meeting in Trondheim. Post an Internet Draft of the NIR Status Report with introductory material, completed templates and appendices. Jun 93 Discuss evaluation criteria on the mailing list. Get volunteers for evaluation tasks. Jul 93 Discuss and agree set of evaluation criteria. Allocate evaluation tasks. Submit NIR Status Report to the IESG for publication as an Informational RFC. Sep 93 Post draft evaluation report. Nov 93 Submit NIR Status Report including the evaluation report [?] as an Internet Draft. List types of documentation and training materials required for use and provision of NIR tools. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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: pub/nir:mailbase.ac.uk --------------------------------------------------------------------------- News groups: None --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Document Archive: Location details Site: mailbase.ac.uk Directory: /pub/nir --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Document Archive: Location details Site: nnsc.nsf.net Directory: /ietf/nir --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Official Publications: Official publications will appear first as Internet Drafts in the anonymous ftp directory "/Internet-Drafts" with the filename "draft-ietf-nir--.txt", or .ps at the following sites: nic.ddn.mil nnsc.nsf.net nic.nordu.net ftp.nisc.sri.com munnari.oz.au --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bibliography: --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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". 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: 21st October, 1992 By: Name: April Marine Email address: april@nisc.sri.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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@nisc.sri.com Postal Address: SRI International Network Information Systems Center Room EJ294 333 Ravenswood Ave. Menlo Park, CA 94025 Telephone: 415 859 5318 Fax: 415 859 6028 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: 18th March, 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 liaise with such activities. Submitter's note: This was taken from the most recent draft version of the charter. Some minor changes may be implemented before the charter solidifies. 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: 18 March, 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: --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Other Information: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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". =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= OCLC Date template updated or checked: 18th March 1993 By: Name: Rebecca Guenther Email address: rgue@seq1.loc.gov -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Working Group or Organisation: OCLC/USMARC Name of group: OCLC/USMARC Internet Resources Cataloging Experiment Sponsoring Organisation: OCLC, Library of Congress 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. The group intends to continue its work by looking at how online systems and services can be accommodated in USMARC and initiate appropriate proposals. 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: cotton@harvarda.harvard.edu Postal Address: Office for Systems Planning and Research, Harvard University Library, Widener Library 88, Cambridge, MA 02138 Telephone: 617-495-3724 Fax: 617-495-0491 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: none 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 93-4 doc 93-4 cov Location details Site: listserv@maine.maine.edu Send email message with get 93-4 doc get 93-4 cov -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Official Publications: None. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bibliography: At this time we have not produced anything as a group. However, we do expect to in the near future. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Other Information: None. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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 41 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: 23rd March, 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: 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 Collection of "TopNode" Info for European Information Services 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 ISUS WG/Interactive Multimedia WG joint task force on Multimedia Information Services is being set up. charter: anonymous ftp from mailbase.ac.uk file: /pub/wg-isus/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 " 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/wg-isus /pub/nir --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= APPENDIX A NIR TOOL Template (ver. 5.0) 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 gopher Hytelnet Netfind NCSA Mosaic for X Prospero Veronica WAIS WHOIS World Wide Web X.500 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: [-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. 5.0) 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 CNI-arch Top node Directory CNIDR Clearing House for Networked Information Discovery and Retrieval IETF IDS IIIR NIR NISI OSI-DS URI WNILS OCLC USMARC WG RARE ISUS WG joint NIR task force with IETF 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: [-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: March 22, 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) BOF 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). It has hosted discussions on Universal Document Identifiers, Universal Resource Locators, Unique Resource Serial Numbers, etc. there is considerable overlap between this group and the "ietf-udi" group (see below) and we expect them to eventually merge. 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. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mailinglist-Name: Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) on Resource Discovery (IRTF-RD) Address: irtf-rd@cs.colorado.edu Administration: Description: A small group of researchers working on problems in resource discovery. Keywords: IETF, IRTF, resource discovery, Internet Archive: Not known ---------------------------------------------------------------------- /* The following Usenet newsgroups discuss various issues in */ /* resource discovery or specific NIR projects. */ Newsgroup-Name: comp.archives.admin Mailinglist-Gate: 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: --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Newsgroup-Name: comp.infosystems.wais Mailinglist-Gate: 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: --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Newsgroup-Name: alt.wais Mailinglist-Gate: 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: --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Newsgroup-Name: comp.infosystems.gopher Mailinglist-Gate: 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. Keywords: Gopher, campus-wide information systems, resource discovery, indexing, Internet Archive: ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Newsgroup-Name: alt.gopher Mailinglist-Gate: 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: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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 NRT Soft Pages Whois++ =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= HYPER-G Date template updated or checked: 17th March, 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 (includeing full text), and guided tours. Hyper-G is currently operated as a University Information System at the Graz Technical University. THE SOFTWARE IS STILL VERY MUCH EXPERIMENTAL! Client binaries are available for UNIX workstations from DEC, HP, SGI, and SUN. