RFC 1689
A Status Report on Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups
A Status Report on Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups 🦋
okay so bestie, this is RFC 1689 💖 It's an Informational doc (category: Informational, nothing standards-track here) from August 1994. It's also numbered as FYI 25 and filed as RARE Technical Report 13 🎀. J. Foster is the editor, and the writer's home base is the University of Newcastle upon Tyne 🌸 It's a collaborative effort from the joint IETF/RARE/CNI Networked Information Retrieval Working Group (NIR-WG) 🧚 The header doesn't list anything it obsoletes or updates, so there's nothing to flag there ✨
Status of this Memo
ok so this memo is just here to give the Internet community information 💅 It does not specify any Internet standard, and it's giving totally open-access energy because distribution is unlimited 🫶
Abstract
the whole point of this report is to get people hyped about Networked Information Retrieval (NIR) 🔥 It gathers, all in one spot, info on the different NIR tools, the people who build them, the organisations that are into them, and other stuff going on around making, sharing, and supporting NIR tools. The tools it covers are Archie, WAIS, gopher, and the World Wide Web 🌈
Table of Contents
1. Introduction .............................................. 2
2. How the information was collected ......................... 3
3. What is covered? .......................................... 3
4. Updating information ...................................... 5
5. Overview of the types of NIR Tool ......................... 5
6. NIR Tools ................................................. 9
7. NIR Groups ................................................ 123
8. Security Considerations ................................... 180
9. Acknowledgements .......................................... 180
10. Author's Address .......................................... 180
11. Appendix A: NIR Tool Template ............................. 181
12. Appendix B: NIR Group Template ............................ 188
13. Appendix C: Email Lists and Newsgroups .................... 192
14. Appendix D: Coming Attractions ............................ 207
15. Appendix E: Extinct Critters (Tools) ...................... 222
16. Appendix F: Extinct Critters (Groups) ..................... 2221. Introduction ✨
okay so the network keeps getting bigger, and that means more software tools and apps for finding your way around and using all the different resources on it 🚀 In the last two and a half years we've watched tools like the archie servers, the Wide Area Information Servers (WAIS), the Internet gopher, and the Worldwide Web (WWW) get widely adopted 💜 On top of that, lots of people are working on improving and customising these tools for their own network communities 🍓
There are a bunch of organisations and associations focused on the growing pile of resources and tools for networked information retrieval (NIR) 👑 The Networked Information Retrieval Group is a team-up between three big players in NIR: the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Association of European Research Networks (RARE), and the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) 🫶 Their job is to collect and spread the word about the tools and to push for teamwork on building current and future ones 💖
The goal of this report is to get more people aware of NIR by putting info about the different NIR tools, their developers, interested organisations, and related activities all in one place 🎀 It's meant to be a "living document" 🌸 It'll live online so each section can get updated on its own whenever it needs it 🦋 The full document is also supposed to be updated once a year so it works as a "snapshot" of what's happening in this area 📸
the NIR tools in this report are used with a huge range of information sources, including files and databases, but honestly there's still a lot that you can't get to using these methods 😭 The good news is that most of the NIR Tools here are free for the networked Research and Education community 🎉 Tools for getting at specialised datasets usually cost money, though 💸
NGL, networked information retrieval is still pretty much a baby compared to traditional information retrieval systems 👶 Thesaurus construction, boolean searching, and classification control are being discussed for the popular NIR Tools, but they aren't widely used yet 🤓 That said, with the massive amount of effort going into the NIR field right now, progress is moving fast 🔥 A lot of work is going into extending some NIR tools to handle multimedia information services 🌈 And there's been progress in the discussions about classifying and cataloguing electronic information resources ⭐
2. How the information was collected 🧚
the info in this report was gathered 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 NIR WG talked about the contents of these templates in Boston (July, 1992), and then kept chatting about them on the email list 💜 (See the Section on the NIR-WG for details of how to join this mailing list.) The first draft of the report was discussed at the NIR Working Group in Washington (November, 1992), and then it got updated and added to at later WG meetings 🦋 Before it was submitted as an RFC, the individual templates were checked over by independent reviewers from all around the world 🌍 Their work is credited in Section 9 🫶
The NIR Tool template was used to collect what's needed to identify and track how networked information retrieval tools are developing 🔍 It asked things like how and where to get the software for each NIR Tool, documentation, demonstration sites, and so on 🍓 The main part of the template was filled in by the main person responsible for the tool, though some sections (like the ones on clients) may have been filled in by other people 💖
The NIR Group template asked for info on the aim and purpose of the group, the tasks it's currently working on, its mailing lists, its document archives, and more ✨
5. Overview of the types of NIR Tools ✨
okay so this section is the tour guide for all the networked information retrieval (NIR) tools floating around the Internet 🌐 there are SO many books that go way deeper, like "The Whole Internet User's Guide and Catalog" by Ed Krol, published by O'Reilly and Associates, Inc, and "The Internet Guide for New Users" by Daniel Dearn, published by Meckler 📚
the number of these NIR tools is large and growing quickly 📈 but lowkey the same techniques keep showing up over and over, and tools that look totally different can actually do similar jobs. so you can sort most of the existing tools and services into a simple classification 🗂️
this classification is only one possible ordering, babe 💅 the goal is to outline in broad strokes what you can do with particular tools. users will always find novel, unanticipated ways of using them, and that's the iconic part 🦋
Interactive Information Delivery Services (Gopher, World Wide Web)
basic Internet services like electronic mail and anonymous FTP can share information across the Internet, but neither one lets you simply browse, and neither is especially easy for a newcomer to pick up 😭 Gopher and the World Wide Web (W3) are two newer developments that try to make it easier to distribute information over the Internet ✨ both let you browse information across the network without having to log in or already know where to look 🫶
the Gopher project was first developed at the University of Minnesota to provide a simple campus-wide on-line information system 🎓 Gopher represents information as a simple hierarchy of menus and files 🗃️ it has limited ability to recognize different types of files, so it can, for example, display selected types of image files 🖼️ gateways to other services are provided, usually in a way that's transparent to the user 🪄 the underlying Gopher protocol is simple, which has made it easy to create freely available clients for a variety of hardware platforms and operating systems 💻 the more recent Gopher+ protocol adds the ability to provide documents in alternate forms (PDF, PostScript, RTF, Word) 📄 these features, plus how easy gopher servers are to install and administer, led to an explosive growth of gopher sites since the initial deployment 🚀 as of November 1993, there were over 2200 known servers 🤯
World Wide Web runs on hypertext 🕸️ formatted documents get displayed, and you can select hypertext links within the document to travel from the current document to another one 🔗 W3 lets a user annotate documents (using hypertext links), provides gateways to other services, and has multimedia support (for example, on appropriate hardware platforms it can intermix text and images in a displayed document) 🎨 there's a range of free W3 clients that support many environments 🌈 World Wide Web was originally developed at CERN for the High Energy Physics Community ⚛️
gopher and WWW share a maintenance problem, though 🙈 there's no automated way to update links to other documents when those documents are moved or removed 💀
Directory Services (WHOIS, X.500)
Directory Service tools are meant to provide a lookup service for finding information about users (often called White Pages), or about services and service providers (Yellow Pages) 📒 for example, a White Pages service might help you find an electronic mail address when you have a name and organization, while a Yellow Pages service could help you find an online library catalog or file archive site 🔍
one of the first directory services deployed on the Internet was WHOIS, a simple White Pages service created to track key network contacts for the early DARPA-sponsored incarnation of the Internet 🛰️ a number of sites currently operate WHOIS servers, based on a range of extensions and enhancements to the original model 🧩 WHOIS has the advantages of simplicity and the presence of WHOIS client software on a preponderance of Internet-connected hosts 💖 work is underway on a more powerful protocol, known as WHOIS++, which is backwards-compatible with WHOIS 🔮
the X.500 Directory Service is a much more ambitious Directory project that has been in development for a number of years under the aegis of ISO/OSI 🏛️ implementations, concerned primarily with White pages services, are available in the public domain and from commercial sources 🎀 there are LDAP based X.500 clients available for most major platforms, plus an LDAP based gopher gateway to X.500 🌸
despite years of effort, there's still no single White Pages Directory Service for the entire Internet 😩 Yellow Pages services are even less developed and deployed 🥲 setting up the service is one obstacle, and maintaining the required databases is even more daunting 🫠
Indexing Services (archie, Veronica, online library catalogs)
there are several Internet-based projects that build indexed catalogs of information to make searching and retrieval easier 🔎 the first of these gave network access to library card catalogs, and more recent projects index network-based information 📚
archie:
the archie service began as a simple project to catalog the contents of hundreds of ftp-accessible online file archives 🗄️ archie gathers location information, name, and other details describing such files, and creates an index database 🧠
users can contact an archie server and search this database for the files they need 🏃♀️
archie is accessible through a range of access methods, including telnet, stand-alone client programs running on a user's own machine, gopher, WWW, or electronic mail 📬 the initial implementation of archie tracks over 2,100,000 filenames on over 1,200 sites around the world (as of November 1993) 🌍 there are about 30 (geographically distributed) archie servers 🗺️ both commercial and freely available versions of the archie client software exist 🎁
work continues on extending archie to provide additional types of information ✨ the latest version is being used to provide a prototype Yellow Pages service and directories of online library catalogs and electronic mailing lists 💜
Veronica:
Veronica arose as an attempt to do for the world of Gopher what archie did for the world of ftp 🧚 a central server periodically scans the complete menu hierarchies of Gopher servers on an ever-expanding list (over 2000 sites as of November 1993) 🔄 the resulting index is provided by a veronica server and can be accessed by any gopher client 🫶
Online library catalogs:
a large number of libraries make their computerized library catalogs available over the Internet 📖 most are reachable through telnet sessions, where you connect to a specific address and log in with a specific login name 🖥️ some are also available through other tools, such as Gopher 🍓
Text-based Indexing Services (WAIS)
WAIS:
Wide Area Information Servers (WAIS) is a system for indexing and serving information in a network-based environment 🌐 what makes it different from indexing tools like archie and veronica is that it indexes text-based target documents on a server, as well as descriptions of the contents of a server 📝
a WAIS server lets the administrator set up an index of the documents (or resources) to be published 🛠️ the user runs a WAIS client to attach to a particular WAIS server, then specifies a search pattern that gets matched against the server's index 🎯 in early WAIS clients, searches are specified as simple natural-language queries; common ("stop") words are removed, and Boolean "ORs" are implicitly added between the remaining words 🤓 matching documents are rank-ordered by a simple statistical weighting scheme that tries to indicate likely relevance 📊 you can choose to view selected documents, or refine the search further ✨ the results of one search can be used to successively refine future searches ("relevance feedback") 🔁 gopher clients can also reach WAIS servers through a transparent gateway 🪞
both freely available and commercial versions of WAIS servers and clients exist 🎁 current work is trying to add Boolean expressions and proximity and field specifications to queries 🧪
there are currently (as of November 1993) some 500 registered WAIS databases, with an estimated 2000 additional databases that aren't registered yet 🗂️ there are approximately another 100 commercial WAIS databases 💰
6. NIR Tools 🎀
this section has the detailed info on the various NIR Tools, and it's ordered alphabetically 📋
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=ALEX 🦋
Date template updated or checked: 19th March, 1994
By: Name: Vincent Cate
Email address: vac@cs.cmu.edu
----------------------------------------------------------------------
NIR Tool Name: Alex
Brief Description of Tool:OVERVIEW:
the Alex filesystem gives users and applications transparent read access to files on anonymous FTP sites across the Internet 🌸 today there are thousands of anonymous FTP sites with a total of a few million files and roughly a terabyte of data 🤯 the standard approach to getting at these files means logging in to the remote machine 😤 that means an application can't access remote files like local files, and users don't get any of their aliases or local tools 💔 if you want to use an application on a remote file, you first have to manually make a local copy of it 📥 there's no mechanism for automatically updating that local copy when the remote file changes 🙃 so users have to keep track of where they got their files from, check for updates, and fetch them again 😮💨 and with this approach, lots of different users at the same site can end up making copies of the same remote file, each one eating up disk space for the same data 🫠
Alex fixes these problems while staying within the existing FTP protocol, so the large collection of currently available files can still be used 🔥 to get reasonable performance, long term file caching is used, so consistency becomes an issue 👀 traditional solutions to the cache consistency problem don't work in the Internet FTP domain: callbacks aren't an option because the FTP protocol has no provisions for them, and polling over the Internet is slow 🐌 so 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 🧠✨ this lets a simple stateless filesystem 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, so users can use all of their existing skills and tools for 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, and then the remote path is added at the end. If the user does a ls /alex/edu/berkeley they see some machine names such as "ucbvax" and "sprite", plus 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, and that's kind of the magic of it 🔮
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, and 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:
+1-412-268-3077 - Fax:
+1-412-681-1998
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-servers@cs.cmu.edu - Administration:
alex-servers-request@cs.cmu.edu - Description: alex-servers is for people setting up an Alex fileserver
- 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: 19 March 1994
- By: Name: Vincent Cate
- Platform: UNIX
- Primary Contact:
- Name: Vincent Cate
- Email address:
vac@cs.cmu.edu - Telephone:
+1-412-268-3077
- 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: You can use lpr, make, grep, more, etc. on files around the world 🌎
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 - do the following as root:
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.PSIf you like Alex and want to use it regularly, please find, or set up, an Alex fileserver at/near your site 🥹
Documentation:
ftp://alex.sp.cs.cmu.edu/www/alex.htmlftp://alex.sp.cs.cmu.edu/doc/intro.psftp://alex.sp.cs.cmu.edu/doc/NIR.Toolftp://alex.sp.cs.cmu.edu/doc/alex.post
Bibliography:
@InProceedings{cate:alex,
author = "Vincent Cate",
title = "Alex - a Global Filesystem",
booktitle = "Proceedings of the Usenix File Systems Workshop",
year = 1992,
pages = "1--11",
month = may,
place = "Ann Arbor, MI",
keyword = "distributed file system, wide-area file system"Other Information:
FTP to alex.sp.cs.cmu.edu and "cd to doc". Get the "README" or anything else there. A current version of this document may be there and called "NIR.Tool". In Alex this file is named /alex/edu/cmu/cs/sp/alex/doc/NIR.Tool 📂
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
ARCHIE 🏹
Date template updated or checked: 1 March, 1994 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 either through a telnet session to a machine running an archie server, or by using a stand-alone client program (which uses the Prospero protocol for sending and receiving requests). There is also an email interface which allows users to send and receive search requests via electronic mail 📧
Freely available archie clients exist for most operating systems and can be fetched using anonymous FTP from most of the current archie servers. There are also gateways to the archie system from many other NIR tools, including Gopher, WAIS and WWW. An X.500 interface to archie is currently under development 🌸
Information Provider's View:
There are two types of information providers who would be interested in archie. Primary information providers are interested in having a summary of the information provided by their service tracked by an archie server. Secondary service providers, or those sites wishing to provide a "value-added" service for the Internet, can elect to run an archie server at their site to provide a useful service to users, to raise the profile of their institution on the Internet, or to provide market differentiation (for commercial service providers) 💼
The archie system is of particular utility serving information where there are many sites to be searched and/or where the cost of searching each site is high 🧠
For example, there are currently over 1,200 anonymous FTP sites on the Internet, and the number continues to grow. Searching for a specific filename at a single site may involve scanning hundreds, or even thousands, of filenames. Thus, most operators of anonymous FTP archives welcome the fact that archie indexes and serves the names of all files available from each site tracked 🥰
Information Types Supported:
The archie system allows the gathering and serving of arbitrary information types, although the current system serves only freeform text and a dedicated text format for filename listings. Internally, the archie system now supports a WAIS search engine and frontends for Gopher, WWW and WHOIS++. Accessing archie information through Gopher clients is now being tested. Additional collections of information to be served by the archie software will be announced 🎁
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:
- commercial support for server (primarily for systems maintainers)
- voluntary helpdesk support for freeware clients
- 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:
IETF, IIIR, WNILS, URI 🌐
Sponsoring Organisation / Funding source:
Bunyip Information Systems Inc.
Funded by licensing of archie software and development contracts from sponsors. Additional information services based upon this software are now being tested.
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. Announcements of upgrades, new services, etc. are made to this list 📣
- Archive: none
Okay so the mailing lists are first, and honestly they're giving "everyone who keeps archie alive" energy 💖
Address: archie-maint@bunyip.com
Administration: archie-maint-request@bunyip.com
Archive:
"archives.cc.mcgill.ca:/pub/mailing-lists/archie-maint"This list is for the people who run and maintain archie servers. Bug fix announcements, new releases, and feature chats all happen here 🔥
Address: iafa@bunyip.com
Administration: iafa-request@bunyip.com
Archive: "archives.cc.mcgill.ca:/pub/mailing-lists/iafa"This is the list for the Internet Anonymous FTP Archives Working Group of the IETF. That group standardized how info gets encoded at anonymous FTP archives, so archie operators and users should totally care 🧚 It wrapped up in November 1992 and made two documents that went to the IETF as informational RFCs. Iconic work ✨
News groups:
Name: comp.archives.admin
Archive: not knownThis newsgroup is for operators and maintainers of Internet archives. Announcements and chats about archie live here, plus the bigger picture of archiving and Internet services 🌸
Name: alt.internet.services
Archive: not knownThis one is for people who care about Internet-related services, mostly from the user side 🦋 Archie announcements and discussions show up here too, along with the wider Internet services talk.
Protocols:
What is supported: Current archie clients talk to the search engine on the archie server using the Prospero protocol. There are freely available clients that include source code for that conversation, so if you want to build your own client, you're literally set 💅
The archie server can build arbitrary databases using arbitrary search and access engines. The current release ships with the public domain implementation of WAIS. Future archie servers are expected to serve information over that protocol too 👑 Right now the server assumes the TCP/IP protocol suite is around, especially the ftp protocol for gathering data.
You can reach archie through systems that speak Gopher, WAIS, and WWW (HDDL). A gateway from X.500 is in the works 🌈
What it runs over: The Prospero implementation runs on its own reliable datagram protocol, which is built on UDP. Data gathering runs over the TCP/IP protocol suite.
Other NIR tools this interworks with: Prospero, Gopher, WAIS, WWW.
Future plans: archie became a commercial product in October 1992, marketed by Bunyip Information Systems Inc. The company plans to sell extra data gathering modules so the server can build more kinds of databases. Work is also underway to extend WHOIS so people can build and maintain White Pages (names) directories 🎀 They're also working on other Internet information tools that will play nicely with archie.
Servers:
Date completed or updated: 1 November, 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.comLocation of more information: Extra archie product info lives on the anonymous ftp archives at the various archie server sites. Try archie.ans.net, archie.sura.net, archie.au, and so on 🍓
Latest version number: archie 3.1
Brief Scope and Characteristics: This is the commercial implementation of archie. It replaces a version built as a Masters project at McGill University between 1990 and 1992. It comes with an archie telnet client that has a bunch of small improvements over earlier versions. More releases with more improvements are planned for the coming months 🚀
Approximate number of such servers in use: Currently about 27 (not all are publicly available) 🌍
General comments: Most people access archie through a freeware or public domain client program. These are available from most archie servers over anonymous FTP. Check the archie directory on any publicly available archie server, or the banner message when you log into an archie telnet client, for more details 💜
Clients:
Date completed or updated: 1 November, 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: 1.3.2Brief Scope and Characteristics: This program gives you a simple command line interface to the archie server system using the Prospero protocol. It's written in C and has been ported to MSDOS and OS2 💅
General comments: Don't mix this up with the archie system telnet interface, which runs on the archie server itself 🙈
Future plans: Not known
Date completed or updated: 1 November, 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: 3.8Brief Scope and Characteristics: Another simple command line interface to the archie server system, using the Prospero protocol. This one is written in Perl 🧚
General comments: Same deal as the C client. Don't confuse it with the archie system telnet interface, which runs on the archie server itself 💖
Future plans: Not known
Date completed or updated: 1 November, 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: A simple command line interface to the archie server system for VMS users 🌸
General comments: Still don't mix it up with the archie system telnet interface. That one runs on the archie server itself 🙈
Future plans: Not known
Date completed or updated: 1 November, 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-1.3Brief Scope and Characteristics: An Xwindows client for searching the archie anonymous FTP database. It can also fetch files using ftp 🦋
General comments: none.
Future plans: Not known
Date completed or updated: 1 November, 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: A NeXTStep client for searching the archie anonymous FTP database. It can fetch files with ftp too 🍓
General comments: none.
Future plans: Not known
Demonstration sites: Any one of these will do 👑
Site name: any one of:
archie.rutgers.edu 128.6.18.15 (Rutgers University)
archie.unl.edu 129.93.1.14 (University of Nebraska in
Lincoln)
archie.sura.net 128.167.254.179 (SURAnet archie server)
archie.ans.net 147.225.1.2 (ANS archie server)
archie.au 139.130.4.6 (Australian server)
archie.funet.fi 128.214.6.100 (European server in Finland)
archie.doc.ic.ac.uk 146.169.11.3 (UK/England server)
archie.cs.huji.ac.il 132.65.6.15 (Israel server)
archie.wide.ad.jp 133.4.3.6 (Japanese server) Client software should be supported at all of these sites.
Additional sites are available. Use the "sites" command in the archie
telnet interface at any of the above sites for a more complete lists.
Access details:
- telnet to any of the above sites
- login as user `archie' (no password is required)
- type `help' at the prompt to get started.
Note: Some people forget and use ftp in place of telnet. This will
not work. The hint that this is being done is that they claim
that a password is needed, not that the site can't be found.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Documentation:
Document Title: What is archie
Location details: anonymous FTP from archie.ans.net
Site: archie.ans.net
Full file name: "pub/archie/doc/whatis.archie"
Description: Brief overview of the archie system.
Document Title: archie man pages
Location details: anonymous FTP from archie.ans.net
Site: archie.ans.net
Full file name: "pub/archie/doc/archie.man.*"
Description: Manual pages for the archie system telnet
interface in various formats (raw ASCII,
nroff, compressed, etc.). This document also
explains the various search options and other
features, so is of use to users of the other
archie client programs.
Document Title: What's New in 3.0
Location details: anonymous FTP from archie.ans.net
Site: archie.ans.net
Full file name: "pub/archie/doc/whats.new"
Description: Description of the changes to archie for the
first commercial release
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography: none
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Information: noneokay so that's the whole archie wrap-up 💅 you can telnet to any of those sites, log in as archie with no password, and type help to get started 🦋 and if someone insists they need a password, they probably tried ftp instead of telnet, so bestie, check that first 🙈
GOPHER 🌈
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
GOPHER
Date template updated or checked: 14 March 1994
By: Name: Mark P. McCahill
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
NIR Tool Name: Internet Gopherokay so now we're on Gopher and I am obsessed 🫶 here's the vibe: it's a document search and retrieval protocol that started at the University of Minnesota as a fast, simple, distributed, campus-wide search system 🍓 people on the internet loved how easy it was to use and set up, so it blew up. Since the first release, tons of folks have chipped in patches, servers, and clients, and linked their own local servers into the big worldwide network of Gopher servers ✨
The gateways are literally iconic 👑 they let you reach non-Gopher stuff like ftp, WAIS, USENET news, Archie, Z39.50 (1992 rev), X.500 directories, Sybase and Oracle SQL servers, and more. There's also Veronica, which is an "archie for gopherspace" (very easy rodent-oriented net-wide index to computerized archives 🐭💜) built at the University of Nevada. It lets you search gopherspace by title, which is so helpful ngl.
Here's the ~fiercely simple~ part 🔥 Gopher is "fiercely simple", and it's connectionless (stateless) but it uses TCP reliable streams. The client connects to a server over TCP and sends one-line text "selector string". Then the server sends back the item (a file, a directory listing, or a link to some other service) that matches the selector string, and closes the connection right away 🦋 Directory listings come back as lines ending in carriage-return line-feed. Each item is one line with a one-character type tag, a display string (item-name) the client shows the user, and a bunch of tab delimited fields for the selector string, host domain name, and port number. Because it's so simple and connectionless, Gopher servers barely ask anything of their host machines, and clients are extremely easy to build 💅
Users see the Gopher world as networked hierarchical directories, kind of like a filesystem you already know 🎀 BUT the links make a graph, not a simple rooted tree, so it's giving more of a web 🕸️ Links can point to other services too: cso (qi) servers, telnet sessions, other gopher servers, and gateway servers.
For information providers, the simplest setup is that everything under a root directory on your machine is visible and retrievable by gopher clients ✨ If you're more of a power user, you get extras like long names, item types, links, and gateway services 👑
Servers and clients run on most popular hardware, including Macs, UNIX boxes, and PC-DOS boxes 💜 The Internet Gopher name is copyright (c) 1991-1992 by the University of Minnesota. The protocol itself is described in an informational RFC (1436), which you can grab from better RFC archives everywhere 🌸
Extensions to base gopher add meta-information to gopher items, alternate views of documents (text, postscript, rtf, etc.), and electronic forms, and all of that together is called Gopher+ 🧚 Gopher+ is upward compatible with the original gopher protocol 🫶 You can get the software from loads of Gopher or FTP archive sites, including the University of Minnesota Gopher server, the Info-Mac Archive Gopher server, and anonymous FTP from boombox.micro.umn.edu and sumex-aim.stanford.edu. And as of December 1993, about 1/3 of the approximately 4800 Gopher servers on the internet supported Gopher+ 📊✨
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: +1-612-625-1300
Fax: +1-612-625-6817
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Help Line:
Name: Microcomputer HelpLine;
ask for The Internet Gopher Development Team
Email address: gopher@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Telephone: USA: 612 MA MICRO (+1-612-626-4276)
Helpline is for general support at the U of M.
Level of support offered: all users
Hours available: Phone Helpline 9-4 weekdays.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Related Working Groups:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sponsoring Organisation / Funding source:
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.
----------------------------------------------------------------------the contact situation is giving helpful 🎀 the Gopher Development Team is the main contact, and there's a Microcomputer HelpLine for general support at the U of M (all users, phone 9-4 weekdays) 📞 and the sponsor is 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. Tends to
be a high volume mailing list and technically
oriented.
Archive: Via Gopher: University of Minnesota Gopher
Information About Gopher
Address: gopher-announce@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Administration: gopher-announce-request@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Description: A low-volume mailing list of announcements of
new software and servers.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
News groups:
Name: comp.infosystems.gopher
Description: Discussion of all things gopher.
Archive: Available via gopher client; connect to the
gopher server at gopher.tc.umn.edu port 70,
look in the "Information About Gopher" section.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------if you want the gossip 🗣️ there's gopher-news (high volume and very technical), gopher-announce (low volume, just new software and servers), and the comp.infosystems.gopher newsgroup for all things gopher 💖
Protocols:
What is supported: Internet Gopher
What it runs over: Anything you can run TCP/IP over.
Other NIR tools this interworks with:
Z39.50 WAIS variant via WAIS gateway
FTP via FTP gateway
archie/Prospero via an archie gateway
veronica (an archie for gopherspace)
NNTP via NNTP gateway
Finger (subset of gopher)
X.500 via X.500 gateway
Z39.50 1992 revision variant via Z39.50 gateway
Oracle and Sybase SQL servers via SQL gateway
CSO (Ph/Qi) online phone books
Future plans: New user interace metaphor on PowerPC and
Pentium-based clients.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------and it runs over literally anything you can run TCP/IP over 🦋 it interworks with a whole crew of tools, like WAIS, FTP, archie/Prospero, Veronica, NNTP, Finger, X.500, Z39.50, Oracle and Sybase SQL servers, and CSO (Ph/Qi) phone books 📖 future plans? A new user interface metaphor on PowerPC and Pentium-based clients 🌈 I'm literally waiting 🙈
Servers:
Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994
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: +1-612-625-1300
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. Supports Gopher+.
Approximate number of such servers in use:
Over 3000.
General comments:
The defacto standard workhorse Gopher server.
Paul Lindner is the architect and keeper of this server.
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994
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: +1-612-625-1300
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:
Macintosh Gopher Server and tools,
supports Gopher+.
Approximate number of such servers in use:
Current estimates between 300 and 400.and last but not least, the servers 🖥️✨ the UNIX one is the defacto standard workhorse Gopher server, with over 3000 in use, and Paul Lindner is the architect and keeper of it 👑 it's an index server for WAIS based indices and NeXT native indexing, with tools and gateway code, and it supports Gopher+ 💅 The Macintosh one is a Macintosh Gopher Server and tools, also supports Gopher+, and current estimates put it between 300 and 400 in use 🍓
okay so picking up right where the last part left off 💖 the wrap-up of the entry before the PC-DOS one goes like this 🎀
General comments:
Runs on any Macintosh with 1MB memory or more.
Requires MacTCP. Can be configured to use Apple Computer's AppleSearch
full-text search software as a Gopher-accessible search engine.next up is the PC-DOS server, and the vibe is "basic but make it iconic" 🧚 the whole entry is right here:
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994
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: +1-612-625-1300
Additional contacts:
Name: Dennis Sherman
Email address: Dennis_Sherman@unc.edu
Name: Foteos Macrides
Email address: macrides@sci.wfeb.edu
Server software available from:
Via Gopher: U of M Gopher
Information About Gopher
Gopher Software Distribution
Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu
/pub/gopher/
Location of more information:
As above.
Latest version number: 0.91b
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
Basic Gopher server for PC-DOS boxes.
Approximate number of such servers in use:
Current estimates between 25 and 75.
General comments:
Written by Chris McNeil <cmcneil@mta.ca>, based on Phil Karns net
package. The U of M Gopher team forwards difficult problems to
Chris.and then the VMS server, which is giving "shares some code with the UNIX server" energy 🦋
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994
By: Name: Mark McCahill
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Platform: VMS
Primary Contact:
Name: J. Lance Wilkinson
Email address: jlw@psulias.psu.edu
Telephone: +1-814-865-1818
Server software available from:
Via Gopher: U of M Gopher
Information About Gopher
Gopher Software Distribution
Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu
/pub/gopher/VMS/
Location of more information:
As above.
Latest version number: 1.2 VMS-0
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
Basic VMS Server, shares some code with UNIX server.
Approximate number of such servers in use:
35-40 servers in use.
General comments:
The VMS server was written and is maintained by J. Lance Wilkinson,
Foteos Macrides, Bruce Tanner and others on the
VMSGopher-L@trln.lib.unc.edu mailing list.next are the two VM/CMS servers, Rice and Vienna 👑 they're literally twins with a rivalry, and both get their own entry:
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994
By: Name: Mark McCahill
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Platform: VM/CMS
Primary Contact:
Name: Rick Troth
Email address: TROTH@RICEVM1.RICE.EDU
Telephone:
Server software available from:
Via Gopher: U of M Gopher
Information About Gopher
Gopher Software Distribution
Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu:/pub/gopher/
Brazos.IS.Rice.EDU:/pub/vmcms/
Location of more information:
As above.
Latest version number: 2.4
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
Gopher server for IBM VM/CMS installations.
Approximate number of such servers in use:
Unknown.
General comments:
This server was written and is maintained by Rick Troth.
This server is commonly referred to as the Rice VM/CMS server.
There is also another VM/CMS server: the Vienna VM/CMS server. -------------------
Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994
By: Name: Mark McCahill
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Platform: VM/CMS.
Primary Contact:
Name: Gerhard Gonter
Email address: Gerhard.Gonter@WU-Wien.ac.at
Telephone:
Server software available from:
Via Gopher: U of M Gopher
Information About Gopher
Gopher Software Distribution
Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu:/pub/gopher/
Location of more information:
As above.
Latest version number: 2.00.00
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
Gopher server for IBM VM/CMS installations.
Approximate number of such servers in use:
Unknown.
General comments:
This server was written and is maintained by Gerhard Gonter.
This server is commonly referred to as the Vienna VM/CMS server.
There is also another VM/CMS server: the Rice VM/CMS server.then the MVS server, which is the calm one of the bunch 🌸
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994
By: Name: Mark McCahill
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Platform: MVS
Primary Contact:
Name: Steve Bacher
Email address: seb@draper.com
Telephone:
Server software available from:
Via Gopher: U of M Gopher
Information About Gopher
Gopher Software Distribution
Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu:/pub/gopher/
Location of more information:
As above.
Latest version number: 2.1
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
Gopher server for IBM MVS installations.
Approximate number of such servers in use:
Unknown.
General comments:
This server was written and is maintained by Steve Bacher.and last on the server side is veronica, the search one 🔍✨ it's got a future plan too, so keep an eye out:
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994
By: Name: Mark McCahill
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Platform: Unix veronica server
Primary Contact:
Name: Steve Foster
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 at the
University of Nevada.
Future plans: Additional support for searching on Gopher+ attributes
----------------------------------------------------------------------okay now we're on to the clients side of things 💅 the first one is the Macintosh TurboGopher, which is literally the fastest Mac client going (as of this writing, per the doc) 🔥
Clients:
Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994
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: +1-612-625-1300
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. Supports Gopher+.next up is the Indiana University one, written and maintained by Don Gilbert 🌈
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994
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. Supports Gopher+.
Future plans:then the one from Utah, made by "Jonzy" (yes, that's the name in the doc 💀). It has a browser-style interface and uses a customised Telnet application 🦋
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994
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:next, the UNIX curses client and the simple UNIX client, both on the terminal side 🧚
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994
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: +1-612-625-1300
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. Supports Gopher+.
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994
By: Name: Mark McCahill
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Platform: UNIX (simple client does not use CURSES)
Primary Contact:
Name: Sean Fuller
Email address: fuller@aedc-vax.af.mil
Telephone:
Client software available from:
Via Gopher: U of M Gopher
Information About Gopher
Gopher Software Distribution
Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu
/pub/gopher/
Location of more information:
As above.
Latest version number: 0.3Okay so sgopher is the scrappy little one of the bunch 💅 It runs in 80X24 and doesn't need termcap or curses, so it's basically sliding into any terminal 🦋
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
sgopher is a simple gopher client for inetd/batch/online; it does not
require much of the terminal other than it be 80X24 characters. It
can be run stand alone or it can be launched from inetd. It doesn't
use termcap or curses. Sgopher outputs the \r\n pair at the end of
line and requires a <return> after each command to support more
terminal types.
General comments:
Runs on VMS, IRIX, Ultrix, AIX, Solaris 2.x, Solaris 1.x
Future plans:
-------------------
Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994
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: Gopher+ support planned for the future.
-------------------Next up is Xgopher, the X-interface client that Allan Tuchman wrote and keeps alive 🌸 It makes use of the X interface, and Gopher+ support is planned for the future 🎀
Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994
By: Name: Mark McCahill
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Platform: Xgopher: UNIX XWindows based client
Primary Contact:
Name: Andrew Scherpbier
Email address: xvgopher@gopher.sdsu.edu
turtle@sciences.sdsu.edu
Telephone:
Client software available from:
Via Gopher: U of M Gopher
Information About Gopher
Gopher Software Distribution
Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu
/pub/gopher/
Location of more information:
As above.
Latest version number: (please check software distribution)
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
Makes use of the X interface... displays a way cool chewing gopher
icon while information is being downloaded.
General comments:
XView based gopher client.
Future plans: Gopher+ support.
-------------------This one has a whole vibe 🐢 The Scherpbier version is XView based and shows a way cool chewing gopher icon while stuff downloads. Lowkey iconic 🫶
Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994
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: +1-612-625-1300
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:
-------------------------The NeXT client makes full use of the NeXT interface 🍓 It was first written by Max Tardiveau and is now maintained by Paul Lindner, so it's got a whole glow-up arc 🌈
Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994
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: +1-612-625-1300
Client software available from:
Via Gopher: U of M Gopher
Information About Gopher
Gopher Software Distribution
Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu
/pub/gopher/
Location of more information:
As above.
Latest version number: (please check software distribution)
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
Character-based graphics and windows under DOS. Uses either Clarkson
Packet drivers (CRWYN packet drivers) and a built-in TCP/IP protocol
stack or Ftp, Inc.'s protocol stack (PC/TCP).
General comments:
Gopher+ support.
-------------------The DOS TurboVision client gives you character-based graphics and windows 🪟 It can run on Clarkson packet drivers with a built-in TCP/IP stack, or on Ftp, Inc.'s PC/TCP stack. And yep, it has Gopher+ support 💜
Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994
By: Name: Mark McCahill
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Platform: VMS.
Primary Contact:
Name: Mark Van Overbeke
Email address: mark@ummvxm.mrs.umn.edu
Telephone:
Client software available from:
Via Gopher: U of M Gopher
Information About Gopher
Gopher Software Distribution
Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu
/pub/gopher/
Location of more information:
As above.
Latest version number: 0.6
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
General comments:
The VMS client was written and is maintained by Mark Van Overbeke.
Future plans:
-------------------Here's a VMS client by Mark Van Overbeke, currently at version 0.6 ✨ The original record has no Brief Scope text, so there isn't any to add, no cap 🙈
Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994
By: Name: Mark McCahill
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Platform: VMS.
Primary Contact:
Name: The Internet Gopher Development Team
Email address: gopher@micro.umn.edu
Telephone: +1-612-625-1300
Client software available from:
Via Gopher: U of M Gopher
Information About Gopher
Gopher Software Distribution
Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu
/pub/gopher/
Location of more information:
As above.
Latest version number: 1.12
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
Identical to Unix gopher1.12. Works on a VMS 5.5-2 system running
MultiNet 3.1B. UCX and Wollongong are also supported.
General comments:
A port of the University of Minnesota Unix client to VMS.
Future plans:
-------------------This VMS port is the Unix gopher 1.12 client, identical to the original 🦋 It works on VMS 5.5-2 running MultiNet 3.1B, and UCX and Wollongong are supported too. Literally a port with main character energy 👑
Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994
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:
-------------------Rick Troth wrote the gopher client for IBM VM/CMS installations, and it's known as the Rice VM/CMS client 🌸 Heads up, there's another VM/CMS client too, the Vienna one 🧚
Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994
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:
-------------------And the other sibling! Gerhard Gonter wrote and maintains the Vienna VM/CMS client, which is also a gopher client for IBM VM/CMS installations 💖 The Rice one is right there too, so it's a whole sibling situation 👯
Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994
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:
-------------------Steven E. Newton made a gopher client for DOS with PC/TCP, and he wrote and maintains it himself 🫶 You can grab it over FTP from oac.hsc.uth.tmc.edu:/public/dos/misc/ 💅
Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994
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:
-------------------Stan Barber's gopher client is for DOS with PC-NFS, and he wrote and maintains it too 🎀 The file lives at bcm.tmc.edu:/nfs/gopher.exe over FTP 🦋
Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994
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:
-------------------Jeremy T. James wrote and maintains the DOS Novell LWP Gopher Client 🌈 You can get it over FTP at lennon.itn.med.umich.edu:pub/gopher ⭐
Date completed or updated: 14 March, 1994
By: Name: Mark McCahill
Email address: mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Platform: Windows 3.1 with Winsock or PC/NFS.
Primary Contact:
Name: Martyn Hampson
Email address: m.hampson@ic.ac.uk
Telephone:
Client software available from:Okay so the first Windows Gopher client on the list is giving main character energy 🌸
Via Gopher:- U of M Gopher
- Information About Gopher
- Gopher Software Distribution
Via FTP:lister.cc.ic.ac.uk/pub/wingopherLocation of more information:As above.Latest version number:(please check software distribution)Brief Scope and Characteristics:A Gopher client for Windows 🪟 that can run on either a Winsock DLL or the PC/NFS network interface. Choose your fighter!General comments:Written and maintained by Martyn Hampson ✨ It has Gopher+ support 🔥Future plans:
Date completed or updated:14 March, 1994By: Name:Mark McCahillEmail address:mpm@boombox.micro.umn.eduPlatform:Windows with Winsock and ToolBook 💖Primary Contact:Name:Kevin GamielEmail address:kgamiel@kudzu.cnidr.orgTelephone:
Next up is a second client from the same crew, and it's a whole vibe 💅
Client software available from:Via Gopher:- U of M Gopher
- Information About Gopher
- Gopher Software Distribution
Via FTP:sunsite.unc.edu/pub/micro/pc-stuff/ms-windows/winsock/gophbook.zip
Location of more information:As above.Latest version number:1.0Brief Scope and Characteristics:Another Gopher client for Windows 🦋 It uses Asymetrix's ToolBook to paint the screen and talks to the network through a Winsock DLL. Like a dream team where everyone has a job 👑General comments:Written and maintained by Kevin Gamiel 🫶Future plans:
Date completed or updated:14 March, 1994By: Name:Mark McCahillEmail address:mpm@boombox.micro.umn.eduPlatform:Air Gopher commercial client for windows 💅Primary Contact:Name:David Pool, Spry Software, Inc.Email address:dave@spry.comTelephone:+1-206-447-0300Client software available from:Location of more information:Latest version number:Brief Scope and Characteristics:General Comments:Future plans:Gopher+ support planned 🌈
Date completed or updated:14 March, 1994By: Name:Mark McCahillEmail address:mpm@boombox.micro.umn.eduPlatform:Win Gopher 🍓Primary Contact:Name:Bill Easton, Notis, Inc.Telephone:+1-708-866-0159Client software available from:Location of more information:Latest version number:Brief Scope and Characteristics:General Comments:Requires Winsock. Supports gopher. Simple and iconic ✨Future plans:Gopher+ support planned.
Date completed or updated:14 March, 1994By: Name:Mark McCahillEmail address:mpm@boombox.micro.umn.eduPlatform:GINA 🧚Primary Contact:Name:Mark Resmer, California Technology ProjectEmail address:resmer@eis.calstale.eduClient software available from:Location of more information:Latest version number:Brief Scope and Characteristics:General Comments:Macintosh and windows clients include netnews, email. Multi-platform queen 👑Future plans:
Demonstration sites time 🎀 These are the sites that volunteered to show off the Gopher goods, so here's the list, copied exactly:
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 AmericaDocumentation, bestie 📚 Two titles, and both are must-reads:
Title:(1) Gopher Protocol and (2) Gopher+ Proposed ExtensionsLocation 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 💜 Here are all the sources, exactly as written:
- 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 time, and next up is HYTELNET 🌸
HYTELNETDate template updated or checked:28 February, 1994By: Name:Peter ScottEmail address:aa375@freenet.carleton.ca
NIR Tool Name:HYTELNET ✨Brief Description of Tool:HYTELNET is a terminate-and-stay-resident hypertext browser 🧚 It gives a user full instructions for logging into telnet-accessible sites on the Internet, like library catalogs, campus-wide information systems, bulletin boards, directory services, gophers, etc. The browser does not make remote connections. A Unix/VMS version does make remote connections, and it was written by Earl Fogel, Computing Services, University of Saskatchewan. Macintosh and Amiga versions are also available (see ftp site information below).
Primary Contact(s):Name:Peter ScottEmail address:aa375@freenet.carleton.caPostal Address:324 8th Street East, Saskatoon, Sask, Canada S7H 0P5Telephone:+1-306-966-5920Fax:+1-306-966-6040
Help Line:Name:Peter ScottEmail address:aa375@freenet.carleton.caTelephone:+1-306-966-5920Level of support offered:o volunteerHours available:8:00 a.m - 3:30 p.m CST 🫶
Related Working Groups:NoneSponsoring Organisation / Funding source:None
Mailing Lists:HYTELNET Updates DistributionAddress:hytel-l@kentvm.kent.eduAdministration:By listowner Peter Scottaa375@freenet.carleton.caDescription: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 tolistserv@kentvm.kent.eduwith no subject, andsub hytel-l firstname lastnameas the body of the message.Archive:None
News groups:bit.listserv.hytel-l📰
Protocols:What is supported:What it runs over:Other NIR tools this interworks with:Future plans:Possible translation into gopher format 🌈
Servers:None.
Clients:Date completed or updated:21 December, 1993By: Name:Peter ScottEmail address:aa375@freenet.carleton.caPlatform:DOSPrimary ContactName:Peter ScottEmail address:aa375@freenet.carleton.caTelephone:+1-306-966-5920Client software available from:ftp.usask.cainpub/hytelnet/pcashytelnXX.zip, where XX = latest version number.pub/hytelnet/{amiga,unix,vms,mac}/*for respective versions
Location of more information:finger scottp@jester.usask.caLatest version number:6.6 (Issued October 23, 1993)Brief Scope and Characteristics:General comments:Future plans:To contine to produce updated versions in current form. 💅
Demonstration sites:The Unix/VMS version can be accessed via telnet toaccess.usask.ca(login:hytelnet) 🖥️
Documentation:None
Bibliography:- HYTELNET as software for accessing the Internet: a personal perspective on the development of HYTELNET. Electronic Networking, Vol. 2, No. 1 Spring 1992 pp 38-44
- Hypertext...Information at your fingertips. In: Designing Information: new roles for librarians. Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1993
Other Information:
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
NETFIND is up next, and it's a total icon 🔍
NETFINDDate template updated or checked:1 March, 1994By: Name:Mike SchwartzEmail address:schwartz@cs.colorado.edu
NIR Tool Name:Netfind 💜Brief Description of Tool:Give Netfind the name of a person on the Internet, plus a rough idea of where they work, and it tries to find info about them 🦋 People can be searched by first, last, or login name. Their place of work can be described by name and/or city/state/country.
Netfind gives you textual info about people when it can find it. It isn't a directory in the usual sense of the word. Instead, it searches for people using a bunch of Internet services and heuristics about how to locate user info. Because of those techniques, it can find info about more people than any other Internet user directory: over 5 million people in over 9,000 domains worldwide when last measured. Slay 💅
You can use the University of Colorado Netfind server by telnetting to bruno.cs.colorado.edu, logging in as netfind (with no password). Help screens with more detailed instructions and technical info are there too. Right now there is no way for non-Internet users to access Netfind (for example, through an email interface) 🙈
Primary Contact(s):
Okay bestie, so Netfind's contact situation is giving volunteer energy 🌸 Mike Schwartz runs it from the University of Colorado, and phone and fax are a hard no 🙈
Name: Mike Schwartz
Email address: netfind-dvl@cs.colorado.edu
Postal Address: Department of Computer Science
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309-0430
Telephone: Declined. (Note: Netfind is currently a
volunteer service. We do not have staff
resources to support telephone inquiries.)
Fax: Declined.Help Line 🧚
There's an increasing number of Netfind servers popping up at various Network Information Centers (including the U.S. Internic), which is so cute to see 💖 But since Netfind is a volunteer service right now, there is no help line.
Related Working Groups 🦋
Gopher, NIR, IIIR, IRTF-RD.Sponsoring Organisation / Funding source 💅
Nobody's paying for this one, honestly. Netfind started life as a research prototype, and it's offered as-is, on an unsupported basis. The original developers still sneak in improvements from time to time, but it isn't 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: netfind-servers-request@cs.colorado.edu
Description: mailing list for sites running Netfind servers.
Archive: None.News groups 🌈
None.Protocols ⭐
Netfind speaks NVT ASCII, and bestie, there's no formal protocol in use right now. They're building a client/server protocol, which will allow better clients and more efficient servers. Ate, honestly 🔥
What it runs over: TCP/IP.
Other NIR tools this interworks with:
Finger, Gopher, PH, SMTP, USENET news, UUCP
maps, Various NIC databases, Various service
logs, WAIS, WHOIS, X.500, DNSFuture plans are described as "many" 👑 For the full list, telnet to the server and check the "Future Directions" menu under the "Frequently Asked Questions" help menu. On top of that, they're exploring how to fold the Netfind seed database gathering mechanisms into the Fremont framework, so the process gets more scalable, and so it can support other kinds of information (for example, helping with mapping the Internet) 🗺️
Servers 🖥️
Date completed or updated: October 12, 1993
By: Name: Mike Schwartz
Email address: schwartz@cs.colorado.edu
Platform: SunOS 4.1 or more recent. Uncertain
whether Netfind will run on Solaris.
Primary Contact:
Name: Mike Schwartz
Email address: schwartz@cs.colorado.edu
Telephone: (not supplied)
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: 4.4.Brief Scope and Characteristics ✨ This version of Netfind lets sites register a set of URLs in their DNS server, pointing Netfind at a variety of different sources for information. Netfind can now tap information from X.500, WHOIS, and PH, in addition to the earlier sources it used (finger, etc.). For more details, check out:
ftp://ftp.cs.colorado.edu/pub/cs/distribs/netfind/Netfind.WP.URLsApproximate number of such servers in use 🎀
17 public servers; hundreds or thousands of private stand-alone
clients.Clients 💜
The Netfind client comes in the same release as the server, so just look above 👀
Demonstration sites 🍓
The site name is bruno.cs.colorado.edu, and the current list is:
archie.au (AARNet, Melbourne, Australia)
bruno.cs.colorado.edu (University of Colorado, Boulder)
dino.conicit.ve (Nat. Council for Techn. & Scien. Research,
Venezuela)
ds.internic.net (InterNIC Directory and DB Services,
S. Plainfield, NJ)
eis.calstate.edu (California State University, Fullerton, CA)
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.anu.edu.au (Australian National University, Canberra)
netfind.ee.mcgill.ca (McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada)
netfind.if.usp.br (University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil)
netfind.oc.com (OpenConnect Systems, Dallas, Texas)
netfind.vslib.cz (Liberec University of Technology, Czech Republic)
nic.nm.kr (Korea Network Information Center, Taejon, Korea)
nic.uakom.sk (Academy of Sciences, Banska Bystrica, Slovakia)
redmont.cis.uab.edu (University of Alabama at Birmingham)Documentation 📚
There are three main sets of info about Netfind, bestie 🫶
First up is the help information. It's in the FTP distribution, and you can also grab it from the help screens on any Netfind server. It has a pretty complete set of Frequently Asked Questions, user help, and pointers to other related stuff.