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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): Name: sorry no help line -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Related Working Groups: -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sponsoring Organisation / Funding source: Austrian Ministry of Science European Space Agency -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mailing Lists: None -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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: -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Servers: Date completed or updated: 13th March, 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: not available yet Location of more information: Latest version number: Brief Scope and Characteristics: Approximate number of such servers in use: 5 General comments: Due to the experimental state the sofware is in, the server is not yet made available to the public. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Clients: Date completed or updated: 23rd October, 1992 By: Name: Frank Kappe Email address: Platform: vt100 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/clients Location of more information: Latest version number: 1.3 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 plans are ports to X-Windows and MS-Windows, and then to offer better (graphical) user interfaces. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Demonstration sites : List of sites which are willing to act as demonstration sites for this application. Site name: finfo.tu-graz.ac.at Access details: 'rlogin finfo.tu-graz.ac.at' or 'telnet finfo.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 finfo.tu-graz.ac.at, port 70 WWW: URL=http://iicm.tu-graz.ac.at:80/ROOT -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Documentation: Document Title: In general, there is not much documentation yet. Most of it is available within the system. 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. IIG Report 333, IIG, Graz University of Technology, Austria, June 1991. Available by anonymous ftp from iicm.tu-graz.ac.at:/pub/Hyper-G/doc/report333.txt.Z Kappe F., Pani G.: The Architecture of a Massively Distributed Hypermedia System. IIG Report 341, IIG, Graz University of Technology, Austria, Sept. 1991. Available by anonymous ftp from iicm.tu-graz.ac.at:/pub/Hyper-G/doc/report341.ps.Z -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Other Information: -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Evaluation: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- NRT Date template updated or checked: 19th March 1993 By: Name: Mark Sanderson Email address: sanderso@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk ---------------------------------------------------------------------- NIR Tool Name: NRT Brief Description of Tool: NRT stands for News Retrieval Tool. It is a probabilistic free text information retrieval system. The system is built using a 'client server approach', the client is a user interface which sends retrieval commands to the server. The user retrieves documents by presenting NRT with a query. The query can consist of fragments of text or whole documents. When presented with a query NRT assigns a 'relevance score' to each document in the collection. The score is an indication of the relevance between a document and the query. Documents are sorted by their score with the highest scoring documents being presented to the user. If the query consists of whole documents, NRT analyses the document texts, picking out words from the texts and adding them to the user's query. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Primary Contact(s): Name: Mark Sanderson Email address: sanderso@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk Postal Address: Department of Computing Science The University Glasgow G12 8QQ Telephone: +44 (0)41 339 8855 x6292 Fax: +44 (0)41 330 4913 Name: Iain Campbell Email address: iain@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk Postal Address: Department of Computing Science The University Glasgow G12 8QQ Telephone: +44 (0)41 339 8855 x6292 Fax: +44 (0)41 330 4913 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Help Line: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Related Working Groups: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Sponsoring Organisation / Funding source Department of Computing Science The University Glasgow Funding source for early system development FT Profile ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Protocols What is supported: protocol specific to NRT What it runs over: TCP/IP Other NIR tools this interworks with: none ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Servers: Date completed or updated: 30 Oct. 92 By: Name: Iain Campbell Name: RDS Platform: Unix, Macintosh being developed. Primary Contact Name: Iain Campbell Email address: iain@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk Telephone: +44 (0)41 339 8855 x6292 Secondary Contact Name: Mark Sanderson Email address: sanderso@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk Telephone: +44 (0)41 339 8855 x6292 Server software available from: Not yet generally released. Latest version number: 15.0 Brief Scope and Characteristics: RDS indexes document collections and performs all retrieval tasks. Approximate number of such servers in use: 1 General comments: It is planned to make RDS available in the future. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Client: Date completed or updated: 30 Oct. 92 By: Mark Sanderson Name: NRT Platform: Macintosh Primary Contact Name: Mark Sanderson Email address: sanderso@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk Telephone: +44 (0)41 339 8855 x6292 Client software available from: Email to sanderso@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk Latest version number: 1.4 Brief Scope and Characteristics: The client performs all user interface tasks. General comments: NRT is available to anyone who wants it. They will be able to connect to the RDS server running at Glasgow to try it out. Future plans: Increase the flexibility of RDS. The NRT client may be changed to handle more complex querying methods. This will include a dialog between user and system. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Demonstration Sites: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Documentation: Two papers have been published. The first is specifically about NRT, the second is a review of 5 IR systems, NRT is one of the systems reviewed. M. Sanderson & C.J. van Rijsbergen (1991) "NRT: news retrieval tool" Electronic Publishing, EP-odd, Vol 4, Num 4, Pages 205-217 D. Harman (1992) "User-friendly systems instead of user-friendly front ends" Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Vol 43, Num 2, Pages 164-174 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Bibliography: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Other Information: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Evaluation: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= SOFT PAGES Date template updated or checked: 19th March 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. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Evaluation: We are presently in the process of evaluating the effectiveness of the Project. The Ftp-traffic in the Japanese Internet is being sampled to arrive at non-optimality/cost-saving estimates. The results will announced on the spp mailing list. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= WHOIS++ Date template updated or checked: 20th March, 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 (for major center as well as each client): 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 (20 March 1993). Please contact clw@merit.edu (Chris Weider) for more information. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Clients: Only beta versions available at this time (20 March 1993). Please contact clw@merit.edu (Chris Weider) for more information. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Demonstration sites : NONE at this time (20 March 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. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Evaluation: Reviews & user comments: It is intended that this section will be completed by users and user reps in the NIR-WG to provide some "consumers" evaluation of the NIR tools o General pros and cons o NIR tool implementation o Strengths and weaknesses =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 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 [Still to be submitted] =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= New text goes in here.