Second is a pre-publication version of a technical paper about Netfind. Here are the two formats:
ftp://ftp.cs.colorado.edu/pub/cs/techreports/schwartz/PostScript/
Netfind.Gathering.ps.Z (compressed PostScript)
or
ftp://ftp.cs.colorado.edu/pub/cs/techreports/schwartz/ASCII/
Netfind.Gathering.txt.Z (compressed ASCII).There's also an earlier paper, which has some of the original Netfind ideas and measurements of the system:
ftp://ftp.cs.colorado.edu/pub/cs/techreports/schwartz/PostScript/
White.Pages.ps.Z
or
ftp://ftp.cs.colorado.edu/pub/cs/techreports/schwartz/ASCII/
White.Pages.txt.Z,The Netfind.Gathering paper is the up-to-date one, describing the data gathering and integration algorithms 🧠
Third, if you care about the URL-based remote site customization mechanism, this is your spot:
ftp://ftp.cs.colorado.edu/pub/cs/distribs/netfind/Netfind.WP.URLsBibliography 🎓
Netfind is one prototype from the Networked Resource Discovery Project at the University of Colorado - Boulder. There's a bibliography and a set of project papers available by anonymous FTP from ftp.cs.colorado.edu, in pub/cs/techreports/schwartz. The directory has a file called "README" with a project overview and bibliography. You can also get these files over email: send a mail message to infosrv@ftp.cs.colorado.edu, with the message body (not subject line) "send HELP" (without quotes) 💌
PROSPERO 🦋
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=Date template updated or checked: 1 March, 1994
By: Name: Steven Augart Email address: info-prospero@isi.edu
NIR Tool Name: Prospero 💜
Brief Description of Tool ✨ Prospero is a directory service with a user-centred view of files scattered across the Internet. You can organise references to files as if they lived on your local system, without physically moving them. That's giving main character energy 👑
It gives access to existing directories and indices that help you find files of interest on Internet archive sites. The indices include the archie database and a gateway to all Gopher menus, files, and searches. They hope to have WAIS indices and World Wide Web documents online in the near future 🌈
Prospero also provides a way to make directories and indices available to end-users and applications, in a format that lets information from different sources come together as one coherent whole 🧩
Prospero doesn't interpret the data it organises. It does provide mechanisms to retrieve the data, but how the data is displayed and used is up to the user's application. Prospero is meant to be infrastructure that integrates information from a variety of sources and supports a variety of user applications 🫶
Prospero allows fine grained authorization of requests to all objects, including directories and indices. Clients can be authenticated through four mechanisms:
- (a) simple client assertion of the user's identity;
- (b) a trusted port mechanism similar to that used by the Berkeley UNIX R commands;
- (c) a simple cleartext passwording mechanism;
- (d) Kerberos (version 5).
The maintainer of an ACL picks which of these mechanisms they want to accept as proof of the client's identity 🔐
Primary Contact(s) 📬
Name: Info Prospero (preferred contact address)
Email address: info-prospero@isi.edu
--------------------------
Name: Clifford Neuman
Email address: bcn@isi.edu
Postal Address: U.S.C. Information Sciences Institute
4676 Admiralty Way
Marina del Rey, CA 90292-6695
U.S.A.
Telephone: +1-310-822-1511
------------------------
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: +1-310-822-1511Help Line 🧚
Name: Info Prospero
Email address: info-prospero@isi.eduRelated Working Groups 🌸
IETF IAFA WG
IETF IIIR WG
IETF URI WG
IETF NIR WG
IRTF Resource Discovery WGSponsoring Organisation / Funding source 💖
Prospero is backed by the 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.EDUOkay bestie, the INFO-PROSPERO and Prospero mailing lists are up next 💌✨ Here's the listing, copied exactly as written so every detail stays put 🎀
Description: This mailing list is really two one-way mailing
lists. Send mail to INFO-PROSPERO to obtain
information about Prospero, papers, or the
release. Mail to INFO-PROSPERO will not be
passed on to subscribers. INFO-PROSPERO is also
the list to which we will send status updates
and information on how to obtain new releases.
Archive: Via anonymous FTP to PROSPERO.ISI.EDU as
/pub/prospero/mail/info-prospero.arc
Via Prospero in the "#/INET/EDU/ISI/GUEST/prototype" virtual
system as /sites/isi.edu/pub/prospero/mail/info-prospero.arc
--------------------------
Address: prospero@ISI.EDU
Administration: prospero-request@ISI.EDU
Description: This mailing list is for general discussion of
Prospero, for announcements of new sites that
have come on board, and for announcements of
directories that people have created to organize
the information already accessible.
Archive: Via anonymous FTP to PROSPERO.ISI.EDU as
/pub/prospero/mail/prospero.arc
Via Prospero in the "#/INET/EDU/ISI/GUEST/prototype" virtual
system as /sites/isi.edu/pub/prospero/mail/prospero.arc.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
News groups:
NONE
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Protocols:
What is supported:
Prospero directory service requests are formatted
according to the Prospero protocol.
Prospero does not have its own file retrieval
protocol. Files may be automatically retrieved using
FTP, NFS, AFS, and GOPHER. Loginable services may also be
accessed via TELNET.
What it runs over:
Directory service requests are layered on top of
UDP, with our own (included) reliable message delivery
layer.
Other NIR tools this interworks with:
Archie, Gopher, Wais, WWW
Future plans:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Servers:
Date completed or updated: 1 November, 1993
Platform: UNIX
Primary Contact:
Name: Clifford Neuman and Steven Augart
Email address: info-prospero@isi.edu
Telephone: +1-310-822-1511
Server software available from:
Via anonymous FTP: PROSPERO.ISI.EDU, /pub/prospero/prospero.tar.Z
Via Prospero: /releases/prospero/prospero.tar.Z, in the
"#/INET/EDU/ISI/GUEST/prototype" virtual system.
Note that the name prospero.tar.Z refers to the most stable release
(currently Beta version 5.1). If you want the latest version of
the server (which includes the Gopher gateway), you should retrieve
it by version number; the name for the latest version is
prospero-alpha.5.2.tar.Z
Location of more information:
Contained within the release.
Latest version number:
Alpha Version 5.3
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
The server allows the maintainer to make directory information
available about selected portions of the server's filesystem, such as
anonymously FTPable files. The server also is used to publish
information from other databases, such as Archie. The server also
allows users and maintainers to store their own customized organizing
views of the namespace. Release Alpha.5.2 of the server includes a
gateway feature which treats all Gopher servers as a Prospero
database.
Approximate number of such servers in use:
50
General comments:
Future plans:
We have a prototype NFS server that makes Prospero queries, but it is
not yet ready to release. We plan to develop a gateway similar to
the existing Gopher gateway feature for World Wide Web. There is
also active work being done on exporting WAIS indices through
Prospero in a way similar to the way the archie database is exported.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Clients:
Date completed or updated: 1st November, 1993
Platform: UNIX
Primary Contact
Name: Clifford Neuman and Steven Augart
Email address: info-prospero@isi.edu
Telephone: +1-310-822-1511
Client software available from:
Via anonymous FTP: PROSPERO.ISI.EDU, /pub/prospero/prospero.tar.Z
Via Prospero: /releases/prospero/prospero.tar.Z, in the
"#/INET/EDU/ISI/swa" virtual system.
Note that the name prospero.tar.Z refers to the most stable release
(currently Beta version 5.1). If you want the latest version of
the clients (which includes the Prospero menu browser), you should
retrieve it by version number; the name for the latest version is
prospero-alpha.5.2.tar.Z
Latest Version number:
Alpha Version 5.2
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
We provide two client interfaces. The older one is a command-line
client, which can be configured to use the same syntax to navigate
through the Prospero namespace that a user uses to navigate through
the UNIX filesystem. ("cd", "ls", etc.) The newer one is a menu-
based file and directory browser similar to the UNIX Gopher client.
General comments:
Archie clients also make queries in the Prospero namespace, so all
Archie clients are Prospero clients too. They are better described
in the Archie report.
Future plans:
We are working on enhancing the menu browser client to allow users to
remotely customize and update virtual systems. We plan to develop a
Prospero hypertext browser.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Demonstration sites:
A guest virtual system is available on PROSPERO.ISI.EDU. However, to
use it, you must compile the Prospero command-line client on your own
machine. Instructions for using it come with the Prospero
distribution.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Documentation:
All of these papers are available via anonymous FTP from
PROSPERO.ISI.EDU. They may additionally be obtained through
Prospero itself by preceding the 'Full file name:' given below with
'/sites/isi.edu' and looking in the '#/INET/EDU/ISI/GUEST/prototype'
virtual system.
Document Title: The Prospero Protocol, version 5
Location details:
Site: PROSPERO.ISI.EDU
Full file name: /pub/prospero/doc/prospero-protocol.PS.Z
Document Title: Prospero User's Manual
Location details:
Site: PROSPERO.ISI.EDU
Full file name: /pub/prospero/doc/prospero-user-manual.PS.Z
Document Title: Prospero Library Manual
Location details:
Site: PROSPERO.ISI.EDU
Full file name: /pub/prospero/doc/prospero-library-manual.PS.Z
Document Title: Prospero Menu-based Browser API Manual
Location details:
Site: PROSPERO.ISI.EDU
Full file name: /pub/prospero/doc/prospero-menu-api.PS.Z
Document Title: Description of Prospero Documents and Papers
Location details:
Site: PROSPERO.ISI.EDU
Full file name: /pub/prospero/papers/README-prospero-documents
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography:
A bibliography listing all publicly available Prospero documents and
papers is available via anonymous FTP from PROSPERO.ISI.EDU as
/pub/prospero/README-prospero-documents The following papers are also
available via anonymous FTP from PROSPERO.ISI.EDU:
Prospero:/papers/subjects/operating-systems/prospero/prospero-bii.ps.Z
Anonymous FTP: /pub/papers/prospero/prospero-bii.ps.Z
(POSTSCRIPT)
@INPROCEEDINGS{prosperobii,
AUTHOR = "Neuman, B. Clifford and Augart, Steven Seger",
TITLE = "Prospero: A Base for Building Information
Infrastructure",
BOOKTITLE = "Proceedings of INET'93",
YEAR = 1993,
MONTH = "August"}
For the readers of this report, this is the first paper you probably
want to read about Prospero. This paper describes how Prospero can
be used to integrate internet information services, including
Gopher, WAIS, Archie, and World Wide Web. The paper was
presented at INET'93 in August.
Prospero:/papers/subjects/operating-systems/prospero/prospero-oir.ps.Z
Anonymous FTP: /pub/prospero/papers/prospero-oir.ps.Z
(POSTSCRIPT)
@ARTICLE{oir,
AUTHOR = "Neuman, B. Clifford",
TITLE = "Prospero: A Tool for Organizing {I}nternet Resources",
JOURNAL = "Electronic Networking: Research, Applications and
Policy",
MONTH = "Spring",
YEAR = 1992,
VOLUME = 2,
NUMBER = 1}
This is the first paper we give to more general computer science
audiences to read. It's also a good first paper to look at. It
gives a good overview of Prospero and what it does. It also
describes a bit about the Virtual System model, of which Prospero is
a prototype implementation. Describes what Prospero does, not how
it does it.
Anonymous FTP: /pub/prospero/papers/prospero-gfsvsm.ps.Z
(POSTSCRIPT)
@INPROCEEDINGS{gfsvsm,
AUTHOR = "Neuman, B. Clifford",
TITLE = "The {P}rospero {F}ile {S}ystem: A Global File System
based on the {V}irtual {S}ystem {M}odel",
BOOKTITLE = "Proceedings of the Workshop on File Systems",
YEAR = 1992,
MONTH = "May"}
This is a good third paper to read about Prospero. This one is
targeted more toward system implementors. It provides more
implementation details than the paper on organizing Internet
resources, but less of the vision of how Prospero can be used together
with other systems.
Prospero:
/papers/subjects/operating-systems/prospero/prospero-smlic.ps.Z
Anonymous FTP: /pub/papers/prospero/prospero-smlic.ps.Z
(POSTSCRIPT)
@INPROCEEDINGS{prosperosmlic,
AUTHOR = "Neuman, B. Clifford and Augart, Steven Seger and
Upasani, Shantaprasad",
TITLE = "Using Prospero to Support Integrated
Location-Independent Computing",
BOOKTITLE = "Proceedings of the Usenix Symposium on Mobile and
Location-Independent Computing",
YEAR = 1993,
MONTH = "August"}
This paper describes how the Prospero Directory Service can be used to
solve the server selection problem and the user location problem. The
paper was presented in August at the Usenix Symposium on Mobile
and Location-Independent Computing.
Anonymous FTP: /pub/prospero/papers/UW-CS-89-01-07.PS.Z
(POSTSCRIPT)
@TECHREPORT{vsmldos,
AUTHOR = "Neuman, B. Clifford",
TITLE = "The {V}irtual {S}ystem {M}odel for Large Distributed
Operating Systems",
INSTITUTION = "Department of Computer Science, University of
Washington",
YEAR = 1989,
MONTH = "April",
NUMBER = "89-01-07"}
This describes the initial vision for the Virtual System
Model, the model on which Prospero is based. Much of the material in
this paper appears in greater detail in other papers.Ngl, the Prospero section is packed with mailing lists, server and client details, and papers, so I'm keeping every bit exactly as written 🦋 The tool list keeps going from here 💜
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 ages this was the best explainer of Prospero 📚, but everything in it now lives in newer 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"}Okay, this paper is all about why operating systems need closure 🔒. That means they need to make it crystal clear which name space gets used when resolving names. Closure is one of Prospero's big features, but honestly the concept deserves to be used in other operating systems too 💅.
Prospero:
/papers/subjects/operating-systems/prospero/prospero-neuman-thesis.ps.ZAnonymous 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's currently the definitive work on Prospero and the Virtual System Model, no cap 🧚. It also includes an obsolete version of the Prospero User's Manual and of the Prospero Protocol Specification 🙈.
Other Information:
We give you three documented library interfaces to Prospero so writing clients is easy-peasy 🎀.
The PFS and PCOMPAT libraries are documented in the library reference manual 📖. The PFS library lets you make Prospero requests directly, parse the results, and treat Prospero objects as abstractions 💜. The PCOMPAT library is an interface to the PFS library that uses the same interface as the UNIX filesystem, so you can link lots of existing programs with it to get them resolving names in the Prospero namespace 🦋. It's not as portable as the PFS library and it doesn't offer as much functionality, so know what you're getting into 💀.
The third interface is the menu-browser API library. It's documented in the menu-based browser API manual and it's what our menu-based browser runs on ✨.
VERONICA
Date template updated or checked: 28 February, 1994
By: Name: Steven Foster
Email address: foster@veronica.scs.unr.edu NIR Tool Name: veronicaBrief Description of Tool:
veronica: Very Easy Rodent-Oriented Net-wide Index to Computerized
Archives.Okay, veronica is the comprehensive title-index of the world's gopher servers 🐭🌸. Thanks to veronica, the Gopher web is a search-and-retrieval system as well as a browsing system, which is so iconic 🔥. It's popular because the ubiquitous Gopher client can reach the search server and also give you instant access to whatever it finds 💅. By taking advantage of Gopher's linked menus, and of the policy of open access at most gopher sites, veronica finds and indexes almost all items on publicly-accessible gopher servers 🌈.
As of February, 1994, veronica holds indexes to more than 3200 gopher servers on approximately 2500 internet hosts ✨. In February 1994 the public-access veronica sites served an estimated 1,200,000 queries 😭. Most queries get resolved in less than twenty seconds ⭐. Eight server sites offer searches to the internet community, and several other institutions run servers for internal access 🫶.
veronica is easy to access from any Gopher client 🦋. It offers various types of searches, from single-keyword searches all the way up to boolean queries of indefinite complexity 🧚.
A veronica search starts when a user requests a search from a gopher client 💖. Searches may include boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT, and parentheses) and several options to control the number of items returned and to restrict the search to certain gopher types 🎀. The result of a veronica search is a set of gopher-type data items, which gets returned to the gopher client as a gopher menu 🍓. Each item on this menu contains the user's desired keyword or keywords in the item title 💜.
The user can access any of the gopher items by selecting from the returned menu 🌸. Items on this menu may come from many gopher servers at once. Because veronica is accessed through gopher clients, it gives you immediate access to all types of data supported by the gopher protocol and the client implementation 👑.
The veronica service has two functions:
- Harvesting menu data from gopher servers, and preparing it for use;
- Offering searches of that database to gopher clients.
These two functions are not necessarily provided by the same host computer 💅. Right now, collection and preparation of data happen at University of Nevada, and the datasets are distributed to the other veronica servers 🫶.
The veronica service infrastructure has been fairly stable since July, 1993 🌈, with eight server sites offering searches for the internet community (March 1994) ✨. These servers are supported by the participating institutions: NYSERNET, PSI, SERRA, CNIDR, University of Koeln, SUNET, University of Bergen and the University of Nevada System Computing Services 🙌. Several additional servers offer searches with access limited to internal users; in this class are servers at MSU, SUNET, and the Australian University system 🦋.
An auxiliary tool for building a locally held menu of Public available items has been created 🧚. Called "maltshop", it has been distributed since January, 1994 🍓. It appears that maltshop is rapidly being accepted, but its long-term effect on loading of the servers may be problematic 😬.
Primary Contact(s):
Name: veronica development team
Email address: veronica@veronica.scs.unr.edu
Postal Address: VERONICA development team
SCS Computer Center Building mailstop 270
University of Nevada, Reno
Reno,
NV 89557-0023
Telephone: +1-702-784-4292 or +1-702-784-6557
Fax: +1-702-784-1108
Name: Fred Barrie
Email address: barrie@cs.unr.edu
Postal Address: SCS Computer Center Building mailstop 270
University of Nevada, Reno
Reno,
NV 89557-0023
Telephone: +1-702-784-4292 or +1-702-784-6557
Fax: +1-702-784-1108
Name: Steven Foster
Email address: foster@nevada.edu
Postal Address: SCS Computer Center Building mailstop 270
University of Nevada, Reno
Reno,
NV 89557-0023
Telephone: +1-702-784-4292 or +1-702-784-6557
Fax: +1-702-784-1108Help Line:
Name: veronica development team
Email address: veronica@veronica.scs.unr.edu
Telephone: no telephone support available
Level of support offered: all users
Hours available: irregular response latencies to email queries,
based on schedule of developers.Related Working Groups: GOPHER, FACETS
Sponsoring Organisation / Funding source:
University and Community College System of Nevada Computer Services, and University of Nevada, Reno 🏫. Additional support has been provided by CNIDR, Pandora Systems, Inc., and Pacific Bell Co. 💖. Server hosts have been provided by the sites listed above in the Description section 🫶.
Mailing Lists:
Address: gopher-news@boombox.micro.umn.edu
Address: veronica-news@veronica.scs.unr.eduNews groups:
Name: veronica discussion happens on comp.infosystems.gopherProtocols:
What is supported: Gopher protocol, Gopher+ protocol
What it runs over: TCP
Other NIR tools this interworks with: Gopher, WAIS, ftp
Future plans: Implement extensions with Gopher+.
Support for URN/URL standards.
Per-site updates of indexes.
Subject-area-specific indexes.
Indexes for USENET news and LISTSERV articles.
Automated server load-levelling.Okay, the future plans list is giving big glow-up energy ✨: Gopher+ extensions, URN/URL support, per-site index updates, subject-area indexes, indexes for USENET news and LISTSERV articles, and automated server load-levelling 🚀.
Servers:
Date completed or updated: February 28, 1994
By: Name: Steven Foster
Email address: foster@nevada.edu
Platform: UNIX
Primary Contact:
Name: veronica development team
Email address: veronica@veronica.scs.unr.edu
Telephone: +1-702-784-4292 or +1-702-784-6557
Server software available from:
Via ftp: veronica.scs.unr.edu
veronica-code/
veronica-data/
veronica-data.tar.Z
Location of more information:
Via Gopher: veronica.scs.unr.edu
veronica/
veronica-faq
how-to-compose-veronica-queries
Via Gopher: gopher.cnidr.org
veronica
veronica-faq
how-to-compose-veronica-queries
Via ftp: veronica.scs.unr.edu
veronica-code/
veronica-docs/
Latest version number: 0.6.5
Next planned version: 0.7b (March 1994)Brief Scope and Characteristics:
Two modules: a data-collection module and a data-server module.Two modules, one for collecting data and one for serving it, and that's the whole vibe 🦋💜.
- okay so the data-collector runs on any Unix computer that does TCP and compiles perl 💖 it hasn't been distributed yet! Data collection, data preparation, and indexing are all happening over at veronica.scs.unr.edu ✨ The harvester "walks" every advertised gopher server, plus any newly-discovered ones 🦋 Then almost all the redundant links get removed, so you're left with the ( hopefully ) canonical reference for each item 💅 Indexes are built at Nevada, and the indexed dataset gets shipped out to server sites 🚀
- the server module is giving main character energy 👑
- Servers run on unix computers and answer gopher-type-7 requests. Boolean keyword logic is implemented! 🧠 See file "how-to-compose-veronica-queries" for the deets 📖
- Several options let you retrieve items with specified gopher-types, retrieve a file of links containing the search results, and override the default limit on number of results returned. That default is 200 items, btw 🌸
- Server software runs on most flavors of unix and requires dbm and perl. It also needs about 1.4 GB of data on disk, with considerable /tmp space available 💜
- Server software is available to any site that wants to run a server. Server sites are encouraged to offer the service to the net at large 🫶
Approximate number of such servers in use: twelve. 🍓
Auxiliary tool: Maltshop v. 0.2d 🎀 Maltshop builds a menu of Public Gopher Servers for your local gopher menu.
Maltshop software is available from:
Via ftp: veronica.scs.unr.edu
veronica-code/
menu-builder-0.2d
Via Gopher: veronica.scs.unr.edu, port 70
11/Search ALL of Gopherspace
12/Script to automate your local
Veronica menuGeneral comments: basic veronica service has been fairly stable since July 1993, and honestly it's been iconic 🌈 Indexing is quite efficient, and most queries get resolved in ten seconds or quicker ⭐ More than 1,000,000 queries were resolved in February, 1994! 😭
Even though veronica is well-accepted at this level of service, we're undertaking significant upgrade efforts during Winter 93-94 🔥
Here's the info for the clients 💅
Clients:
Date completed or updated: October 19, 1993
By: Name: Steven Foster
Email address: foster@nevada.edu
Platform: veronica is accessed through any of the
gopher clients.
Primary Contact: As for gopher clients.
Client software available from: As for gopher clients.
Location of more information:
Via Gopher: gopher.tc.umn.edu, port 70
1/Information About Gopher
Future plans: veronica will interoperate with Gopher+
clients, allowing queries to be
composed by ASK blocks.Now the demo sites, where you can actually try this out 🦋
Demonstration sites:
Site name: UCCSN veronica server
Access details: gopher to veronica.scs.unr.edu, port 70.
Open "veronica" folder; choose one of
the search types available.
Site name: University of Minnesota Gopher server
Access details: gopher to gopher.tc.umn.edu, port 70.
Other Gopher and Information Servers
Search Gopherspace with veronica.
choose one of the search types available.
Site name: NYSERNET veronica server
Access details: gopher to nysernet.org, port 70.
Open "Search the Internet" folder;
choose one of veronica searches.
Site name: SERRA veronica server
Access details: gopher to gopher.unipi.it, port 70.
Open "University of Pisa - Services" folder;
choose the veronica search.Documentation time 📚🎀
Documentation:
Document Title: veronica FAQ: Common Questions and answers
about veronica, a title search and retrieval
system for use with the internet gopher.
Location details:
Via Gopher:
Site: veronica.scs.unr.edu, port 70.
veronica
veronica FAQ
Full file name: veronica-faq
Site: gopher.micro.umn.edu, port 70.
Other Gopher and Information services
Search Gopherspace with veronica
veronica FAQ
Full file name: veronica-faq
Site: gopher.cnidr.org, port 70.
veronica
veronica FAQ
Full file name: veronica-faq
Via anonymous ftp:
Site: veronica.scs.unr.edu
veronica-docs/veronica-faq
Document Title: How to Compose veronica Search Queries.
Location details:
Via Gopher:
Site: veronica.scs.unr.edu, port 70.
veronica
How to Compose veronica Search Queries.
Full file name: how-to-query-veronica
Site: gopher.cnidr.org, port 70.
veronica
How to Compose veronica Search Queries.
Full file name: how-to-query-veronica
Via anonymous ftp:
Site: veronica.scs.unr.edu
veronica-docs/how-to-query-veronica
Document Title: About veronica.
Location details:
Via Gopher:
Site: veronica.scs.unr.edu, port 70.
veronica
About veronica
Full file name: veronica-about
Site: gopher.micro.umn.edu, port 70.
Other Gopher and Information services
Search Gopherspace with veronica
About veronica
Full file name: veronica-about
Site: gopher.cnidr.org, port 70.
veronica
About veronica
Full file name: veronica-aboutBibliography: none 🙈
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
WAIS (WAIS, Inc.)
Date template updated or checked: 1 March 1994
By: Name: Nathaniel Lee
Email address: than@wais.com
freeWAIS (CNIDR)
Date template updated or checked: 1 March 1994
By: Name: Jane Smith and Jim Fullton
Email address: Jane.Smith@CNIDR.org and Jim.Fullton@CNIDR.orgNext up is WAIS 🌸 NIR Tool Name: WAIS
Brief Description of Tool: WAIS (the Wide Area Information Servers system) is an electronic publishing software set that lets you search out and retrieve multimedia information from databases anywhere in the world 🌍 WAIS databases can be accessed by WAIS, gopher, and WWW clients (such as Mosaic), and via online services such as Delphi and America OnLine. WAIS software includes user interfaces for most platforms, plus 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 👑
WAIS is a client-server application. Most of the clients remain freely available, with a few exceptions. WAIS, Inc. develops and sells commercial versions of WAIS, and the Clearinghouse for Networked Information Discovery and Retrieval (CNIDR) develops freeWAIS, a version free for distribution and use. A few freely distributable versions remain available from Thinking Machines, Inc. and other organizations 🫶
What does WAIS do?
WAIS allows multimedia information to be stored anywhere, on any platform. Using your interface of choice, WAIS helps you 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. So far, people 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 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 Z39.50-1988). Each WAIS server reads your question and, based on its words, searches the full text of the database for the most relevant documents, then ranks them using automatic word weighting. Servers need not fully understand your query, because the retrieval process is based on a search method called relevance feedback 🧚
Here are the WAIS contacts 📞
Primary Contact(s) (WAIS, Inc.):
Name: Than Lee
Email address: info@wais.com
Postal Address: 1040 Noel Drive, Suite 102, Menlo Park CA 94025
(USA)
Telephone: +1-415-617-0444
Fax: +1-415-327-6513Primary Contact(s) (CNIDR):
Name: George Brett
Email address: George.Brett@CNIDR.org
Postal Address: 3021 Cornwallis Rd., Research Triangle Park
NC 27709 (USA)
Telephone: +1-919-248-1499
Fax: +1-919-248-1101Help Line (WAIS, Inc.):
Name:
Email address: support@wais.com
Telephone:
Level of support offered: commercial customers only
Hours available: anytimeHelp Line (CNIDR):
Name: Kevin Gamiel
Email address: Kevin.Gamiel@CNIDR.org
Telephone: +1-919-248-1499
Level of support offered: developers only
Hours available: 9-5 ESTRelated Working Groups (WAIS, Inc.):
Z39.50 protocol groupRelated Working Groups (CNIDR):
NISO: Z39.50 Implementor's Group (ZIG)
IETF: IIIR (Integrating Internet Information Resources) Working Group
URI (Uniform Resource Identifiers) Working GroupSponsoring Organisation / Funding source (WAIS, Inc.):
WAIS, Inc.okay bestie, we're still in the WAIS tools lineup 🎀 the next little info cards are all about the WAIS world, so let's zoom in 🔍✨
Sponsoring Organisation / Funding source (CNIDR):
National Science Foundation Cooperative Agreement MCNC University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill Other U.S. Government agenciesthis is the money tea 💅 CNIDR's backers, all listed out 🫶
Mailing Lists (WAIS, Inc. and CNIDR):
Address: wais-discussion@wais.com
Administration: wais-discussion-request@wais.com
Description: Moderated, digested biweekly posting about WAIS
and Electronic publishing subjects. Please
submit interesting material.
Archive: /pub/mail-archives/wais-discussion/issue-*@wais.com
and wais-discussion-archive WAIS serverooh the wais-discussion list 📬 moderated AND digested every two weeks, so it's giving curated vibes 🌸 send in your good finds!!
Mailing Lists (WAIS, Inc. and CNIDR):
Address: wais-talk@wais.com
Administration: wais-talk-request@wais.com
Description: Implementors forum on WAIS/freeWAIS. This is
for talking about nitty gritty details of
protocols and implementations.
Archive: /pub/mail-archives/wais-talk@wais.comwais-talk is the implementors' corner 🧚 the nitty gritty protocol details, the stuff you actually build with 🔥
News groups (WAIS, Inc. and CNIDR):
Name: comp.infosystems.wais
Description: Variable quality information on WAIS/freeWAIS.
Archive: wais-talk-archive WAIS serverthe newsgroup is a mixed bag, quality varies 💀 but it's still there if you want to dig 🙈
Protocols (WAIS, Inc. and CNIDR):
What is supported: z39.50-1988
What it runs over:
The freeware runs over tcp/ip. Production versions have worked
over x.25 and modems as well.
Other NIR tools this interworks with:
Gopher and WWW have been used as front ends to WAIS.
Future plans:
freeWAIS: Z39.50-1992 compliance, search engine independencethe protocol card is serving 👑 Z39.50-1988 support, tcp/ip for the freeware, x.25 and modems in production, and Gopher and WWW as front ends. future plans are Z39.50-1992 and search engine independence 🦋
Servers (WAIS, Inc.): Connection Machine WAIS server
Date completed or updated: 13th December, 1993
By: Name: Brewster Kahle
Email address: Brewster@wais.com
Platform: Connection Machine Model 2
Primary Contact:
Name: Ottavia Bassetti
Email address: ottavia@wais.com
Telephone: +1-617-234-1000
Server software available from: Thinking Machines Corp.
245 First Street
Cambridge, MA 02145 Location of more
information:
Latest version number:
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
Software that runs on CM2 Connection Machines to make them into WAIS
servers.
Approximate number of such servers in use:
10
General comments: Requires CM2 super computer.the Connection Machine server is a whole supercomputer moment 🤯 it runs on CM2 machines, about 10 of them in use, and yes it requires the CM2 super computer 💅
Servers (CNIDR): freeware for most UNIX platforms
Date completed or updated: 13th December, 1993
By: Name: Jane Smith
Email address: Jane.Smith@CNIDR.org
Platform: Most Unix variations
Primary Contact:
Name: George Brett
Email address: George.Brett@CNIDR.org
Telephone: +1-919-248-1499
Server software available from:
ftp://pub/NIDR.tools/freewais @ftp.cnidr.org
gopher://gopher.cnidr.org
http://cnidr.org
Location of more information: info@CNIDR.org
Latest version number: freeWAIS 0.202
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
server and client code for freeWAIS.
Approximate number of such servers in use:
Unknown. ~568 databases are registered and freely accessible.
General comments:
Source code freely available for use and modification. Internet
community contributes to the software development, CNIDR incorporates
these developments into the freeWAIS releases.the CNIDR server card is giving open source energy 🌈 freeWAIS 0.202, source code free to use and modify, and the internet community helps build it. about 568 databases registered, which is literally so many 🍓
Clients (CNIDR): many varied for most platforms
Date completed or updated: 13th December, 1993
By: Name: Jane Smith
Email address: Jane.Smith@CNIDR.org
Platform: varied
Primary Contact:
Name: Kevin Gamiel
Email address: Kevin.Gamiel@CNIDR.org
Telephone: +1-919-248-1499
Client software available from:
URL:ftp://pub/NIDR.tools/freewais @ftp.cnidr.org
Location of more information:
phone or e-mail CNIDR
Latest version number: N/A
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
Many clients of varying capability available for most popular
computing platforms
General comments:
Clients developed and updated regularly; check mailing lists or ftp
sites for latest information
Future plans:
New clients when freeWAIS 1.0 (Z39.50-1992 version) is releasedCNIDR's client lineup is a whole wardrobe 👗 many clients for most platforms, and new ones are coming once freeWAIS 1.0 drops 💜
Clients:
Date completed or updated: 13th December, 1993
By: Name: Brewster Kahle
Email address: brewster@wais.com
Platform: NeXT
Primary Contact:
Name: Paul Burchard
Email address: burchard@math.utah.edu
Telephone:
Client software available from:
/pub/freeware/next@wais.com via anonymous FTP
Location of more information:
Latest version number: WAIStation-NeXT-1.9.6
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
General comments: NeXT client and server
Future plans:NeXT ✨ WAIStation-NeXT-1.9.6 is the client AND server, a full set 🌈
------------------
Date completed or updated: 13th December, 1993
By: Name: Brewster Kahle
Email address: brewster@wais.com
Platform: EIWAIS 1.55
Primary Contact:
Name: Kevin Gourley
Email address: pc-shareware@einet.net
Telephone:
Client software available from:
/pub/freeware/windows@wais.com via anonymous FTP
/einet/pc@ftp.einet.net via anonymous FTP
Location of more information:
Latest version number: Version 1.55
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
WAIS client for Windows and Windows Sockets
General comments: Windows WAIS Client for Windows Sockets
- supporting multiple source queries
- advanced program/viewer launching
- embedded (any file size) text viewer
- auto-keyword highlighting
- graphics viewers included
- auto-browse mode for redirected source queries
- auto-parsing of WAIS catalogs returned by servers
- runs on wide range of winsock TCP/IP stacks
Future plans:EIWAIS 1.55 is serving Windows realness 🪟 multiple source queries, auto-keyword highlighting, graphics viewers, and it runs on a wide range of winsock TCP/IP stacks 💖
--------------------------
Date completed or updated: 13th December, 1993
By: Name: Brewster Kahle
Email address: Brewster@wais.com
Platform: telnet access (vt100)
Primary Contact:
Name: John Curran
Email address: jcurran@nnsc.nsf.net
Telephone:
Client software available from:
/pub/freeware/unix-src/wais-8-b5.1-swais-patches @wais.com
Location of more information:
telnet to quake.think.com log in as wais.
Latest version number:
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
General comments:
Future plans:the telnet vt100 entry is pure retro vibes 📟 you telnet to quake.think.com and log in as wais 🦋
------------------
Date completed or updated: 13th December, 1993
By: Name: Brewster Kahle
Email address: brewster@wais.com
Platform: MacWAIS 1.28
Primary Contact:
Name: John Hardin
Email address: mac-shareware@einet.net
Telephone:
Client software available from:
/pub/freeware/mac@wais.com via anonymous FTP
Location of more information:
Latest version number: 1.28
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
General comments:
Future plans:MacWAIS 1.28 for the Mac crew 🍎 grab it over anonymous FTP and vibe 💅
------------------
Date completed or updated: 13th December, 1993
By: Name: Brewster Kahle
Email address: Brewster@wais.com
Platform: Mac Hypercard
Primary Contact:
Name: Francois Schiettecatte
Email address: francois@wais.com
Telephone:
Client software available from:
/pub/freeware/mac/HyperWais* @wais.com
Location of more information: contact author
Latest version number: 1.9
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
HyperWais is a hypercard implementation of a WAIS client.
Its main characteristic is that it allows the user to remodel
the interface completely to their liking.
General comments: Requires approximately 1.7Mb to run
(including Hypercard).
Requires system 7.0 or greater.
Requires Hypercard 2.1
Requires Mac TCP
Future plans: None at presentHyperWais is the ultimate customization queen 👑 you can remodel the whole interface to your liking. it needs about 1.7Mb (with Hypercard), system 7.0+, Hypercard 2.1 and Mac TCP 🎀
------------------
Date completed or updated: 13th December, 1993
By: Name: Brewster Kahle
Email address: Brewster@wais.com
Platform: VMS
Primary Contact:
Name: Jim Fullton
Email address: Jim.Fullton@cnidr.org
Telephone:
Client software available from:
Location of more information:
Latest version number:
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
General comments:
Future plans:VMS card, mostly blank for now 🙈 but Jim Fullton is the contact if you're curious
------------------
Date completed or updated: 13th December, 1993
By: Name: Brewster Kahle
Email address: Brewster@wais.com
Platform: DOS
Primary Contact:
Name: Jim Fullton
Email address: Jim.Fullton@cnidr.org
Telephone:
Client software available from: /pub/freeware/dos/pc.wais @wais.com
Location of more information:
Latest version number:
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
General comments:
Future plans:DOS client, same contact, and the software lives at /pub/freeware/dos/pc.wais 💾
------------------
Date completed or updated: 13th December, 1993
By: Name: Brewster Kahle
Email address: Brewster@wais.com
Platform: DOS
(Clarkson packet driver and Erick Englke's WATT/TCP)
Primary Contact:
Name: Faeiz Hindi
Email address: hindi@eniac.seas.upenn.edu
Telephone:
Client software available from:
/pub/tcpip/pcwais.zip@hilbert.wharton.upenn.edu
Location of more information:
Latest version number:
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
General comments:
Future plans:this DOS one runs on the Clarkson packet driver and Erick Englke's WATT/TCP 🧩 pcwais.zip is the file to grab
------------------
Date completed or updated: 13th December, 1993
By: Name: Brewster Kahle
Email address: Brewster@wais.com
Platform: AVS
Primary Contact:
Name: Steve Thorpe
Email address: thorpe@ncsc.org
Telephone:
Client software available from:
avs_modules/data_input/awais/* @avs.ncsc.org
Location of more information:
Latest version number:
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
General comments:
Future plans:AVS is in the mix too 🌿 Steve Thorpe is the contact, and the modules live under avs_modules/data_input/awais
------------------
Date completed or updated: 13th December, 1993
By: Name: Brewster Kahle
Email address: Brewster@wais.com
Platform: RS6000Okay bestie, picking up right where the WAIS entry gets its contact info 💖
Primary Contact:
Name: Dennis Shiao
Email address: shiao@ans.net
Telephone:
Client software available from:
/pub/freeware/rs6000/wais-8-b3-dist.tar.Z@wais.com
Location of more information:
Latest version number:
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
General comments: client and server"The details are correct, but I must point out that this version of WAIS is most outdated. I'd suggest replacing it with AIX ports of the wais-8-b5 or freeWAIS packages, if anyone's done those (I haven't) .." -Dennis. 😭
Future plans: blank for now, bestie 🌸
Demonstration sites, next up 🧚 The WAIS list says it's "List of sites which are willing to act as demonstration sites for this application." Here are the two:
Site name: quake.think.com
Access details: telnet quake.think.com
login as wais.
Site name: cnidr.org
Access details: telnet cnidr.org
login as demo
select #2 (Demos of NIDR software)
select #2 (WAIS)(this is the worst of all possible interfaces since it is just a dumb terminal interface) 💀
Documentation is where it gets juicy 🦋 Current overview is listed first:
- current overview
"WAIS Server, WAIS Workstation, and WAIS Forwarder for UNIX
Technical Description", Release 1.1, December, 1993.
Available via anonymous ftp:
/pub/wais-inc-doc/msWord/Tech-description -1.1.sit.hqx @ftp.wais.comThen there's the big "Interfaces" paper, which is so iconic 👑
"Interfaces for Distributed Systems of Information Servers",
Brewster Kahle, Harry Morris, Jonathan Goldman (Thinking Machines
Corporation), Thomas Erickson (Apple Computer), John Curran (NSF
Network Service Center), March, 1992. (formally named "Interfaces
for Wide Area Information Servers")
Available via anonymous ftp:
/pub/wais-inc-doc/txt/Interfaces.txt@ftp.wais.com
or WAIS server wais-discussion-archives.srcNext, instructions for information providers, which are basically the "how do I publish stuff" section 💅
- instructions to information providers
See the documentation in the release:
/pub/freeware/unix-src/wais-8-b5.1.tar.z@wais.comor the wais-docs.src WAIS server.
User manuals are next, and ngl, they're pretty chill 🍓
- user manuals
The Mac interface WAIStation has a user manual. The unix commands have man pages.
Training materials come in two flavours, tutorials and canned demos 🌈
- training materials
- tutorials
- canned demos
The Macintosh demonstration screen-movie is a whole vibe. Steve Cisler of Apple put together a short screen-recorder movie so you can see some of what WAIStation does 🎀
/pub/wais-doc/WAIStation-Canned-Demo.sit.hqx@wais.com- sample session (screen dumps)
"WAIStation, A User Interface for WAIS", February 1991, Thinking
Machines technical report TMC-203.
User interface documentation with screen shots.Videos are a special-circumstances thing, so if you want one, email info@wais.com 🎬
- videos
Available in special circumstances. Contact info@wais.com.
Bibliography time 📚 The WAIS bibliography is:
"WAIS Bibliography", WAIS Inc, (last update) September 1993.
Available via anonymous ftp:
/pub/wais-inc-doc/txt/WAIS-bibliography.txt @wais.com or WAIS server
wais-discussion-archive.srcOther Information, last one for WAIS 🫶 Check for current freeWAIS info on CNIDR's gopher and WWW servers:
gopher.cnidr.org and www.cnidr.orgWHOIS is up next, and it's a whole legend 🔥 Here's its metadata:
WHOIS
Date template updated or checked: 17 March, 1994
By: Name: Joan Gargano
Email address: jcgargano@ucdavis.eduNIR Tool Name: WhoisBrief 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 InterNIC Registration Services is located at Network Solutions,
Inc., Herndon, VA, and is funded by a cooperative agreement from the
National Science Foundations to provide assistance in registering
networks, domains, asn's, and other entities to the Internet
community via telephone, electronic mail, and U.S. postal mail.
Databases and information servers of interest to network users are
provided, including the WHOIS registry of domains, networks, asn's
and their associated poc's. Gopher and Wais interfaces are also
available for retrieving information and accessing whois. Online
documents maintained at registration services include registration
related rfc's, registration templates, and various netinfo files.
Many of the online files are available through our automatic mail
service, MAILSERV@RS.INTERNIC.NET. Whois queries can also be
directed to rs.internic.net. From a host, use the TELNET program to
connect to host RS.INTERNIC.NET. When greeted by the Registration
host, type "WHOIS" and press RETURN.
MAILSERV@RS.INTERNIC.NET is an automated service provided by InterNIC
Registration Services. It allows access to documents and information
via ordinary electronic mail. This is especially useful for users
who do not have access to the NIC via a direct Internet link, such as
users of BITNET, CSNET and UUCP sites.
To use the mail service, send a mail message to
MAILSERV@RS.INTERNIC.NET. In the SUBJECT field, request the type of
service you wish followed by any needed arguments. The message body
is normally ignored. Large files will be broken into smaller
separate messages. The information you request will be sent back to
you as soon as possible.
WHOIS xxx Returns information about xxx from the WHOIS service.
Use "WHOIS HELP" for information on how to use WHOIS.
The MILNET Network Information Center, maintains the central NICNAME
database and server, providing online look-up of individuals, network
organizations, MILNET nodes, and other information of interest to
those involved in management of the Internet. Whois queries can be
sent to nic.ddn.mil.Primary contact for WHOIS is Network Solutions, Inc. 🏢
Primary Contact(s): Network Solutions, Inc.
Name: Hostmaster
Email address: hostmaster@rs.internic.net
Postal Address: Network Solutions
AttN: InterNIC Registration Services
505 Huntmar Park Drive
Herndon, VA 22070
Telephone: +1-703-742-4777Help line, for the major center and each client 🫶
Help Line:
(for major center as well as each client)
Name: Hostmaster
Help information available via gopher,
gopher.internic.net
Email address: hostmaster@rs.internic.net
Telephone: +1-703-742-4777
Level of support offered:
o funded
o all users
Hours available: 24 hours/day, 7 days per week.Related working groups 👯
Whois and Network Information Lookup Service (WNILS)Sponsoring organisation and funding source 💸
National Science FoundationsMailing 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: ftp.ucdavis.edu:/archive/wnils-archiveNews groups: none, bestie. 💀
News groups: None.Protocols, the good stuff ⚡
Protocols:
What is supported: TCP/whois
What it runs over: TCP/IP networks
Other NIR tools this interworks with:
Future plans: Enhancements through Whois++
Enhancements through Referral Whois.Servers 🖥️
Servers:
Date completed or updated: 4 March, 1994
By: Name: Joan Gargano
Platform: Unix
Primary Contact: Network Solutions, Inc.
Name: Hostmaster
Email address: hostmaster@rs.internic.net
Telephone: +1-703-742-4777Clients are available from the same source as the server software, and VMS clients come from TVG/Multinet. Most TCP/IP networking packages for personal computers include a whois client too 🎀
Clients:
Clients are available from the source 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 for WHOIS 🦋
Demonstration sites:
Site name: rs.internic.net
Access details: Using a whois client,
whois -h rs.internic.net "name"
where "name" is the name of a person.Documentation for WHOIS, two docs to read 📖
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: ftp.ucdavis.edu
Full file name: /archive/ietf-wnils/Discussion.PaperBibliography for WHOIS, and this is where the drafts live 🌙
Bibliography:
RFC 954
Internet Drafts:
draft-ietf-wnils-whois-01.txt
draft-ietf-wnils-whois-02.txt
draft-ietf-wnils-whois-lookup-00.txt
draft-huitema-solo-00.txt
Please check the 1id-abstracts.txt listing contained in the
internet-drafts Shadow Directories on nic.ddn.mil,
nnsc.nsf.net, nic.nordu.net, ftp.isi.edu, or munnari.oz.au
to learn the current status of any Internet Draft.Other Information and Evaluation for WHOIS are blank, so nothing to see here 🙈
Other Information:
Evaluation:
World-Wide Web is next, and honestly it's the main character 🌐✨
World-Wide Web
Date template updated or checked: 28th January, 1994
By: Name: Tim Berners-Lee
Email address: timbl@info.cern.chNIR Tool Name: World-Wide WebBrief Description of Tool:
The WWW project merges the techniques of networked information and hypertext to make an easy but powerful global information system. W3 uses the concept of a seamless information space (the "web"), in which all objects including those accessed by earlier protocols (wais, gopher, ftp, etc.) exist. 🕸️
The project allows information sharing within internationally dispersed teams, and the dissemination of information by support groups. Originally aimed at the High Energy Physics community, it has spread to other areas and attracted much interest in user support, resource discovery and collaborative work areas. It is currently the most advanced information system deployed on the Internet. 👑 Periodt.
The WWW world is basically just documents and links 🕸️ Indexes are the special ones: you don't read them, you search them 🔍 And the result of a search is its own ("virtual") document full of links to whatever it found. The "HTTP" protocol is what lets a browser ask a remote information server to run a keyword search for it 💻
Some of the documents are hypertext, which means they link out to other documents or to specific spots inside them. Real docs, virtual docs, and indexes all look the same to the reader and all live in the same addressing scheme 🌈 That's the magic part ✨
To follow a link you just click with a mouse (or type in a number if you don't have one 🙈). To search or index, you give it keywords or other search criteria. Those are literally the only moves you need to access the entire world of data 💅
INFORMATION PROVIDER VIEW 🎀
Browsers can reach a ton of existing data systems through existing protocols (FTP, NNTP) or through HTTP plus a gateway 🦋 So the critical mass of data gets hit super fast, and readers and suppliers keep hyping each other up, which keeps the whole thing growing 🔥
Providing info is as easy as running the W3 server and pointing it at an existing directory structure 🍓 The server automatically generates the hypertext view of your files so users can get around 🧚
If you want it to feel more personal, you can write a few SGML hypertext files for an even friendlier view 💖 Also, any file you can grab by anonymous FTP, or any internet newsgroup, can be linked into the web right away 🫶 The startup effort is tiny on purpose, so small contributions are totally welcome 🌸 On the other end of the scale, big information providers can run an HTTP server with full text or keyword indexing 👑 That lets people access a large existing database without changing how the database is managed at all 💅 Gateways have already been built for Oracle(tm), WAIS, and Digital's VMS/Help systems, just to name a few 🙌
The WWW model gets past the super frustrating format incompatibilities between suppliers and readers by letting a smart browser and a smart server negotiate the format between them 😭 This should give us a basis for extending into multimedia, and let people who share application standards make full use of them across the web ✨
This summary doesn't cover the many exciting possibilities the WWW project opens up, like efficient document caching 🌟 Think reducing redundant out-of-date copies and using knowledge daemons 🧠 There's more info in the online project documentation, including some background on hypertext and loads of technical notes 📚
GETTING STARTED 🧚
You can bootstrap yourself into the web by telnetting to info.cern.ch (no user or password) 💫 You can also try a full screen interface called "Lynx" by telnetting to ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu, logging in as "www" 🖥️ You can find out more about WWW this way too 💅 Just know these are the least sophisticated browsers, and the window-oriented ones are way smarter 🤭 It's much more efficient to install a browser on your own machine, because you get so many more facilities 👑
If you have an X-windows based workstation, PC, or Mac, just FTP to FTP.NCSA.UIUC.EDU and grab the binary of NCSA's "Mosaic" browser from directory /Web/Mosaic-binaries 🦋 Download it, uncompress it, set it executable, and run it. It'll tell you everything you need to know 💖
Mosaic is now available for PCs and Apple Macs too 🍎
If you have an MSDOS machine with Windows, you could try the "Cello" browser from FATTY.LAW.CORNELL.EDU in directory /pub/LII/Cello 🌈
The line mode browser is currently available in source form by anonymous FTP from node info.cern.ch [currently 128.141.201.74]. You need to take both files:
/pub/www/src/WWWLibrary_v.vv.tar.Z.
/pub/www/src/WWWLineMode_v.vv.tar.Z.(v.vv is the version number, so take the latest 🙏)
Also available is a hypertext editor for the NeXT (in /pub/www/bin/next), the MidasWWW and ViolaWWW browsers for X11, an alpha-test Mac browser, and a basic server (/pub/www/src/WWWDaemon_v.vv.tar.Z) 🎀 Documentation, including the latest list of available software, is readable using www 📖 And a plain text version of the installation instructions is included in the tar file, so you're covered 🫶
Printable (postscript) documentation and articles are in /pub/www/doc on info.cern.ch 🖨️
Primary Contact(s):
Name: Tim Berners-Lee
Email address: timbl@info.cern.ch
Postal Address: CERN, 1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland
Telephone: +41-22-767-3755
Fax: +41-22-767-7155
Name: Robert Cailliau
Email address: cailliau@cernnext.cern.ch
Postal Address: CERN, 1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland
Telephone: +41-22-767-5005
Fax: +41-22-767-7155 Help Line:
(for www technical or political issues, to report bugs, to register
new servers, or new software)
Name: www support
Email address: www-request@info.cern.ch
Telephone: none.
Telnet: info.cern.ch for information.
Level of support offered:
o funded for High-Energy Physics users
o volunteer for others who have read the online
information already.
While CERN collaborates with all NIR and W3 development anywhere, CERN
cannot provide user support for non-HEP end users. Related Working Groups: NIR, URI, IIIR Sponsoring Organisations / Funding source: NO FUNDING SOURCE
Bodies providing development effort include
HEP labs (CERN, CH; SLAC, CA, USA; FNAL, IL, USA; NIKHEF, NL; etc.),
National Center for SuperComputer Applications (NCSA, IL, USA),
O'Reilly Associates, (ORA, CA, USA),
Clearinghouse for Networked Information Discovery and Retrieval
(CNIDR, NC, USA),
BSD Inc (BSD, CA, USA) and many others too numerous to mention.
Other sources welcomed! Newsgroup:
Name: comp.infosystems.www
Description: General technical discussion, announcements
of new software, etc.
Please mail new server announcements to
www-request@info.cern.ch. Mailing Lists:
1. Address: www-talk@info.cern.ch for CONTRIBUTIONS ONLY
Administration: listserv@info.cern.ch (robot)
www-talk-request@info.cern.ch (human)
Description: Technical discussion, W3 related.
Experts to experts. General questions to
comp.infosystems.www, please.
Archive: Not currently served, but kept.
-------------------
2. Address: www-announce@info.cern.ch
NOT FOR GENERAL USE - serious low-volume
announcements only
Administration: listserv@info.cern.ch (robot)
www-announce-request@info.cern.ch (human)
Description: Low volume summary announcemements
of product releases, etc.
Archive: Not currently public Protocols:
What is supported: HTTP
FTP
anonymous FTP
Gopher
NNTP
WAIS (compile time option)
Local mounted file access
Telnet sessions
Rlogin sessions
What it runs over: TCP/IP
DECnet option.
Other NIR servers W3 clients interworks with:
Techinfo, Hyper-G and X.500 via gateways.
Built-in capability in clients for others above
Archie access via WWW "WARCHIE" archie server
with direct hypertext pointers to FTP sites.
Resource indexing: Many browsable and searchable indexes of
available information, by subject (virtual
libraries), and by position (geographical list of
servers). Many of these point to any form of
data, HTTP or other server. A list of such
indexes is at
http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/DataSources/
bySubject/Virtual_libraries/Overview.html
Future plans: Collaborative work features,
Hypertext editors for information organisationThose protocol lists are a whole buffet 🍱 HTTP, FTP, anonymous FTP, Gopher, NNTP, WAIS (compile time option), local mounted file access, Telnet, and Rlogin sessions are all supported 🌸 It runs over TCP/IP, plus a DECnet option 💻 The W3 clients can also interwork with Techinfo, Hyper-G, and X.500 through gateways, and they have built-in capability for the others above 🦋 Archie access works through the WWW "WARCHIE" archie server, with direct hypertext pointers to FTP sites 🔎
For resource indexing there are lots of browsable and searchable indexes of available info, sorted by subject (virtual libraries) and by position (a geographical list of servers) 🗺️ Many of them point to any form of data, HTTP or otherwise, and you can find the list of these indexes at the link in the block above 👑 Future plans include collaborative work features and hypertext editors for information organisation 🔮
HTTP Servers: CERN httpd
Platform: unix, VMS, VM/XA, VM/CMS
Primary Contact: www-request@info.cern.ch
Server software available from:
ftp://info.cern.ch/pub/www/src
Location of more information:
http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/Daemon/User/Guide.html
Latest version number: 2.14
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
* Fast stateless file server runs over TCP/IP.
* Suitable for rapid documentation navigation.
* Multimedia server allows multiple file formats to be used.
* File format selected for transmission based on client
capabilities.
* Add special functions using scripts. Standard CGI interface.
* Logging
Approximate number of such servers in use: 600
General comments:
Some servers serve many databases.
Many tools available for serving different sorts
of information
Gnu info
teX
SGML
man pages
etc., as hypertext.The CERN httpd is the star of the HTTP server show ⭐ It runs on unix, VMS, VM/XA, and VM/CMS 💻 Its scope includes being a fast stateless file server over TCP/IP, which is great for rapid documentation navigation 🧭 It's also a multimedia server that lets multiple file formats be used, with the transmitted format picked based on what the client can handle 🎞️ You can add special functions using scripts with the standard CGI interface, and it does logging too 📝 There are roughly 600 of these servers in use, and some of them serve many databases 💖 It also comes with a bunch of tools for serving different kinds of info, like Gnu info, teX, SGML, and man pages, all turned into hypertext ✨ The latest version is 2.14 🎀
--------------------------------
Other servers:
For more information use WWW to access
http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/Daemon/Overview.html
Servers include:
NCSA server Similar feature set to CERN's httpd, support from
NCSA.
Plexus Written in Perl -- many features. Unix.
MacHTTPD Server for the Macintosh
REXX for VM A server consisting of a small C program which
passes control to a server written in REXX.
---------------------------If you want the other servers, you can use WWW to check out the link in the block above 🦋 They include the NCSA server (similar feature set to CERN's httpd, with support from NCSA), Plexus (written in Perl with lots of features, unix), MacHTTPD (a server for the Macintosh 🍎), and REXX for VM (a small C program that passes control to a server written in REXX) 🌈
Mail Server:
Platform: unix
Primary Contact: www-request@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 (crude)
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.Last but not least, the mail server 💌 It's a unix thing, latest version 1.0, and it handles mailing list subscriptions and unsubscriptions (honestly a bit crude 🙈) plus returning documents given a URL 📬 It restricts how much data gets returned, and it allows access to ANY document by URL unless restrictions are imposed, which covers FTP, news, and so on 🫶 It's pretty generic, and that's the whole vibe 💅
When hypertext messages come back, the links are numbered like [1], and a list of URLs for the referenced documents gets tacked onto the end. 📨 Want the details? Send a message containing HELP to listserv@info.cern.ch 💌
Approximate number of such servers in use:
Approximate number of such servers in use: 1 (-3?)Honestly, this email thing is a whole vibe 🌈 It extends the potential readership of W3 information to anyone with email, which is a huge step toward universal readership 💖
The full list of client software lives at http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/Clients.html. It's not repeated here because it keeps changing 🙈 There are around 20 different clients, and you can telnet to info.cern.ch to see the list. Only the Line Mode Browser, Lynx, and Mosaic are covered here ✨
Here's the first one, the Line Mode Browser 🧚
Client: Line Mode Browser
Date completed or updated: 28th January, 1994
By: Name: Tim Berners-Lee
Email address: timbl@info.cern.ch
Platform: Anything. Even a hard copy terminal.
Written in portable C.
Primary Contact:
Name: Tim Berners-Lee
Email address: timbl@info.cern.ch
Client software available from:
ftp://info.cern.ch/pub/www/src
Location of more information:
http://info.cern.ch./hypertext/WWW/LineMode/Browser.html
and linked documents
Latest version number: 2.14Okay so the Line Mode Browser is giving dumb terminal energy, and I'm obsessed 🫶 It's suitable for dumb terminals and needs no control sequences except carriage return and line feed. Of course it's also usable from terminal emulators in workstation windows. It can be used as a text formatter, as part of a mail server, and as a general information retrieval tool 💅
It also has a history list, Back/Next/Previous/Home navigation, and the ability to print or save documents (or pipe to shell commands on unix) 🍓
Its general comments say it's a very stable product with lots of uses beyond interactive use. It generates C .h files from hypertext marked files, and so on. The source release needs the W3 library product, and it's Public Domain 🎀
Future plans: it'll include tracing of many links ⭐
Demonstration sites:
telnet info.cern.ch or telnet 128.141.201.74 (SWITZERLAND)
telnet vms.huji.ac.il or telnet 128.139.4.3 (www) (ISRAEL)Next up is Lynx 🦋
Client: Lynx
Date completed or updated: 11 February 1994
By: Name: Lou Montulli
Email address: montulli@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Platform: Unix + VMS
Primary Contact(s):
Name: Lou Montulli, Michael Grobe
Email address: montulli@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu,
grobe@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Postal Address: Computer Center, University of Kansas,
Lawrence KS, 66045
Telephone: +1-913-864-0436 (Lou)
+1-913-864-0452 (Michael)
Fax: +1-913-864-0485
Client software available from:
ftp2.cc.ukans.edu in directory /pub/lynx.
Location of more information: ftp2.cc.ukans.edu
Latest version number: 2.2Lynx is a user-friendly hypertext interface to all of the major internet protocols for character cell (vt100) terminal users on UNIX and VMS 👑 It natively understands Gopher, HTTP, WAIS, FTP, NNTP (USENET NEWS), and CSO protocols, and it can retrieve info from any of them transparently 🔥
It can also launch telnet and tn3270 sessions and run executable programs on the local machine, so it works as a menuing system too. Lynx is part of the World Wide Web (WWW) project and has all the features of a WWW client, including HTML support and HTML+ forms support. Other resource types like Archie Techinfo, X.500, and Hytelnet can also be accessed through HTTP and Gopher gateway functions 🧚
Future plans: a DOS (non windows) version 💜
Help Line:
Name: Lou Montulli
Email address: montulli@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Telephone: +1-913-864-0436
Level of support offered: volunteer
Hours available: 11-5pm M-F CSTDemonstration sites:
Site name: ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Access details: telnet ukanaix.cc.ukanse.du
login as "www"Documentation:
o current overview
http://www.cc.ukans.edu/about_lynx/about_lynx/about_lynx.html
o user manuals
http://www.cc.ukans.edu/lynx_help/lynx_help_main.html
o miscellaneous documents
tar file of all documentation:
ftp://ftp2.cc.ukans.edu/pub/lynx/lynx_help_files.tar.ZSponsoring Organisation / Funding source:
Academic Computing Services
University of KansasMailing Lists:
Address: lynx-dev@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Administration: listserv@ukanaix.cc.ukans.eduAnd last but not least, NCSA Mosaic for X 🌸
Client: NCSA MOSAIC for X
Date completed or updated: 16th December, 1993
By: Name: Marc Andreessen
Email address: marca@ncsa.uiuc.edu
Platform: X Window System (Unix)
-- Sun, DEC, IBM, SGI, HP, others.
Primary Contact:
Name: Marc Andreessen
Email address: marca@ncsa.uiuc.edu
Postal Address: National Center for Supercomputing
Applications
605 E. Springfield
Champaign, IL 61820
Telephone: +1-217-244-0765
Client software available from:
ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu in /Web/Mosaic.
Location of more information:
ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu in /Web/mosaic, and online, within Mosaic.
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosaic/Docs/help-about.html
o Frequently Asked Questions
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosaic/Docs/mosaic-faq.html
o user manuals
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosaic/Docs/mosaic-docs.html
Latest version number: 1.1Mosaic for X is a client interface to a wide variety of networked information systems 🎀 That includes World Wide Web, Gopher, WAIS, FTP, Usenet News, Archie, Techinfo, X.500, Hytelnet, Telnet, NCSA Data Management Facility, CSO ph/qi, and others. It has a Motif-based point-and-click X interface with support for plaintext, formatted text, and embedded images. Hyperlinks can also point to images, video sequences, audio clips, PostScript files, and more 🦋
It also offers substantial interaction and collaboration facilities, including global history tracking, text and voice annotations, group/community-wide annotations, and more 🫶
General comments: the sponsoring organisation is the National Center for Supercomputing Applications 🌈
Future plans: enhancing the NCSA Mosaic environment to support advanced networked information systems and collaboration capabilities. There's also development of clients on other architectures, and research 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 😭) Beta-test versions of Mac and Microsoft Windows 3.1 were released in the fall of 1993 💖
Demonstration sites: see the individual sections on clients 💅
Documentation time 📚 All the W3 documentation available is in the web. Some is also dumped off into postscript. Here are the entry points into the web for the subjects requested:
** To retrieve any document by URL, use WWW (www <url> for example) or
** send mail containing the command "send " followed by the URL to
** listserv@info.cern.ch
o current overview
http://info.cern.ch./hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html
see also
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosaic/Docs/help-about.html
o executive summary
http://info.cern.ch./hypertext/WWW/Summary.html
o instructions to information providers
http://info.cern.ch./hypertext/WWW/Provider/Overview.html
o Frequently Asked Questions
http://info.cern.ch./hypertext/WWW/FAQ/List.html
o user manuals
See under individual products.
ftp://info.cern.ch/pub/www/doc/*.txt
o training materials
Illustrated talk on WWW including transparencies: see
ftp://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/Talks/General/html
see also
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/demoweb/demo.htmlGeneral WWW bibliography 📖
For the latest list, see:
http://info.cern.ch./hypertext/WWW/Bibliography.htmlBibliography for the World Wide Web
WORLD-WIDE WEB BIBLIOGRAPHY
This lists papers and articles about the W3 initiative and related matters, which you may want to pick up for background reading or quote as references. You can also quote any page you read with W3 by its document address. The FTP server info.cern.ch has some of these in /pub/www/doc 🍓
Other Information ✨
All WWW working notes and specs are on the web. If it's not there somewhere, it may not be anywhere. Seek and ye shall find. And if ye don't, mail someone to fix it 🙈
X.500 White Pages 🌟
Date completed or updated: 10 March, 1994
By: Name: Chris Weider
Email address: clw@bunyip.comNIR Tool Name: X.500 👑
Brief Description of Tool:
X.500 is an international standard designed to provide a distributed global directory service 🌍 It's primarily used today to provide 'White Pages' services, although other services with directory components (automated mail aliasing, for example) are beginning to run over X.500 too. As well as 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 has 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 that local server 🧚 From this 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 X.500 came out in 1988, and it's been the subject of loads of research for the last 5 years, so it's giving mature 💅. There are tons of clients for almost every platform and a healthy number of servers. You can reach parts of the directory by mail, and there's an X.500 to Gopher gateway. An X.500 interface to archie is in the works, and so is an X.500 to WWW interface 🌸
Information Provider's View ✨
X.500 gives you a set of mechanisms for distributed location of, maintenance of, and access to a huge pile of data 🗂️ BUT, ngl, current servers force a hierarchical view on where the data lives, so it might not suit every application 🙈 Also, the X.500 directory can't yet serve information fast enough for 'real-time' stuff, like keeping routing information in the directory 😭
There's also a big push to cut the startup costs of X.500 access with a lightweight X.500 access protocol for client-server apps. That work is described in RFC 1487:
"Lightweight Directory Access Protocol", by Yeong, Howes, and Kille. The hope is that this makes it way cheaper for a service provider to get in the game 💖
Information Types Supported ✨
X.500 serves information as attribute:value pairs, with related attributes grouped into 'objects'. Each entry in the directory can be described by multiple objects 🧚 Attribute values can be text strings, dereferenceable file names, or text-encoded photographs, and people are experimenting with keeping digitally encoded sounds in the directory too 🎀
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.comHelp Line:
X.500 has a ton of clients, and since it's distributed it doesn't have one central help line 🙃 Check the Documentation section for pointers to servers, clients, and their 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)
RARE's WG-NAP (Network Application Support)Sponsoring Organisation / Funding source:
Not ApplicableMailing Lists:
Address: osi-ds@cs.ucl.ac.uk
Administration: osi-ds-request@cs.ucl.ac.uk
Description: Mail list for OSI-DS working group.
-------------------
Address: ietf-ids@umich.edu
Administration: ietf-ids@umich.edu
Description: Mail list for IDS working group.
Archive: Anonymous FTP, merit.edu in directory
/pub/ietf-ids-archive.
-------------------
Address: dssig@ics.uci.edu
Administration: dssig-request@ics.uci.edu
Description: Mail list for OIW DS-SIG group
-------------------
Address: wg-nap@rare.nl
Administration: mailserver@rare.nl
Description: Mail list for RARE working group WG-NAP
Archive: Anonymous FTP, ftp.rare.nl, directory
/rare/working-groups/wg-nap/mail/currentProtocols:
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 and WWW.Servers:
A full list of servers and clients lives in FYI 11, RFC 1292, "A guide to available X.500 Implementations" 📚 Check the Documentation section for where to find it. The most widely deployed server is listed below, just for convenience 🍓
QUIPU
Date completed or updated: 21 October, 1993
By: Name: Chris Weider
E-Mail: clw@bunyip.com
Platform: BSD 4.2, 4.3; AT&T System V; SunOS; AIX
Primary Contact:
Name: Steve Kille
E-Mail: S.Kille@isode.com
Telephone: +44-81-332-9091
Fax: +44-81-332-9019
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: 400Demonstration sites:
Site name: paradise.ulcc.ac.uk
Access details: telnet to paradise.ulcc.ac.uk
login as duaDocumentation:
Document Title: FYI 11, RFC 1292, "Catalog of Available X.500
Implementations", R. Lang, R. Wright.
Location details: Available for anonymous FTP from
Site: ds.internic.net
Full file name: RFC-1292.txt
An update of this document is in preparation:
Document Title: "A Revised Catalog of Available X.500
Implementations", A. Getchell, S. Sataluri.
Location details: Available for anonymous FTP from
Site: ds.internic.net
Full file name: draft-ietf-ids-catalog-00.txt
Document Title: FYI 13, RFC 1308, "Executive Introduction to directory
services using the X.500 protocol", C. Weider, J. K. Reynolds
Location details: Available for anonymous FTP from
Site: ds.internic.net
Full file name: RFC-1308.txt
Document Title: FYI 14, RFC 1309, "Technical Overview of Directory
Services using the X.500 protocol", C. Weider, J. K. Reynolds,
S. Heker.
Location details: Available for anonymous FTP from
Site: ds.internic.net
Full file name: RFC-1309.txt
Document Title: RFC 1430, "A Strategic Plan for Deploying an Internet
X.500 Directory Service",
S. Kille, E. Huizer, V. Cerf, R. Hobby, S. Kent.
Location details: Available for anonymous FTP from
Site: ds.internic.net
Full file name: RFC-1430.txt
Document Title: FYI 21, RFC 1491, "A Survey of Advanced Usages of
X.500", C. Weider, R. Wright.
Location details: Available for anonymous FTP from
Site: ds.internic.net
Full file name: RFC-1491.txt
Document Title: RFC 1487, "Lightweight Directory Access Protocol",
W. Yeong, T. Howes, and S. Hardcastle-Kille
Location details: Available for anonymous FTP from
Site: ds.internic.net
Full file name: RFC-1487.txt
Document Title: RFC 1588, "WHITE PAGES MEETING REPORT",
J. Postel, C. Anderson
Location details: Available for anonymous FTP from
Site: ds.internic.net
Full file name: RFC-1588.txt
These documents contain pointers to the rest of the literature.7. NIR Groups ✨
This section is all about the groups working on networked information retrieval 🌈 They're listed alphabetically within their overall groupings (CNI, IETF, RARE, etc.). See Section 3 💜
CNI Groups 🦋
Date template updated or checked: 1st March, 1994 By: Name: Craig A. Summerhill Email address: craig@cni.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 Information Resource Services
Architecture and Standards
Legislation, Codes, Policies and Practices
Access to Public Information
Teaching and Learning
Management and Professional and User Education
Mailinglist-Address: cni-announce@cni.orgDescription 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 🎓 It's a partnership of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), CAUSE, and EDUCOM. ARL is dedicated to equitable access to, and effective use of, recorded knowledge in support of teaching, research, scholarship, and community service. CAUSE and EDUCOM focus on different parts of introducing, using, and managing information technology and related resources in research and education, especially higher education 💅 The Coalition works with a task force that gives more than 190 institutions and organizations a shared place to explore how information management has to change in the 1990s to meet the social and economic opportunities and challenges of the 21st century ✨ Task force members include higher education institutions, publishers, network service providers, computer hardware, software, and systems companies, library networks and organizations, and public and state libraries. Truly a diverse collab, bestie 🫶
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: +1-202-296-5098
Fax: +1-202-872-0884
---------------------
Name: Joan K. Lippincott
Email address: joan@cni.org
Postal Address: Coalition for Networked Information
21 Dupont Circle, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20036
USA
Telephone: +1-202-296-5098
Fax: +1-202-872-0884
---------------------
Name: Craig A. Summerhill
Email address: craig@cni.org
Postal Address: Coalition for Networked Information
21 Dupont Circle, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20036
USA
Telephone: +1-202-296-5098
Fax: +1-202-872-0884Mailing Lists:
Address: cni-announce@cni.orgokay so bestie, we're picking up right where the ARL mailing list stuff left off 📬💖
Administration: listproc@cni.org
subscribe cni-announce <lastname> <firstname>
Description: CNI News and Announcements
---------------------------
Address: cni-architecture@cni.org
Administration: listproc@cni.org
subscribe cni-architecture <lastname> <firstname>
Description: CNI Architecture and Standards Working Group Forum
--------------------------
Address: cni-bigideas@cni.org
Administration: listproc@cni.org
subscribe cni-bigideas <lastname> <firstname>
Description: CNI Big Ideas Project Forum
----------------------------
Address: cni-copyright@cni.org
Administration: listproc@cni.org
subscribe cni-copyright <lastname> <firstname>
Description: Copyright and Intellectual Property Forum
------------------------
Address: cni-directories@cni.org
Administration: listproc@cni.org
subscribe cni-directories <lastname> <firstname>
Description: CNI Directories and Information Resource Services
Working Group Forum
------------------------
Address: cni-legislation@cni.org
Administration: listproc@cni.org
subscribe cni-legislation <lastname> <firstname>
Description: CNI Legislation, Codes, Policies, and Practices
Working Group Forum
------------------------
Address: cni-management@cni.org
Administration: listproc@cni.org
subscribe cni-management <lastname> <firstname>
Description: CNI Management & Professional & User Education
Working Group Forum
-------------------------
Address: cni-modernization@cni.org
Administration: listproc@cni.org
subscribe cni-modernization <lastname> <firstname>
Description: CNI Modernization of Scholarly Publication
Working Group Forum
-------------------------
Address: cni-pubinfo@cni.org
Administration: listproc@cni.org
subscribe cni-pubinfo <lastname> <firstname>
Description: CNI Access to Public Information Working Group
Forum
--------------------------
Address: cni-teaching@cni.org
Administration: listproc@cni.org
subscribe cni-teaching <lastname> <firstname>
Description: CNI Teaching and Learning Working Group Forum
---------------------------
Address: cni-transformation@cni.org
Administration: listproc@cni.org
subscribe cni-transformation <lastname> <firstname>
Description: CNI Transformation of Scholarly Communication
Working Group Forum
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
News groups: None
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Document Archive:
URL:ftp://ftp.cni.org/CNI/*
-----------------------------------------------------------------------Official Publications are a None situation, but not a lonely one 🥹 The Coalition leans on the publishing programs of its parent organizations (ARL, CAUSE, and EDUCOM) to spread printed info about its projects and programs. It also shares info about its program over electronic mailing lists on the network. So the answer is None. for official pubs, but the info still gets out there 📣✨
Bibliography: None
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Information:
URL:gopher://gopher.cni.org 70/CNI Working Group Forums/*
BRS/SEARCH full-text telnet a.cni.org
information retrieval
system: login: brsuser
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Date template updated or checked: 1st March, 1994
By: Name: Craig A. Summerhill
Email address: craig@cni.org
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
NIR Group Name: Architecture and Standards Working Group
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
handling 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: Office of the President
University of California
300 Lakeside Dr., 8th Floor
Oakland, CA 94612-3350
USA
Telephone: +1-415-987-0522
Fax: +1-415-839-3573
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists:
Address: cni-architecture@cni.org
Administration: listproc@cni.org
SUB cni-architecture Lastname Firstname
Archive:
URL:ftp://ftp.cni.org/CNI/forums/cni-architecture/*
URL:gopher//gopher.cni.org 70/CNI Working Group Forums/
cni-architecture/*
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
News groups: None
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Document Archive: None
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Official Publications: None
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography: None
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Information: None
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Date template updated or checked: 1st March, 1994
By: Name: Craig A. Summerhill
Email address: craig@cni.org
-----------------------------------------------------------------------the Architecture group's whole vibe 💜 is about making sure everything plays nicely together. Their program priorities are:
- facilitating a consistent and complete mechanism for linking bibliographic, abstracting, and indexing files to files of their associated source materials 🔗
- a single standard for the transmission of bitmapped image files 🖼️
- protocols for handling networked requests for delivery of source materials 📦
- mechanisms for interorganizational authentication, accounting, and billing 🔐
- integrating lessons drawn from the experience of pilot projects that exercise networked printing utilities 🖨️
- providing an "interoperability workshop" to specify, implement, and test advanced functions of
Z39.50, so standardization in this area speeds up and stays high-quality 🚀
Next up is the Directories group, and it's giving open systems everywhere 🌈 They believe in standards and interoperable products and services built on a distributed architecture of servers, all drawing on a common or at least comparable set of data elements. They're building a (printed and networked) directory of directories and resource information services that offer qualitative (consumer) as well as descriptive information 📚. They also back the Library of Congress effort to upgrade the MARC formats for the cataloging needs of networked resources and services, and the National Science Foundation effort to procure a new NSFNet Network Information Center 🙌
NIR Group Name: Directories and Information Resource
Services Working Group
Sponsoring Organisation: Coalition for Networked Information (CNI)
Working subgroups:
Name of subgroup: TopNode Management Team
Mailinglist-Address: cni-directories@cni.org
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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: +1-919-248-1499
Fax: +1-919-248-1101
---------------------
Name: Peggy Seiden
Email address: pseiden@skidmore.edu
Postal Address: Scribner Library
Skidmore College
North Broadway
Saratoga Springs, NY 12866
Telephone: +1-518-584-5000 ext. 2126
Fax:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists:
Address: cni-directories@cni.org
Administration: listproc@cni.org
SUB cni-directories Lastname Firstname
Archive:
URL:ftp://ftp.cni.org/CNI/forums/cni-directories/*
URL:gopher//gopher.cni.org 70/Coalition Working Groups /
WG E-mail 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: 1st March, 1994
By: Name: Craig A. Summerhill
Email address: craig@cni.org
-----------------------------------------------------------------------And last but not least, the TopNode group 🌸 This one is the directory of directories energy we love to see. It was announced via the ARL Newsletter #164, September 9, 1992. The TopNode Project is building a directory of directories, catalogs, and aids for networked information resources, services, and tools 🗂️. The goal is to make navigation easier for staff in libraries, computer centers, networking offices, and other similar operations. The main product will be a set of records describing these networked information resources, and those records can be loaded into a wide range of database management systems 💾
NIR Group Name: TopNode for Networked Information Resources,
Services, and Tools
Sponsoring Organisation: Coalition for Networked Information (CNI)
Directories and Information Resource
Services Working Group
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.Okay bestie, so the TopNode crew picked their leads after a Call for Statements of Interest and Experience 🎀 and it was Indiana University and Merit Network, Inc. who got the green light to run the development effort ✨. Pete Percival (Manager, Academic Information Environment at Indiana University) and Craig Summerhill (Coalition Systems Coordinator) finished the database design, and it's being built on the Coalition's Internet fileserver using BRS/SEARCH 💅. They built on earlier work by 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 think their data structure is both flexible and responsive to all the many interested people they consulted, which is so iconic 🌈.
Under Gary Charbonneau of the Indiana University Libraries, records are being created and prepped for loading 🍓. A thesaurus of added descriptor terms is being maintained too. As of mid-August 1992, 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. MERIT will also 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, and BRS has helped develop the procedures for online data entry 💜.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Contact(s):
Name: Pete Percival
Email address: percival@indiana.edu
Postal Address: Indiana State University
Telephone: +1-812-855-9146
Fax: +1-812-855-0299
------------------
Name: Craig Summerhill
Email address: craig@cni.org
Postal Address: Coalition for Networked Information
21 Dupont Cricle, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20036
USA
Telephone: +1-202-296-5098
Fax: +1-202-872-0884
------------------
Name: Gary Charbonneau
Email address: charbonn@indiana.edu
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:
Status Report - TopNode Directory of Directories. Pete Percival.
Presented at Coalition's 1992 Fall Task Force meeting, Landsdowne VA
site: gopher.cni.org/ Coalition FTP archives / Coalition Projects /
TopNode / *
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography: None
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Information:
The Coalition has an alpha implementation of Topnode setup using the
BRS/SEARCH full text information retrieval software. This database
was created during the data element definition portion of the project,
so the data may not be of production-level service quality.
URL:telnet://brsuser
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
CNIDR
Date template updated or checked: 1st March, 1994
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:CNIDR ✨
Several user-friendly client-server software tools have been developed recently for finding and retrieving information published on computer platforms reachable over wide-area data communications networks like the Internet 💖. The big ones are freeWAIS (freely available wide-area information system), the Internet Gopher, archie, and the WorldWide Web (WWW), and they've all gotten really popular 🔥. freeWAIS, archie, and Gopher point you to where your info of interest is likely to live, then help you find the exact thing. WWW lets you thread a path through the network by clicking tagged hypertext items 🕸️.
While CNIDR is focused on the evolution of wide-area information retrieval systems, it works closely with developers of the other tools 🦋. The goal is to get compatibility, consistency, and, to the extent possible, convergence across all of them 💜.
CNIDR's specific activities are to provide a central focus and forum for networked information discovery and retrieval (NIDR) tools, and to minimise the divergence of individual implementations 🌸. It does this by providing a repository for collecting, evaluating, and distributing protocol-compliant releases and enhanced versions 🎀.
CNIDR also takes part in standards and policy associations like the Internet Engineering Task Force and the Coalition for Networked Information, aiming to build consensus among developers and explore good uses of networked information 🧚. It promotes NIDR tools at lots of national and international conferences too, 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: +1-919-248-1886
Fax: +1-919-248-1101
------------------
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: +1-919-248-9213
Fax: +1-919-248-1101
------------------
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: +1-919-248-9247
Fax: +1-919-248-1101
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists:
Address: info@cnidr.org
Administration: none.
Description: e-mail sent to this address will receive an
automated response containing more information
about current CNIDR activities.
Archive: none
-------------------------------
Mailing Lists: zip@cnidr.org
Address: zip@cnidr.org
Administration: zip-request@cnidr.org
sub zip Lastname Firstname
Description: Technical discussion of Z39.50-92 application
development. Subscribers receive brief overview
of project and information on how to access
archives.
Archive:
ftp://ftp.cnidr.org/NIDR.tools/zip
gopher://gopher.cnidr.org/NIDR Tools/Discussion/Online Discussion
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
News groups: None
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Document Archive: ftp.cnidr.org
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Official Publications: None
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography: None
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Information: info@cnidr.org
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
IETF Groups
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is the protocol
engineering, development and standardisation arm of the Internet. It
has grown to be a large open international community of network
designers, operators, vendors and researchers concerned with the
evolution of the Internet protocol architecture and the smooth
operation of the Internet.
IETF Information including RFCs and Internet Drafts is available by
anonymous FTP from several sites.
East Coast (US) Address: ds.internic.net
West Coast (US) Address: ftp.isi.edu
Europe Address: nic.nordu.net
Pacific Rim Address: munnari.oz.au
(The Internet-Drafts on this machine are stored in Unix
compressed form (.Z).)
In addition the information is available via gopher from
cnri.reston.va.us under the menu item "Internet Society".
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
IDS
Date template updated or checked: 21 October, 1993
By: Name: Chris Weider
Email address: clw@bunyip.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
NIR Group Name: Integrated Directory Services (IDS)
Sponsoring Organisation: Internet Engineering Task Force (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
ds.internic.net as ids-charter.txt in directory ietf/ids.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Contact(s): Name: Chris Weider, Chair
Email address: clw@bunyip.com
Postal Address: 2001 South Huron Parkway 12
Ann Arbor
Michigan
48104, USA
Telephone: +1-313-971-2223
Fax: +1-313-971-2223
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists:
Address: ietf-ids@umich.edu
Administration: ietf-ids-request@umich.edu
Archive: Anonymous FTP to merit.edu, directory
/pub/ietf-ids/archive.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Document Archive:
Location details:
Site: ds.internic.net or any Internet Draft Server (see
sub-section entitled IETF groups)
Directory: internet-drafts. All IDS document file names start
with either draft-ietf-disi or draft-ietf-ids.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Official Publications: None.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography:
Document Title: FYI 11, RFC 1292, "Catalog of Available X.500
Implementations", R. Lang, R. Wright.
Location details: Available for anonymous FTP from
Site: ds.internic.net
Full file name: RFC-1292.txt
An update of this document is in preparation:
Document Title: "A Revised Catalog of Available X.500
Implementations", A. Getchell, S. Sataluri.
Location details: Available for anonymous FTP from
Site: ds.internic.net
Full file name: draft-ietf-ids-catalog-00.txt
Document Title: FYI 21, RFC 1491, "A Survey of Advanced Usages of
X.500", C. Weider, R. Wright.
Location details: Available for anonymous FTP from
Site: ds.internic.net
Full file name: RFC-1491.txt
Marine, A, X.500 Pilot Projects, June 1993. Available as
draft-ietf-ids-pilots-00.txt from any Internet Draft server.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
IIIR
Date template updated or checked: 14 March, 1994
By: Name: Chris Weider
Email address: clw@bunyip.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
NIR Group Name: Integration of Internet Information Resources (IIIR)
Sponsoring Organisation: Internet Engineering Task Forces (IETF)
Working subgroups: None
Description of main group:Okay, bestie, now we're on to the IIIR group 🦋✨ Its whole vibe is making all the Internet information services play nicely together. It was chartered in September 1992 📅, and the goal is to get things like Archie, Gopher, WAIS, and so on to work together, kind of like how the IETF was founded to get different LANs running different protocols to work together 🌐. The big dream is to develop, specify, and line up protocols so all those services become one "virtually unified information service" (VUIS) 🌈👑
IIIR is also making technical docs for protocols used by information services on the Internet, but only where it's needed for interoperability 💅. And the best part? Membership is open, and you don't have to be an IETF attendee to join 🫶 The full charter is on anonymous FTP from ds.internic.net at ietf/iiir/iiir-charter.txt 📂
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Contact(s):
Name: Chris Weider, Chair
Email address: clw@bunyip.com
Postal Address: 2001 South Huron Parkway 12
Ann Arbor
Michigan
48104
USA
Telephone: +1-313-971-2223
Fax: +1-313-971-2223
-------------------------------
Address: iiir@merit.edu
Administration: iiir-request@merit.edu
Archive: Anonymous FTP, iiir/archive
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Document Archive:
Location details:
Site: ds.internic.net or any Internet Draft Server (see sub-section
entitled IETF groups).
Directory: internet-drafts
All IIIR document file names start with the string 'draft-ietf-iiir-'
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Official Publications: None.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography:
Weider, Chris, and Peter Deutsch, 'A vision of an integrated Internet
information service', Internet Draft, March 1993. Available as
draft-ietf-iiir-vision-00.txt from any Internet Draft server.
Weider, Chris, 'Resource Transponders', Internet Draft, March 1993.
Available as draft-ietf-iiir-transponder-00.txt from any Internet
Draft server.
Ankelesaria, et al, 'The Internet Gopher Protocol', RFC 1436, March
1993. Available from any RFC repository.
Berners-Lee, Tim. 'Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)', Internet Draft,
March 1993. Available as draft-ietf-iiir-html-00.ps from any Internet
Draft server.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Information:
This is a new area, one with lots of interesting open problems and
the potential to help shape the future of information services on the
Internet. Even if you can't make the IETF meetings, you are
strongly encouraged to join the group and contribute.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
NIR
Date template updated or checked: 1st March, 1994
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) and
RARE (Association of European Research Networks)
Working subgroups: None
Description of main group:Next up is the NIR-WG, and it's a total power team 💪🌸 There are tons of orgs focusing on the growing pile of resources and tools for networked information retrieval (NIR), so this group is a co-op between three big players: IETF, RARE, and the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) 🤝. Their job is to collect and spread the word about NIR tools, and to talk about and encourage teamwork on current and future tools like archie servers, the Wide Area Information Servers (WAIS), the Internet Gopher, and the WorldWide Web (WWW) 🕸️✨
The NIR Working Group wants to grow the useful info base about NIR tools, their developers, interested orgs, and other stuff about making, sharing, and supporting NIR tools 📚💖 Membership is open and isn't limited to people who go to the quarterly IETF meetings, and the mailing list is open to everyone 💌 You can grab the NIR-WG charter via anonymous ftp from the various IETF repositories as nir-charter.txt 📂
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Goals:Their main goal is to spread info about NIR tools and the groups working on them 🧚 The NIR Status report gets updated, and new entries get added as needed, once per year 📅 That report is going to be submitted as an RFC 🎀. Right now, they're also discussing the criteria for evaluating the major NIR tools available, which is very on-brand for them 🧐
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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
---------------------------------
Name: Kevin Gamiel
Email address: kevin.gamiel@cnidr.org
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: +1-919-248-1886
Fax: +1-919-248-1101
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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: ftp://mailbase.ac.uk/pub/lists/nir/files/*
or via gopher to mailbase.ac.uk
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
News groups: None
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Document Archive:
Location details
Site: mailbase.ac.uk
Directory: /pub/lists/nir/files
or from any Internet Draft Server (see sub-section entitled IETF
groups)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Information:
This Working Group was formed jointly in the User Services and
Applications Areas of the Internet Engineering Task Force.
The RARE (Reseaux Associes pour la Recherche Europeenne) ISUS WG
(Information Services and User Support Working Group) is
represented by NIR-WG co-chair Jill Foster. NIR-WG information
is also posted to the mailing list for the ISUS WG at
"wg-isus@rare.nl".
More information about CNI (Coalition for Networked Information) may
be obtained via anonymous ftp files from ftp.cni.org.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
NISI
Date template updated or checked: 1st March, 1994
By: Name: April Marine
Email address: april@atlas.arc.nasa.gov
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
NIR Group name: Network Information Services Infrastructure (NISI)
Working Group
Sponsoring Organisation: IETF
Description of main group:Last but not least, the NISI Working Group 🎀✨ Its job is to explore the requirements for common, shared Internet-wide network information services 🌍 The goal is to figure out what it takes to build an information services "infrastructure" for the Internet 🏗️ Membership is open, and the charter lives in the IETF repositories as nisi-charter.txt 📂
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Contact(s):
Name: April Marine
Email address: april@atlas.arc.nasa.gov
Postal Address: Network Applications and Information Center
NASA Ames Research Center
M/S 204-14
Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000
USA
Telephone: +1-415-604-0762
Fax: +1-415-604-0978
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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: OSI Directory Services 🌸
okay bestie, first up is the OSI-DS group 💖 its template was last updated or checked on 24 February, 1994, by Chris Weider, so here's the literal info:
Date template updated or checked: 24 February, 1994
By: Name: Chris Weider
Email address: clw@bunyip.comthe group's full name is OSI Directory Services (OSI-DS) and it's sponsored by Internet Engineering Task Forces (IETF) ✨ it has no working subgroups (NONE) 🫶
the main vibe is building a global Directory Service based on X.500 and making it easy to deploy on the Internet 🌈 the main focus is on writing the agreements and technical specs needed to make that happen. the WG is NOT doing piloting or service activities itself, but it will liaise with the groups that do 💅 membership is open to everyone, not just IETF attendees. the full charter is on anonymous FTP from ds.internic.net at ietf/osids/osids-charter.txt 🦋
primary contact is Steve Kille, Chair:
Name: Steve Kille, Chair
Email address: kille@isode.com
Postal Address: ISODE Consortium
P.O. Box 505
SW11 1DX London
England
Telephone: +44-71-223-4062mailing list stuff 📬
Address: ietf-osi-ds@cs.ucl.ac.uk
Administration: ietf-osi-ds-request@cs.ucl.ac.uk
Archive: Anonymous FTP, bells.cs.ucl.ac.ukdocument archive sites 🧚
Site: bells.cs.ucl.ac.uk
Directory:/osi-ds
Site: ds.internic.net
Directory: /ietf/osidsofficial publications: None. (no cap, none 😭)
bibliography, the greatest hits list 👑
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: Uniform Resource Identifiers 🦋
next up is the URI group, also checked on 14 March, 1994 by Chris Weider 💜
Date template updated or checked: 14 March, 1994
By: Name: Chris Weider
Email address: clw@bunyip.comthe NIR group name is Uniform Resource Identifiers (uri), sponsored by Internet Engineering Task Forces (IETF), with NONE for working subgroups 🌸
the group is chartered to define standards for encoding system-independent Resource Location and Identification information for Internet information services. there are three classes being standardised 🔥
- Uniform Resource Locators (URLs): a standardised way to encode location and access info for resources across multiple information systems
- Uniform Resource Names (URNs): a standardised way to encode a unique resource identifier for a given content
- Uniform Resource Citations (URCs): a standardised way to encode info about a given instantiation of a content
the URLs give users access and location info ✨ the URN lets a service tell if two resources have the same contents or not 🙈 and the URC lets a service pick which encoding of a resource suits a user's retrieval capabilities. it can include stuff like file size and compression techniques 🍓
membership is open, not just IETF attendees, and the charter lives at ds.internic.net as /ietf/uri/uri-charter.txt 🫶
the primary contacts are two co-chairs 👯
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: +1-919-248-1499
Fax: +1-919-248-1101
-----------------------------------
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: +1-514-875-8611mailing lists 📬
Address: uri@bunyip.com
Administration: uri-request@bunyip.com
Archive: archives.cc.mcgill.ca:~/pub/uri-archivedocument archive, where all the drafts live 🧚
Site: ds.internic.net
Directory: internet-drafts. All documents will start with the
string draft-ietf-uri.official publications: None 💅
bibliography 🌈
Berners-Lee, Tim, 'Uniform Resource Locators', Internet Draft, March
1993.
Available as draft-ietf-uri-url-00.ps from any Internet Draft server.
Weider, Chris and Peter Deutsch, 'Uniform Resource Names', Internet
Draft, May 1993. Available as draft-ietf-uri-resource-names-00.txt
from any Internet Draft server.🎀 WNILS: Whois and Network Information Lookup Service 🎀
the WNILS template was checked on 28 February, 1994 by Joan Gargano 🌸
Date template updated or checked: 28 February, 1994
By: Name: Joan Gargano
Email address: jcgargano@ucdavis.eduthe NIR group name is Whois and Network Information Lookup Service (WNILS), sponsored by Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) ✨ the working subgroup field lists the name and mailing list ietf-wnils@ucdavis.edu 🫶
the big picture: the NIC runs the central NICNAME database and server, defined in RFC 954, for looking up individuals, network organisations, key nodes and other stuff people on the Internet care about 🔍 other distributed directory servers and retrieval tools have since popped up, and lots of sites run their own local directory servers for people, departments and services 🌍 those local servers are usually network accessible, but because they're local, the data stored, access methods, search schemes and user interfaces all vary wildly 🙃 the WNILS WG exists to expand and define the standard for WHOIS services, sort out those access variations, and promote a consistent, predictable service across the network 💜
the goals and milestones are 📅
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.
12/1/93 Submit the Whois and Network Information Lookup Service
Recommendations document to the IESG as an Internet Draft.
12/1/93 Submit the WHOIS++ protocol document to the IESG as an
Internet Draft.
12/1/93 Submit the "Architecture of the Whois++ Index Service"
document to the IESG as a revised Internet Draft.
12/1/93 Freeze all work on the Internet Drafts for 6 months for
software development.membership is open to attendees of the quarterly IETF meetings, and the mailing list is open to everyone 🌈 the charter can be grabbed by anonymous ftp from the Document Archive sites listed in the Networked Information Retrieval Working Group (WNILS-WG) template 🧚
primary contact is Joan Gargano 👩💻
Name: Joan Gargano
Email address: jcgargano@ucdavis.edu
Postal Address: Distributed Computing Analysis and Support (DCAS)
Information Technology
University of California, Davis
Davis, California 95616
U.S.A
Telephone: +1-916-752-2591
Fax: +1-916-752-9158mailing list info 📬
Address: ietf-wnils@ucdavis.edu
Administration: ietf-wnils-request@ucdavis.edu
Description:
Archive: ftp://ftp.ucdavis.edu:/pub/archivenews groups: None. 💀
document archive 🦋
Gopher: gopher.ucdavis.edu 70
ftp://ftp.ucdavis.edu/archive/wnils-archiveother info: this WG formed jointly in the User Services and Applications Areas of the IETF, which is a very main character origin story ✨
🌙 IRTF-RD: Resource Discovery and Directory Service 🌙
last one in this batch is IRTF-RD, checked on 1st March, 1994 by Mike Schwartz 💜
Date template updated or checked: 1st March, 1994
By: Name: Mike Schwartz
Email address: schwartz@cs.colorado.eduthe NIR group name is Internet Research Task Force Research Group on Resource Discovery and Directory Service (IRTF-RD), sponsored by Internet Society, with None for working subgroups 🔥
this group is all about problems of scale that will show up in resource discovery systems over the next 3-5 years 😭 they split those scaling problems into three dimensions: volume of information, size of the user base, and information diversity 🫶
the goal is to explore techniques for handling these problems with a set of interrelated prototypes that show progress in each dimension. the current approaches are 👑
- deal with information diversity through a coordinated set of techniques to gather, transform, and manage entropy of data
- deal with user scale through large scale replication
- deal with information volume using a combination of views, space efficient indexing, and customisation w.r.t. vocabulary, search methods, and personal user history
and they expect these approaches to evolve a lot over time ✨
The IRTF-RD group is basically a VIP room right now, bestie 👑. Membership is closed 🙈, but they'll still consider new people, with two rules. First, the group has to stay small and focused so it can actually make progress, so 4 or 5 members max is the vibe 💅. Second, you have to be an active resource discovery researcher with clear strengths to bring to the group ✨. If you want in, send a vitae and a one-page position paper explaining what you'd do to push the group's efforts forward, addressed to the group chair 💌.
The current group is giving all-star lineup 🌟:
- Mic Bowman (Transarc, Inc.)
- Peter Danzig (University of Southern California)
- Udi Manber (University of Arizona)
- Mike Schwartz (University of Colorado - Boulder; chair)
Primary Contact(s):
Name: Mike Schwartz
Email address: schwartz@cs.colorado.edu
Postal Address: Department of Computer Science
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309-0430
Telephone: +1-303-492-3902
Fax: Declined.Mike is your main contact, and the fax line says "Declined." 📠🙅♀️ so please don't even try 😭.
Mailing Lists:
The IRTF-RD group has no formal mailing list or archive 📭.
News groups:
The IRTF-RD group has no news groups 🙃.
Document Archive:
No official document archive here either 💀, but the papers and prototypes live in the members' FTP archives (see below) 🗂️✨.
Official Publications:
Occasional updates show up in the Internet Monthly Report 📰🦋.
Bibliography:
C. Mic Bowman, Peter B. Danzig and Michael F. Schwartz.
Research Problems for Scalable Internet Resource Discovery.
Technical Report CU-CS-643-93, Department of Computer Science,
University of Colorado, Boulder, March 1993. To appear,
Proceedings of INET '93. Available by anonymous FTP from
ftp.cs.colorado.edu in the file
pub/cs/techreports/schwartz/PostScript/RD.ResearchProblems.ps.Z
(compressed PostScript) or in the file
pub/cs/techreports/schwartz/ASCII/RD.ResearchProblems.txt.Z
(compressed ASCII).
C. Mic Bowman, Peter B. Danzig, Udi Manber and Michael F.
Schwartz. Scalable Internet Resource Discovery: Research
Problems and Approaches. Technical Report CU- CS-679-93,
Department of Computer Science, University of Colorado, Boulder,
October 1993. To appear, Communications of the ACM, 1994. A
pre-publication version of this paper is available by anonymous
FTP and e-mail from ftp.cs.colorado.edu in the file
pub/cs/techreports/schwartz/PostScript/RD.ResearchProblems.Jour.ps.Z
(compressed PostScript) or in the file
pub/cs/techreports/schwartz/ASCII/RD.ResearchProblems.Jour.txt.Z
(compressed ASCII).These are the papers to read if you want the full brain dump 📚🧠. The second one is still lowkey in progress, so check the pre-publication copy 🔥.
Z39.50 Implementors Group 🌸
Date template updated or checked: 28 February 1994
By: Name: Mark Needleman
Email address: mhn@stubbs.ucop.eduMark Needleman checked this template on 28 February 1994 🎀, so that's the stamp you'll see.
NIR Group name: Z39.50 Implementors Group
Description of main group:
Okay, the Z39.50 Implementors group (ZIG) is a volunteer crew 🫶 made up of reps from most of the organisations in the United States and Canada that are actively implementing the Z39.50 protocol. That includes the United States Library of Congress, the National Library of Canada, the major bibliographic utilities, lots of library automation vendors, and other information service providers 🏛️💜. It's free to attend the meetings, and they're open to everyone. The group meets about 3 times a year and does most of its work on its mailing list, which is open to anyone interested too 📬🌈.
ZIG started out in 1989 and 1990 to sort out interoperability problems among the Z39.50 implementations that were just starting to show up 🧩. It has since grown into the main forum where new features and versions of Z39.50 get developed, so it's giving main character energy 👑✨.
Primary Contact(s): Z39.50 Implementors Group
Name: Mark Hinnebusch (Chair)
Email address: fclmth@nervm.nerdc.ufl.edu (Internet)
FCLMTH@NERVM (Bitnet)
Postal address: Florida Center For Library Automation
Suite 320
2002 NW 13th Street
Gainesville, FL 32609
Telephone: +1-904-392-9020
Fax: +1-904-392-9185
------------------------
Z39.50 Maintenance Agency
Name: Ray Denenberg
Email address: RAY@RDEN.loc.gov
Postal address: Library of Congress
Network Development and MARC Standards Office
Collections Services
Washington, DC 20540
Telephone: +1-202-707-5795Mark Hinnebusch chairs ZIG 🧚, and Ray Denenberg is the Z39.50 Maintenance Agency contact over at the Library of Congress 🙌.
Mailing Lists:
Name: Z39.50 Implementors Group (ZIG)
Address: Z3950IW@nervm.nerdc.ufl.edu
Administration/Subscriptions: listserv@nervm.nerdc.ufl.edu
(archives of the mailing list are also
available at this address.)
Archive: gopher://sally.fcla.ufl.edu
ftp://sally.fcla.ufl.edu
gopher://marvel.loc.gov/11/services/z3950The list is where all the action happens 💬🔥, and the archives are at the addresses above 🗃️.
Documentation and References for the Z39.50 Protocol:
Here's the reading list, and it's extensive 🤓📖. Every entry is copied exactly as written:
American National Standard Information Retrieval Application
Service Definition and Protocol Specification for Open Systems
Interconnection Version 2, National Information Standards
Organization, July 1992
Mark Hinnebusch "A Primer on Z39.50 Parts 1-8", Academic and
Library Computing Volume 9, Numbers 2-9, February-October 1992,
Meckler Corporation, Westport CN. (ISSN 1055-4769)
Mark Hinnebusch "The Z39.50 Explain Service", Campus Wide
Information Systems, Volume 10, Number 1, January/February 1993,
Meckler Corporation, Westport, CT. (ISSN 1065-0741)
Michael Buckland and Clifford Lynch. "THE LINKED SYSTEMS PROTOCOL
AND THE FUTURE OF BIBLIOGRAPHIC NETWORKS AND SYSTEMS,"
Information Technology and Libraries 6:2 (June 1987), pp. 83-88.
Michael Buckland and Clifford Lynch. "NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL
IMPLICATIONS OF THE LINKED SYSTEMS PROTOCOL FOR ONLINE
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL SYSTEMS," Cataloging and Classification Quarterly
8:3/4 (Spring 1988), pp. 15-33.
Clifford Lynch. "INTERSYSTEM LINKING AND DISTRIBUTED DATABASE
TECHNOLOGY: A COMPARISON OF TWO APPROACHES TO THE CONSTRUCTION OF
NETWORK-BASED INFORMATION UTILITIES," Proceedings of the Fourth
Integrated Online Library Systems Meeting, New York, New York,
May 10-11, 1989. (Medford, NJ: Learned Information, Inc., 1989),
pp. 107-112.
Clifford A. Lynch "LIBRARY AUTOMATION AND THE NATIONAL RESEARCH
NETWORK," EDUCOM Review (Fall 1989), pp. 21-28.
Clifford A. Lynch. "ACCESS TECHNOLOGY FOR NETWORK INFORMATION
RESOURCES," CAUSE/EFFECT (Summer 1990), pp. 15-20.
Clifford A. Lynch; Cecilia M. Preston. "INTERNET ACCESS TO
INFORMATION RESOURCES," Annual Review of Information Science and
Technology (ARIST) Volume 25. (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press,
1990), pp. 264-312.
Clifford A. Lynch. "THE CLIENT-SERVER MODEL IN INFORMATION
RETRIEVAL," Interfaces for Information Retrieval and Online
Systems: The State of the Art Martin Dillon, ed. (Westport, CT:
Greenwood Press, 1991); pp. 301-318.
Clifford A. Lynch. "INFORMATION RETRIEVAL AS A NETWORK
APPLICATION," Library Hi Tech 8:4, Issue 32 (1990), pp. 59-74.
Clifford A. Lynch. "THE Z39.50 INFORMATION RETRIEVAL PROTOCOL:
AN OVERVIEW AND STATUS REPORT," Computer Communications Review
21:1 (Sigcomm) (January 1991), pp. 58-70.
Clifford A. Lynch. THE Z39.50 PROTOCOL: QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.
Produced as a pamphlet by Data Research Associates (1991).
Dennis Lynch "Z39.50 Extended Services" Campus Wide Information
Systems Volume 10, Number 3 May/June 1993, Meckler Corporation,
Westport, CT (ISSN 1065 0741)
Mark H Needleman. "The Z39.50 Protocol: An Implementor's Perspective",
Resource Sharing and Information Networks Volume 8 Number 1, 1992, The
Haworth Press Inc, Binghamton, NY (ISSN 0737-7797)
Kunze, John A. "Nonbibliographic Applications of Z39.50." The
Public-Access Computer Systems Review 3, no. 5 (1992): 4-30.
(Refereed Article.) To retrieve this article, send the following
e-mail message to LISTSERV@UHUPVM1 or LISTSERV@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU:
GET KUNZE PRV3N5 F=MAIL.Other Information:
Brief Description of the Z39.50 Protocol:
Z39.50 is a US ANSI standard protocol for information retrieval 🦋. It runs on a client-server model, so clients (called origins in Z39.50 talk) can search servers (called targets) and pull records out of remote databases 🔍. The protocol doesn't limit the type or format of the data you get back. The origin and target just agree on that 🤝. There's also a way to register popular record syntaxes so you can refer to them by well-known identifiers 🏷️.
Z39.50 is an OSI application layer protocol, which means it's designed to use the OSI presentation layer protocol. It can run with or without that presentation protocol, and below that layer, the Z39.50 protocol doesn't care which protocols are used 🧃. Most Z39.50 implementations currently run straight over TCP/IP 🌐💖.
User's View:
Users, whether human or electronic, run client software to connect with servers and retrieve information using Z39.50 💻✨. Plenty of clients already exist in at least prototype form, and more are being written 🌷. Most of the big library automation vendors have announced support for Z39.50 as a client, a server, or both 🏛️🎀. A lot of major information vendors either have implementations already or are working on them 💅. A couple of Z39.50 implementations are also expected to go into the public domain at some point 🌈. The recently announced FREEWAIS software includes Z39.50 Version 2, and the older version used a variant of the 1988 version 1 protocol 🧩. The Library of Congress is the maintenance agency for Z39.50, and it can give you a list of registered Implementors 📋.
Z39.50 gives you a protocol mechanism for accessing remote information sources 🛰️. It defines the model for how a client and a server interact, and it doesn't make assumptions about how the server organises its data or how the client presents that data to the end user 🫧.
The model assumes one or more databases on the remote system that you can search using attributes from defined search attribute sets, which creates a result set 🔎. You can then retrieve records from that result set using agreed-upon record formats 📑💜.
Information types supported:
Okay so Z39.50 is giving general purpose search and retrieval 💅 It was built to work with a whole bunch of different data types, not just one kind. The MARC format (used for cataloging library material, among other things) and a search attribute set for bibliographic and similar data are already registered in the current version of the standard 📚 It's assumed that once other communities start using the protocol for other kinds of data, they'll make their own attribute sets and record syntaxes too. Honestly, that's already happening ✨ A generic record syntax and attribute set are in development, plus some others for chemical structures, general science and technology, and business information 🧪 The big design idea is that Z39.50 will work alongside other standards like Postscript, SGML, ODIF (and others) so it can carry all kinds of stuff: full text, images, and more 🌈
RARE Groups
RARE (Reseaux Associes pour la Recherche Europeenne) is the Association of European Networking Organizations and their users 🌸 Its whole goal is to break down national borders in research networking by building one harmonized computer communications infrastructure for the European research community. Right now RARE has over 40 members, and most of them are national networking organizations that provide networking services to their country's research and education community. Iconic 👑
RARE's technical programme is run by volunteers working in a bunch of Working Groups 🫶
For more info 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
Here's the template info, bestie 🦋
Date template updated or checked: 28th February, 1994
By: Name: Jill Foster
Email address: Jill.Foster@newcastle.ac.ukNIR Group Name: RARE Information Services and User Support Working
Group
Sponsoring Organisation:
RARE (Reseaux Associes pour la Recherche Europeenne)
Working subgroups (of relevance to nir):
Name of subgroup: MMIS Task Force
Mailinglist-Address: mmis@mailbase.ac.uk
Name of subgroup: NIR Task Force
Mailinglist-Address: nir@mailbase.ac.uk
Name of subgroup: UNITE Task Force
Mailinglist-Address: unite@mailbase.ac.ukThe subgroups are the MMIS Task Force, NIR Task Force and UNITE Task Force, and each one has its own mailing list 📬
Description of main group: The Information Services and User Support (ISUS) Working Group was set up by the RARE Technical Committee as one of the major working groups in the RARE Technical Programme 💖 ISUS is all about networked information services, group communications and network user support. It's open to anyone working in these areas, and it's meant to 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 DevelopersThe ISUS WG mailing list does double duty: it's a forum where experts in the field can chat, and it's also how info gets pushed out to the wider community 📣
ISUS has a really broad charter that's split into a few sub-areas:
- Network User Support
- Asynchronous Group Communication
- Networked Information Retrieval and Services
- Liaison
Current NIR tasks include:
- Coordination of NIR services in Europe
- Collection of information related to NIR tools and groups. This is a joint effort with the IETF and CNI.
- 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)
- Multimedia Information Services task force (MMIS). This group is a joint task force of the RARE ISUS Working Group and RARE Interactive Multimedia Working Group (mmis@mailbase.ac.uk).
The charter is available by anonymous ftp from mailbase.ac.uk:
file: /pub/lists/wg-isus/files/isus.charterPrimary 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: +44-91-222-8250
Fax: +44-91-222-8765Mailing Lists:
Address: wg-isus@rare.nl
Administration: Auto subscriptions to: mailserver@rare.nl
"subscribe wg-isus <firstname> <lastname>"
Human admin to: wg-isus-request@rare.nl
Description: General purpose mailing list for whole ISUS WG.
Archive: Not yet availableNews groups: None 🙈
Document Archive:
Location details
Site: raredoc.rare.nl
Directory: /rare/working-groups
Location details
Site: mailbase.ac.uk
Directory: /pub/lists/wg-isus/files
/pub/lists/nir/filesOfficial Publications: RARE Technical Reports 📖
Bibliography:
RARE Technical Report 1: User Support and Information Services
in the RARE Community - a Status Report. Jill Foster
RARE Technical Report 5: A Survey of Distributed Multimedia -
Research, Standards and Products. Chris AdieOther Information: This group was formed in May 1992 and took over and expanded on the work of the former RARE WG3 USIS Subgroup 🎀 It does most of its business over email, but it meets twice a year before the European Networking Conferences. The EARNinfo group has recently teamed up with the RARE ISUS WG, and they'll be working together on documentation and network training 🤝
USMARC/OCLC
Date template updated or checked: 10 March 1994. Rebecca Guenther is the contact here 🍓
By: Name: Rebecca Guenther
Email address: rgue@seq1.loc.govWorking Group or Organisation: USMARC/OCLC
Name of group: USMARC Advisory Group; OCLC Internet Resources
Cataloging Experiment
Sponsoring Organisations: OCLC, Library of Congress,
USMARC Advisory Group
Working subgroups: NoneDescription of main group: OCLC and the Library of Congress formed a working group to figure out how libraries can create cataloging records for online information resources 💜 The group ran a cataloging experiment to test and verify whether the cataloging rules and the USMARC format work for computer files. Guidelines were written for cataloging Internet resources, and the American Library Association committee that maintains the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules looked at them. USMARC format changes were started to cover a subset of these materials (electronic data resources like software, electronic text, and bibliographic and nonbibliographic databases) 🔥 The approved changes included identifying the type of file, plus a field for the location and access of the resource (very much like a URL).
The group is continuing its work by looking at how online systems and services can fit into USMARC. This will happen within the USMARC Advisory Group of the American Library Association, which handles changes to the USMARC formats. Data elements will be defined and mapped to MARC fields, and in some cases new fields will be proposed. This will be done alongside work from other working groups (for example, the Government Information Locator Service, or GILS) ✨
A proposal was presented to the USMARC Advisory Group and approved in February 1994. It adds data elements to the Electronic Location and Access Field (USMARC field 856). One of them is a subfield for URL (Uniform Resource Locator). It's meant to be used instead of, or in addition to, other data that identifies where a networked information resource is and how to access it 🦋
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 20540-4020
Telephone: +1-202-707-5092
Fax: +1-202-707-6269Name: Erik Jul
Email address: ekj@oclc.org
Postal address: OCLC, Inc.
6565 Franz Rd.
Dublin OH 43017-0702
Telephone: +1-614-764-4364
Fax: +1-614-764-2344Name: Priscilla Caplan
Email address: p-caplan@uchicago.edu
Postal Address: University of Chicago Library,
1100 E. 57th St.,
Chicago, IL 60637
Telephone: +1-312-702-5079
Fax: +1-312-702-6623Name: 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: +1-212-998-4070
Fax: +1-212-995-4070Name: Nancy Olson
Email Address: nbolson@msus1.msus.edu
Postal Address: Memorial Library,
Mankato State University,
Mankato, MN 56001
Telephone: +1-507-389-5062
Fax: +1-507-389-5488Name: Glenn Patton
Email address: gep@oclc.org
Postal address: OCLC, Inc.
6565 Franz Rd.
Dublin OH 43017-0702
Telephone: +1-800-848-5878
Fax: +1-614-764-0155 Name: Martin Dillon
Email address: mjd@oclc.org
Postal address: OCLC, Inc.
6565 Franz Rd.
Dublin OH 43017-0702
Telephone: +1-614-764-6079
Fax: +1-614-764-2344
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists: None.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
News groups: None.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Document Archive:
Archives under USMARC listserv.
Documents available:
94-2.doc (Proposal 94-2: Addition of Subfields $g and $3 to Field 856
Electronic Location and Access) in the USMARC
Holdings/Bibliographic
Formats: Document)
94-2.cov (Cover sheet with status information)
94-3.doc (Proposal 94-3: Addition of Subfield $u (Uniform
Resource Locator) to Field 856 in the USMARC
Holdings/Bibliographic
Formats: Document)
94-3.cov (Cover sheet with status information)
93-4.doc (Proposal 93-4: Changes to the USMARC Bibliographic
Format (Computer Files) to Accommodate Online Information
Resources: Document)
93-4.cov (Proposal 93-4: Cover sheet with status information)
dp69.doc (Discussion Paper No. 69: Accommodating Online Systems
and Services within USMARC: Document)
dp69.cov (Discussion Paper No. 69: Cover sheet with status
information)
Location details
Telnet to: marvel.loc.gov
Login: marvel
Select: Services to Libraries and Publishers
Select: USMARC Standards
Select: USMARC Listserv
See list of documents
-or-
Site: listserv@sun7.loc.gov
Send email message with
get usmarc 93-4.doc
get usmarc 93-4.cov
get usmarc dp69.doc
get usmarc dp69.cov
etc.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Official Publications:
"Assessing Information on the Internet: Toward Providing Library
Services for Computer-Mediated Communication". Dublin, OH: OCLC
Online Computer Library Center, 1993. Available in print form
from OCLC, Inc. for $20 or electronically from:
ftp.rsch.oclc.org
/pub/internet_resources_project/report
Filenames: *.*
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography:
Proposal 94-2: Addition of Subfields $g and $3 to Field 856
Electronic Location and Access) in the USMARC Holdings/Bibliographic
Formats)
Proposal 94-3: Addition of Subfield $u (Uniform Resource Locator) to
Field 856 in the USMARC Holdings/Bibliographic Formats
Discussion Paper No. 69: Accommodating Online Systems and
Services in USMARC (Washington: Library of Congress, Network
Development and MARC Standards Office, Apr. 1993).
Proposal 93-4: Changes to the USMARC Bibligraphic Format
(Computer Files) to Accommodate Online Information Resources
(Washington: Library of Congress, Network Development and MARC
Standards Office, Nov. 1992 (rev. Mar. 1993).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Information: None.8. Security Considerations 🔐
Okay bestie, brace yourself 😭 this memo is literally not discussing security issues at all. Zero. Nada. So if you were hoping for a juicy threat model, sorry babe, that's not happening here 💀
9. Acknowledgements 🫶
The report was a total group project 💖 made by the NIR WG, and a huge shoutout goes to Peter Deutsch, who contributed the mailing list section and the basis for Section 5. Thank you also to April Marine, Rick Rodgers, Lars-Gunnar Olsson, Farhad Anklesaria, Marsha Perrott, Kevin Gamiel, George Brett, Barbara Thomas, and everyone who helped review the document ✨ iconic behaviour, honestly.
Big love too to all the contributors who took the time to submit and update their descriptions of NIR tools and groups 🌸 Their names are included in the templates in Sections 6 and 7, so go check those out, they're giving credit where it's due.
Before the report was finally submitted as an RFC, independent reviewers from all over the world each took two or three templates and checked them for accuracy and currency, as best they could 🌍 They also liaised with the original template authors about the changes they made, which is seriously such a main character move. The volunteers were Larry Masinter, Marilyn Martin, Sinha Velu, Ton Verschuren, Shirley Browne, Alfred Vella, Bert Stals, Yannis Corovesis, Gerard Egan, Robert Janz and Andy Linton 👑 They gave some really valuable input, and I'm obsessed with them 🦋
10. Author's Address 💌
Jill Foster
Computing Service
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
Claremont Road
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU
UK
Phone: +44-91-222-8250
Fax: +44-91-222-8765
Email: Jill.Foster@newcastle.ac.ukAppendix A. NIR TOOL Template (last updated 22.12.93) 🎀
Okay bestie, this is the template everyone fills out to track networked information retrieval tools 🧚 It's the form that keeps the whole NIR scene organized.
Purpose and scope: this template collects the info needed to identify and track how networked information retrieval tools develop ✨ The main person responsible for each tool fills in most of it, but some sections might need input from other people 💖
The NIR tools covered are listed by enumeration, and the IETF/RARE/CNI NIR-WG is super open to suggestions for adding more 🫶
NIR Tools:
Alex
archie
gopher
Hytelnet
Netfind
Prospero
Veronica
WAIS (including freeWAIS)
WHOIS
World Wide Web (including Mosaic)
X.500 White PagesNew entries: send your completed template to Jill.Foster@newcastle.ac.uk (NIR-WG co-chair), and you'll get an acknowledgement when it arrives 💌
Please imbed your descriptive text by at least one more column than the heading for that item. Here's the vibe:
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.Updates: anyone who's the right contact person can send updates to existing NIR tool info at any time to nir-updates@cnidr.org 📬 The full report gets updated every year and becomes the basis of a "snapshot" report on what's happening in networked information retrieval (NIR) 📸
Here's the actual form to copy and fill in ⬇️
-------------------------x---- cut here ----x--------------------------
Date template updated or checked: (e.g., 02 November, 1992)
By: Name:
Email address:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
NIR Tool Name:
Brief Description of Tool:
Note: This should be a maximum of 100 line description which
should cover the following:
- overview of use, purpose, scope and characteristics
- user's view
- information provider's view
- information types supported (e.g., text, sound, etc.)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Contact(s):
[Please duplicate this section for each separate contact]
Name:
[May be the name of a role e.g., nirtool-support or of an
individual]
Email address:
Postal Address:
Telephone:
Fax:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Help Line:
[for major center as well as each client if available]
Name:
[May be the name of a role e.g., nirtool-support or of an
individual]
Email address:
Telephone:
Level of support offered: [delete as appropriate]
o volunteer
o funded
o for experts only
o all users
Hours available:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Related Working Groups:
[Name only]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sponsoring Organisation / Funding source:
[Name only]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists:
[Duplicate this section for each list]
Address: [Email Address to send contributions]
Administration: [<listname>-request etc.]
Description:
[This is optional - if the group has only one mailing list]
Archive: [Location of message archive for this list]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
News groups:
[Duplicate this section for each news group]
Name:
Description:
[This is optional - if the group has only one news group]
Archive: [Location of message archive for this news group]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Protocols:
What is supported: [e.g., Z39.50]
What it runs over:
Other NIR tools this interworks with:
Future plans:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Servers:
[Duplicate the following for each platform
e.g., Unix, VMS, VM/CMS,....]
[The main contact for this NIR tool should complete at least
"platform" and "contact" for each server known to them.]
Date completed or updated:
By: Name:
Email address: [If different from that of the Primary
contact listed below]
Platform:
Primary Contact:
Name:
Email address:
Telephone:
Server software available from:
Location of more information:
[Such as installation instructions
copyright statements,
warnings & bug reports etc.
Eventually this will be the Unique Resource
Identifiers of the documents]
Latest version number:
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
Approximate number of such servers in use:
General comments:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Clients:
[Duplicate the following for each platform
e.g., MS-DOS PC, MAC, vt100,...]
[The main contact for this NIR tool should complete
"platform" and "contact" for each server known to them.]
Date completed or updated:
By: Name:
Email address: [If different from that of the Primary
contact listed below]
Platform:
Primary Contact:
Name:
Email address:
Telephone:
Client software available from:
Location of more information:
[Such as installation instructions
copyright statements,
warnings & bug reports etc.
Eventually this will be the Unique Resource
Identifiers of the documents]
Latest version number:
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
General comments:
Future plans:
Items included here could include
- optional items to come.
- plans for moving to international standards
- plans for interoperating with other NIR tools
- other functionality to be supported
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Demonstration sites:
List of sites which are willing to act as demonstration
sites for this application.
[Duplicate for each site]
Site name:
Access details:
[e.g.,
telnet archie.sura.net
login as archie ]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Documentation:
The following is a list of suggested items to be found in a
document archive. Note that the location pointers below could be
replaced in the future by the "Uniform Resource Name".
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 (last updated 22.12.93) 📝
okay so this one is the blank form for tracking the big networked information retrieval (NIR) groups 🗂️✨ it's meant to be filled in by each group's representative, and the purpose is to collect everything needed to identify and track them 💖
the groups are defined by enumeration, so this is the official list of who's included. the IETF/RARE/CNI NIR-WG also welcomes suggestions for other groups to add 🌸
Groups
Groups:
CNI Coalition for Networked Information (CNI)
Architectures and Standards
Directories and Resource Information Services
TopNode for Networked Information Resources, Services,
and Tools
CNIDR Clearing House for Networked Information Discovery
and Retrieval
IETF Integrated Directory Services (IDS)
Integration of Internet Information Resources (IIIR)
Networked Information Retrieval (NIR) joint IETF/RARE WG
Network Information Services Infrastructure (NISI)
OSI-Directory Service (OSI-DS)
Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI)
Whois and Network Information Lookup Service (WNILS)
IRTF Internet Research Task Force Research Group on
Resource Discovery and Directory Service (IRTF-RD)
NISO Z39.50 Implementors Group
RARE Information Services and User Support Working Group
(ISUS)
USMARC/OCLC USMARC Advisory Group; OCLC Internet Resources
Cataloging Experiment (USMARC/OCLC)New Entries
to add a new entry, you fill in this template for your group or organisation and send it back to Jill.Foster@newcastle.ac.uk, who is the NIR-WG co-chair 💌 she'll acknowledge that she got it, so you know it landed 🫶
the one bit of formatting to watch is the descriptive text. you indent it by at least one more column than the heading for that item, like this:
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.Updates
updates to existing NIR Group information can be sent at any time by the right contact person to nir-updates@cnidr.org 📨 the full report gets refreshed every year, and it becomes the basis of a "snapshot" report on what's happening in networked information retrieval (NIR) 📊✨
The Template
here's the actual form, copy and paste it and fill in every bit 🎀
-----------------------x---- cut here ----x----------------------------
Date template updated or checked: (e.g., 02 November, 1992)
By: Name:
Email address:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
NIR Group Name:
Sponsoring Organisation:
Working subgroups:
Name of subgroup:
Mailinglist-Address:
Description of main group:
[Description of the scope and purpose of the group and the
current tasks being worked on. (Recommended maximum of
100 lines.) Please indicate whether membership is open or
closed. Include a pointer to an on-line charter if
appropriate]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Primary Contact(s):
[Please duplicate this section for each separate contact]
Name:
[May be the name of a role e.g., group-secretariat or of an
individual]
Email address:
Postal Address:
Telephone:
Fax:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailing Lists:
[Duplicate this section for each list]
Address: [Email Address to send contributions]
Administration: [<listname>-request etc.]
Description:
[This is optional - if the group has only one mailing list]
Archive: [Location of message archive for this list]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
News groups:
[Duplicate this section for each news group]
Name:
Description:
[This is optional - if the group has only one news group]
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 ✨
this appendix is a roundup of email lists and newsgroups about resource discovery and networked information retrieval 💜 it opens with a little header comment, then the author details:
/* A summary of email lists and newsgroups dealing with */
/* various issues in resource discovery and networked */
/* information retrieval. */ Created-By: Peter Deutsch
Email Address: peterd@bunyip.com
Last Updated: 16 December 1993
Comments: Please send comments, corrections and
additions to the author at the above address.the lists below are written in IAFA format, and the note says NIR Groups and Tool developers are encouraged to make descriptions like these for their own lists 🧚 so here's the whole collection, exactly as it was written:
/* The following mailing lists are in IAFA format. NIR Groups and */
/* Tool developers are encouraged to make such descriptions */
/* available for their lists. */
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailinglist-Name: Alex
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)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailinglist-Name: Archie
Address: archie-maint@bunyip.com
Administration: archie-maint-request@bunyip.com
Description: This mailing list is for people who operate and
maintain archie servers. Announcements 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
----------------------------------
Mailinglist-Name: The archie People Mailing List
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.
Announcements of upgrades, new services, etc.
are made to this list.
Archive: None
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailinglist-Name Gopher
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
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailinglist-Name: HYTELNET Updates Distribution
Address: hytel-l@kentvm.kent.edu
Administration: By listowner Peter Scott
aa375@freenet.carleton.ca
Description: To inform members of new version of the
software, and to keep users informed of
new/changed/defunct Telnet-accessible sites.
To subscribe send email message to
listserv@kentvm.kent.edu with no subject, and
sub hytel-l firstname lastname as the body of
the message.
Archive: None.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailinglist-Name: Netfind
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.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailinglist-Name: Prospero
Address: info-prospero@isi.edu
Administration: info-prospero-request@isi.edu
Description: This mailing list is really two one-way mailing
lists. Send mail to INFO-PROSPERO to obtain
information about Prospero, papers or the
release. Mail to INFO-PROSPERO will not be
passed on to subscribers. INFO-PROSPERO is
also the list to which we will send status
updates and information on how to obtain new
releases.
Archive: Via anonymous FTP to PROSPERO.ISI.EDU as
/pub/prospero/mail/info-prospero.arc
Via prospero in the "#/INET/EDU/ISI/GUEST/prototype"
virtual system as
/sites/isi.edu/pub/prospero/mail/info-prospero.arc.
-----------------------------
Address: prospero@isi.edu
Administration: prospero-request@isi.edu
Description: This mailing list is for general discussion of
Prospero, for announcements of new sites that
have come on board, and for announcments of
directories that people have created to
organize the information already accessible.
Archive: Via anonymous FTP to PROSPERO.ISI.EDU as
/pub/prospero/mail/prospero.arc
Via Prospero in the "#/INET/EDU/ISI/GUEST/prototype"
virtual system as
/sites/isi.edu/pub/prospero/mail/prospero.arc.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailinglist-Name: Veronica
Address: veronica-news@veronica.scs.unr.edu
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailinglist-Name: WAIS
Address: wais-discussion@wais.com
Administration: wais-discussion-request@wais.com
Description: Moderated, digested biweekly posting about WAIS
and Electronic publishing subjects. Please
submit interesting materials.
Archive:
/pub/wais/mail-archives/wais-discussion/issue-*@wais.com
and wais-discussion-archive WAIS server
-----------------------------
Address: wais-talk@wais.com
Administration: wais-talk-request@wais.comOkay bestie, the mailing lists are next and they're giving the whole early-internet group chat energy 📬💖
Description: Implementors forum on WAIS. This is for
talking about nitty gritty details of protocols
and implementations.
Archive: /pub/wais/mail-archives/wais-talk@wais.com
-----------------------------
Mailinglist-Name: freeWAIS
Address: freeWAIS@cnidr.org
Administration: not applicable
Description: Mailing list for reporting bugs in freeWAIS.
Archive: None.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailinglist-Name: WWW
Address: www-talk@info.cern.ch for CONTRIBUTIONS ONLY
Administration: listserv@info.cern.ch (robot)
www-talk-request@info.cern.ch (human)
Description: Technical discussions, W3 related. Experts to
experts. General questions to
comp.infosystems.www please.
Archive: Not currently served, but kept.
---------------------------
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 announcements of product
releases, etc.
Archive: Not currently public.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailinglist-Name: X.500
Address: dssig@ics.uci.edu
Administration: dssig-request@ics.uci.edu
Description: Mail list for OIW DS-SIG group.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailinglist-Name: CNI Groups
All of the CNI lists are managed with the Unix-Listprocessor software.
To join any of them mail to:
listproc@cni.org
sub cni-<groupname> Firstname Lastname
All CNI list archives are available as:
URL:ftp://ftp.cni.org/CNI/forums/cni-<groupname>
URL:gopher//gopher.cni.org 70/CNI Working Group Forums/
cni-<groupname>
--------------------------------
Mailinglist-Name: CNI News and Announcements
Address: cni-announce@cni.org
--------------------------------
Mailinglist-Name: Architecture and Standards Working Group
Address: cni-architecture@cni.org
--------------------------------
Mailinglist-Name: Copyright and Intellectual Property
Forum
Address: cni-copyright@cni.org
-------------------------------
Mailinglist-Name: Directories and Information Resource Services
Working Group
Address: cni-directories@cni.org
--------------------------------
Mailinglist-Name: CNI Legislation, Codes, Policies and
Practices Working Group Forum
Address: cni-legislation@cni.org
-----------------------------
Mailinglist-Name: CNI Management & Professional & User
Education Working Group Forum
Address: cni-management@cni.org
---------------------------------
Mailinglist-Name: CNI Modernization of Scholarly
Publication Working Group Forum
Address: cni-modernization@cni.org
--------------------------------
Mailinglist-Name: CNI Access to Public Information
Working Group Forum
Address: cni-pubinfo@cni.org
-------------------------------
Mailinglist-Name: CNI Teaching and Learning Working Group
Forum
Address: cni-teaching@cni.org
-------------------------------
Mailinglist-Name: CNI Transformation of Scholarly
Communication Working Group Forum
Address: cni-transformation@cni.org
-------------------------------
Mailinglist-Name: TopNode for Networked Information Resources,
Services and Tools
Address: cnidir@cni.org
cni-directories@cni.org
Administration: listserv@cni.org
SUB cni-directories Lastname Firstname
Archive: ftp.cni.org:/CNI/forums/cni-directories/*
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailinglist-Name: CNIDR
Address: info@cnidr.org
Administration: none
Description: Email sent to this address will receive an
automatic response containing more information
about current CNIDR activities.
Archive: none
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailinglist-Name: zip@cnidr.org
Address: zip@cnidr.org
Administration: zip-request@cnidr.org
sub zip Lastname Firstname
Description: Technical discussion of Z39.50-92 application
development. Subscribers receive brief
overview of project and information on how to
access archives.
Archive:
ftp://ftp.cnidr.org/NIDR.tools/zip
gopher://gopher.cnidr.org/NIDR Tools/Discussion/Online Discussion
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailinglist-Name: IDS: Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) WG
on Integrated Directory Services
Address: ietf-ids@merit.edu
Administration: ietf-ids-request@merit.edu
Archive: Anonymous FTP to merit.edu, ids/archive
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailinglist-Name: IIIR: Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) WG
on Integration of Internet Information Resources
Address: iiir@merit.edu
Administration: iiir-request@merit.edu
Archive: Anonymous FTP, iiir/archive
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailinglist-Name: NIR: Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) WG
on Network Information Retrieval
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 is intended to act as a
clearing-house for discussions of Networked
Information Retrieval and the active research
projects in this field (eg WAIS, WWW, Gopher).
Keywords: IETF, URIs, UDIs, URLs, UDLs, resource
discovery, Internet, Gopher, WAIS, WWW, X.500,
archie
Archive: ftp://mailbase.ac.uk/pub/lists/files/nir/*
or via gopher to mailbase.ac.uk
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailinglist-Name: NISI: Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) WG
on Network Information Services Infrastructure
Address: nisi@merit.edu
Administration: nisi-request@merit.edu
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailinglist-Name: OSI-DS: Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
WG on OSI Directory Services
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
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailinglist-Name: URI: Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) WG
on Uniform Resource Identifiers
Address: uri@bunyip.com
Administration: uri-request@bunyip.com
Archive: archives.cc.mcgill.ca:~/pub/uri-archive
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailinglist-Name: WNILS: Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
Whois and Network Information Lookup Service
Address: ietf-wnils@ucdavis.edu
Administration: ietf-wnils-request@ucdavis.edu
subscribe ietf-wnils Firstname Lastname
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:/pub/archive
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailinglist-Name: Z39.50 Implementors Group (ZIG)
Address: Z3940IW@nervm.nerdc.ufl.edu (Internet)
Z3950IW@NERVM (Bitnet)
Administration/ listserv@nervm.nerdc.ufl.edu (Internet)
Subscriptions: LISTSERV@NERVM (Bitnet)
Archive: Anonymous FTP and/or Gopher: sally.fcla.ufl.edu
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailinglist-Name: RARE Information Services and User Support WG
Address: wg-isus@rare.nl
Administration: Auto subscriptions to: mailserver@rare.nl
"subscribe wg-isus <firstname> <lastname>
Human admin to: wg-isus-request@rare.nl
Description: General purpose mailing list for whole ISUS WG.
Document Archive: Site: raredoc.rare.nl
Directory: /rare
------------------------------
Mailinglist-Name: MMIS: RARE Multimedia Information Services
Task Force
Address: mmis@mailbase.ac.uk
Administration: Autosubscriptions to: mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk
"subscribe mmis firstname lastname
Human admin to: mmis-request@mailbase.ac.uk
Archive: ftp://mailbase.ac.uk/pub/lists/files/mmis/*
or via gopher to mailbase.ac.uk
------------------------------
Mailinglist-Name: UNITE: RARE Task Force on "User Network
Interface To Everything"
Address: unite@mailbase.ac.uk
Administration: Autosubscriptions to: mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk
"subscribe unite firstname lastname
Human admin to: unite-request@mailbase.ac.uk
Archive: ftp://mailbase.ac.uk/pub/lists/files/unite/*
or via gopher to mailbase.ac.uk
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailinglist-Name: Hyper-G
Address: uniinfo@mlist.tu-graz.ac.at
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Mailinglist-Name: Soft Pages
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.Mailinglist-Name: WHOIS++
Address: ietf-wnils@ucdavis.edu
Administration: ietf-wnils-request@ucdavis.edu
Archive: pub/archive/wnils@ucdavis.eduMailinglist-Name: IAFA: Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
Internet Anonymous FTP Archive working group
Address: iafa@bunyip.com
Administration: iafa-request@bunyip.com
Archive: archives.cc.mcgill.ca:/pub/mailing-lists/iafaOkay, so this one is the IAFA crew 💌. It was the group for folks working on the Internet Anonymous FTP Archives Working Group of the IETF. Their whole job was standardizing how info gets encoded at anonymous FTP archives, which is why archie users and operators should care. They wrapped up in November 1992 and turned out two documents that went to the IETF as informational RFCs. Iconic work, honestly 🧚
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./* The following Usenet newsgroups discuss various issues in */
/* resource discovery or specific NIR projects. */Next up are the Usenet newsgroups 📰 These are where people chat about resource discovery and specific NIR projects. Here's the lineup, bestie:
Newsgroup-Name: comp.archives.admin
Mailinglist-Gate: <unknown>
Keywords: anonymous FTP, archives, Internet, archie
Archive: <unknown>comp.archives.admin is for the admin side of things, the problems you hit when you run Internet archives. It's also been the go-to spot for project release announcements and a friendly place for newbies to ask their questions. Totally sweet 🌸
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.Newsgroup-Name: comp.infosystems.wais
Mailinglist-Gate: <unknown>
Keywords: WAIS, resource discovery, indexing, Internet
Archive: <unknown>comp.infosystems.wais was made for chatting about the Wide Area Information Server 🔍 It also covers info and help with the public domain release from Thinking Machine Corp., plus setting up your very own WAIS server. Main character energy for WAIS nerds 💅
Description: This group was created to host discussions
about the Wide Area Information Server
Also included are information and help with the
public domain release available from Thinking
Machine Corp. and setting up your own WAIS
server.Newsgroup-Name: alt.wais
Mailinglist-Gate: <unknown>
Keywords: WAIS, resource discovery, indexing, Internet
Archive: <unknown>alt.wais was the alt. group for the Wide Area Information Service. Ngl, it got replaced by comp.infosystems.wais, so its use is discouraged now 🙈 Go to the comp. one instead, periodt.
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.Newsgroup-Name: comp.infosystems.www
Mailinglist-Gate: <unknown>
Keywords: World Wide Web, campus-wide information
systems, resource discovery, indexing, Internet
Archive: <unknown>comp.infosystems.www is the spot for the World Wide Web 🕸️ It's the distributed hypertext info services project that started at CERN in Switzerland. People also talk about the tons of public domain WWW clients and servers floating around. The web era is giving 🦋
Description: This group was created to host discussions
about the World Wide Web distributed hypertext
information services project based at CERN in
Switzerland, including discussion of the many
public domain implementations of WWW clients
and servers available.Newsgroup-Name: alt.gopher
Mailinglist-Gate: <unknown>
Keywords: Gopher, campus-wide information systems,
resource discovery, indexing, Internet
Archive: <unknown>alt.gopher was set up for the Gopher distributed information project from the University of Minnesota 🐿️ It covered loads of public domain Gopher clients and servers. Like alt.wais, it's been replaced by comp.infosystems.gopher, so use of this one is discouraged 💀
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.Newsgroup-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 knownalt.internet.services is for folks who are into Internet-related services, mostly from the user point of view ✨ You'll find archie announcements and talk here, plus broader chat about Internet services in general. The archive situation is unknown, so be warned 🫶
Newsgroup-Name: bit.listserv.hytel-lAPPENDIX D 🎀
COMING ATTRACTIONS 🔮
This section keeps track of NIR Tools that the NIR Group thinks are well developed enough to list here, even though they aren't in widespread use yet. Right now the list includes:
- Hyper-G
- Soft Pages
- Whois++
HYPER-G 🐝
Date template updated or checked: 19th October, 1993
By: Name: Frank Kappe
Email address:fkappe@iicm.tu-graz.ac.atNIR Tool Name: Hyper-GHyper-G is an ambitious hypermedia project 🌈 It's being built jointly by several IIG institutes (Institutes for Information-Processing Graz), the Computing and Information Services Center of the Graz University of Technology, and the Austrian Computer Society. It's a general-purpose, large-scale, multi-user, distributed hypermedia information system. So it mixes hypermedia, information retrieval, documentation systems, communication and collaboration, and computer supported teaching and learning. It also plugs in other systems like World-Wide Web, Gopher, and WAIS, which all run on client/server, and lets you log in remotely to interactive services. Hyper-G goes beyond hypertext links too: you can navigate through hierarchies, run queries (full text included), take guided tours, and it's multilingual 👑
Hyper-G runs at around 10 locations worldwide, including a University Information System at the Graz Technical University. Clients and the server are free for educational institutions, and they're distributed as binaries for a bunch of platforms 🍓
Primary Contact(s):
Name: Frank Kappe
Email address: fkappe@iicm.tu-graz.ac.at
Postal Address: Schieszstattg. 4a, A-8010 Graz, AUSTRIA
Telephone: +43-316-832551-22
Fax: +43-316-824394
Help Line:
Sorry no help line
Related Working Groups:
Sponsoring Organisation / Funding source:
Austrian Ministry of Science
European Space Agency
Mailing Lists:
uniinfo@mlist.tu-graz.ac.at
News groups:
None
Protocols:
What is supported: RPC
What it runs over: TCP/IP
Other NIR tools this interworks with: gopher, WAIS, World Wide Web
Future plans: Too numerous to mention.Servers:
Date completed or updated: 12th October, 1993
By: Name: Gerald Pani
Email address: gpani@iicm.tu-graz.ac.at
Platform: UNIX
Primary Contact:
Name: Gerald Pani
Email address: gpani@iicm.tu-graz.ac.at
Telephone: +43-316-832551-34
Server software available from: anon-ftp from iicm.tu-graz.ac.at,
in directory pub/Hyper-G/Server
Location of more information: see README in above directory
Latest version number:
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
Approximate number of such servers in use: 13
General comments:
Currently available as binary distribution for SUN, DEC, HP,
and SGI workstations.The Hyper-G server is a UNIX thing, and it's already running on about 13 servers 🖥️ It's available as a binary distribution for SUN, DEC, HP, and SGI workstations. The README in the server directory has the extra details.
Clients:
UNIX curses client (a.k.a. VT100 Client)
Date completed or updated: 19th October, 1993
By: Name: Frank Kappe
Email address: fkappe@iicm.tu-graz.ac.at
Platform: UNIX
Primary Contact:
Name: Frank Kappe
Email address: fkappe@iicm.tu-graz.ac.at
Telephone: +43-316-832551-22
Client software available from:
anonymous ftp: iicm.tu-graz.ac.at:/pub/Hyper-G/UnixClient
Location of more information:
Latest version number: 1.41The UNIX curses client (a.k.a. VT100 Client) 💻 is a pretty sophisticated terminal viewer. It has around 50 commands and a multi-language user interface, plus history, and you can author text documents and links. It can also talk to gopher, World-Wide-Web, and WAIS, and start telnet sessions. Slay 💅
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
Fairly sophisticated terminal viewer with ~50 commands, multi-
language user interface, history, authoring capabilities (text
documents and links) and the ability to speak to gopher,
World-Wide-Web, WAIS and to start telnet sessions.
General comments:
Future plans:
The terminal viewer will probably remain rather stable in the future.
Our main effort now goes into the development of clients for
X-Windows and MS-Windows.The terminal viewer should stay pretty stable going forward 🌷 The main effort right now is going into clients for X-Windows and MS-Windows.
MS-Windows Client
Date completed or updated: 10th October, 1993
By: Name: Thomas Dietinger
Email address:
Platform: UNIX
Primary Contact:
Name: Thomas Dietinger, Frank Kappe
Email address: tdieting@iicm.tu-graz.ac.at
Telephone: +43-316-832551-22
Client software available from:
anonymous ftp: iicm.tu-graz.ac.at:/pub/Hyper-G/pc-client
Location of more information:
Latest version number: 1.37The MS-Windows client is a preliminary Hyper-G client for MS-Windows 3.1 and Windows NT 🪟 For now it's mostly the same as the UNIX curses client. The cool difference is that it can neatly import and export RTF text files to and from Hyper-G, and it has multimedia capabilities. It's going to get fancier soon, with menus, icons, and buttons ✨
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
Preliminary version of a Hyper-G client for MS-Windows 3.1 and Windows
NT. Currently mostly identical to the UNIX curses client. An
exception is its ability to elegantly import and export RTF text files
to/from Hyper-G, and its multimedia capabilities.
General comments:
Future plans:
Will become more fancy (menus, icons, buttons...) in the near future.Demonstration sites:
List of sites which are willing to act as demonstration
sites for this application.Okay so the Hyper-G entry is still going, and the access situation is lowkey iconic 💖
Site name: hyperg.tu-graz.ac.at
Access details: 'rlogin hyperg.tu-graz.ac.at' or
'telnet hyperg.tu-graz.ac.at', login 'info'
(rlogin has the advantage that the terminal size
of xterms is handled correctly (can even be
changed in the middle of a session)
Note: The same information is available through Gopher and WWW
gateways.
Gopher: host gopher.tu-graz.ac.at, port 70
WWW: URL=http://www.tu-graz.ac.at:80/ROOTSo you can get in with rlogin or telnet, and the login is info 🧚. rlogin is the one that handles xterm sizes properly, even if you resize mid-session 🦋. The same info is also on Gopher and WWW gateways, so take your pick 🌈
Documentation 📚 is honestly the best part. Most of it lives online on the Graz server, and the server distribution also ships man-pages for the extra authoring tools and utilities that come with it. The big Hyper-G ideas are written up in a bunch of research papers, which you'll find in the Bibliography below 🍓
Location details:
Site: iicm.tu-graz.ac.at
Full file name: look in directory /pub/Hyper-G/doc Bibliography:
Kappe F.: Aspects of a Modern Multi-Media Information System. IIG
Report 308, IIG, Graz University of Technology, Austria, June 1991.
Available by anonymous ftp from
iicm.tu-graz.ac.at:/pub/Hyper-G/doc/report308.ps.Z
Kappe F., Maurer H., Sherbakov N.: Hyper-G - A Universal Hypermedia
System. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, Vol. 2,
No. 1, pp. 39-66 (1993). Also available by anonymous ftp from
iicm.tu-graz.ac.at:/pub/Hyper-G/doc/report333.txt.Z
Kappe F., Pani G., Schnabel F.: The Architecture of a Massively
Distributed Hypermedia System. Internet Research: Electronic
Networking Applications and Policy, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 10-24; Meckler
(Spring 1993)
Kappe F., Maurer H.: Hyper-G: A Large Universal Hypermedia System and
Some Spin-Offs; ACM Computer Graphics, experimental special online
issue; available by anonymous ftp from siggraph.org in directory
publications/May_93_online/Kappe.Maurer (May 1993)
Kappe F.: Hyper-G: A Distributed Hypermedia System; Proc. INET '93,
San Francisco, California, pp. DCC-1 - DCC-9 (Aug. 1993). Other Information:
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
SOFT PAGES
Date template updated or checked: 4th November, 1993
By: Name: Glenn Mansfield
Email address: glenn@aic.co.jpSoftPages 🌸 is a whole vibe. It's a tool that helps users efficiently fetch documents, software and the like from servers on the network (anonymous FTP, FTAM, ..). In principle it uses the X.500 Directory framework to store information about the network: the network configuration, the properties of the links that connect the network elements, and the location of servers and their contents. When someone looks for a particular document or piece of software, the tool uses all of that to search starting from the server that's "nearest" (cheapest) to them 💖
X.500 gets used in several stages 🪄
get list of file-servers
get path to file servers
get attributes for computing cost of paths
search for file that is being soughtFor now, though, network information isn't really deployed in the directory yet. So when X.500 doesn't have the info, the tool falls back on other sources and methods 🫶 Those are:
- Static lists of file-servers, or lists of file servers from other clients (e.g., archie)
- Paths and/or costs obtained from static lists, or derived by other direct means (e.g., ping, traceroute)
- File information sought from other servers (e.g., archie)
User's View 👑: it's a "single window" onto the public archives connected to the network. It finds the server that has the object you're after, and the one that's near (/cheap/fast) to you. Querying with an incomplete file name is supported, and you can also search by keywords 🔥
Information Provider's View 🎀: updates to server contents only happen in one place, namely the local Directory Service Agent. That agent makes the info globally accessible, so you don't have to run periodic updates on one or more information servers 🙈
- information types supported (e.g., text, sound, etc.)
Since the system queries on name and keywords (not on contents), all kinds of information can 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:
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: 4th November, 1993
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: 4th November, 1993
By: Name: Glenn Mansfield
Email address: glenn@aic.co.jp
Platform: Unix.
Primary Contact:
Name: Manager, SoftPages Project
Email address: spp-manager@aic.co.jp
Telephone: +81-22-279-3310
Client software available from:
will be announced on the mailing list in the
near future
Location of more information:
Latest version number:
Brief Scope and Characteristics:
General comments:
The Prototype is under development and testing.
It is not (yet) available for public use.
Future plans:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Demonstration sites:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Documentation:
Document Title: README
Location details:
Site: ftp.tohoku.ac.jp
Full file name:pub/spp/README
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bibliography:
"The Soft Pages Project", Th. Johannsen, G.Mansfield,
OSI-DS-39, February 1993.
Location details:
Site: cs.ucl.ac.uk
Full file name:osi-ds/osi-ds-39-00.{txt, ps}
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Information:
"Optimized Document Retrieval - Soft Pages Project", Th. Johannsen,
G.Mansfield, S.Noguchi, Booklet of Abstracts,
The Network Services Conference '92, Pisa, November 1992.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
WHOIS++
Date template updated or checked: 21 October, 1993
By: Name: Chris Weider
Email address: clw@bunyip.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
NIR Tool Name: whois++ and the whois++ index servicewhois++ 🧚 and the whois++ index service are extensions of the WHOIS protocol 💜 They're designed to:
- a) subsume, in a standardized fashion, the many enhancements that have been added to individual WHOIS servers
- b) extend the flexibility of WHOIS by enriching the query syntax
- c) provide a distributed indexing system that ties the various whois++ servers into a distributed information lookup service
The protocols describe two logically distinct types of servers an information provider can set up. The first is the base-level whois++ server, which holds primary information like entries for individual people or entries describing locally available resources. For example, if you wanted to offer a campus directory through whois++, you'd set up a base-level server with an entry for each student 🎓 This base-level server also has to be able to generate 'forward knowledge' for the information it contains. The second type collects the 'forward knowledge' produced by a number of base-level servers. You can send it a query, and it works out which of the base-level servers it indexes might have information relevant to that query 🔍 One physical server can hold both primary information and 'forward knowledge' for a number of other servers. An index server can also index 'forward knowledge' from other index servers, so you can build a hierarchical mesh of index servers 🌈 For more details on the information provider's point of view, see the 'Documentation' section of this template.
Okay, the basic information model is centred 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 attached to attributes aren't limited to text either, since they can be digitized sound clips and so on ✨
okay so picture this, bestie 💖 depending on which client she's using, the user sees a connection to the local whois++ base-level server ✨ she can ask it for a list of templates it supports, then pull up a blank template and fill in the attributes she already knows 📝 once it's filled in as much as she wants, she sends a query to find every entry with those attribute:value pairs 🔍 if the results are giving "not what I wanted," she can start traversing the index service to find a server that can actually answer her query 🗺️ and if she uses the index service a lot, she can set 'bookmarks' to contact the servers she liked before, no re-traversing needed 🔖 main character energy, fr fr 💅
Primary contacts for this one are two very cool people 🫶
Name: Chris Weider
Email address: clw@bunyip.com
Postal Address: 2001 South Huron Parkway 12
Ann Arbor
Michigan
48104, USA
Telephone: +1-313-971-2223
Fax: +1-313-971-2223
----------------------------
Name: Peter Deutsch
Email address: peterd@bunyip.com
Postal Address: Bunyip Information Systems, Inc.
266 Blvd. Neptune
Dorval QUEBEC H9S 2L4
CANADA
Telephone: +1-514-875-8611Help Line: not yet deployed 🙈
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, it's a solo-ish vibe 🌸
NoneMailing Lists 💌
Address: ietf-wnils@ucdavis.edu
Administration: ietf-wnils-request@ucdavis.edu
Archive: pub/archive/wnils@ucdavis.eduNews groups: NONE 🙃
NONEProtocols ⚡
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 and clients are both still in the beta era, as of 21 October, 1993 🧚 if you want to try them, reach out to clw@bunyip.com (Chris Weider) 💜
Only beta versions available at this time (21 October, 1993). Please
contact clw@bunyip.com (Chris Weider) for more information. Only beta versions available at this time (21 October, 1993). Please
contact clw@bunyip.com (Chris Weider) for more information.Demonstration sites: NONE at this time (21 October, 1993) 🎀
NONE at this time (21 October, 1993)Documentation 📚
Document Title: Architecture of the Whois++ Index Service
Location details:
Site: gopher.ucdavis.edu
Full file name: /pub/IETF/WNILS/Architecture.Index.Service
Document Title: Architecture of the WHOIS++ Service
Location details:
Site: gopher.ucdavis.edu
Full file name: /pub/IETF/WNILS/Architecture.Overview
Document Title: Specifications for WHOIS Services
Location details:
Site: gopher.ucdavis.edu
Full file name: /pub/IETF/WNILS/Discussion.PaperBibliography: see the documentation section above 🦋
See the documentation section of this template.Other Information 🌈 this is a coming attraction, so bestie, get in on the ground floor! the authors see whois++ as potentially a key player in any integrated Internet information architecture, and they can always use more volunteers who want to beta-test code 🫶🔥
APPENDIX E ✨
Extinct Critters (Tools) 🦖
This section will hold info on Tools that get moved out of the main body of the report once they fall out of common usage 🍂
There are no items currently in this section 🫧
APPENDIX F ✨
Extinct Critters (Groups) 🪦
This section is a historical record of groups that were once in the main body of the report but have since closed 📜
Items in this section:
IAFA
Z39.50 Interoperability TestbedIAFA 🗂️
Date template updated or checked: 8th July 1993, by Peter Deutsch (peterd@bunyip.com) 💅
Date template updated or checked: 8th July 1993
By: Name: Peter Deutsch
Email Address: peterd@bunyip.com
NIR Group Name: Internet Anonymous File Archive Working Group
Sponsoring Organisation: IETF
Working subgroups: none.Okay so this working group wrapped up during the IETF meeting in November, 1992, and two Internet drafts are now circulating 📄 the archive for its mailing list lives on "archives.cc.mcgill.ca" via anonymous ftp in the file "pub/mailing-lists/iafa" 🌷
Primary Contact(s):
Name: Peter Deutsch
Email address: peterd@bunyip.com
Postal address: Bunyip Information Systems
266 Blvd Neptune
Dorval, Quebec H9S 2L4
CANADA
Telephone: +1-514-398-3709
Fax: +1-514-398-6876 Mailing Lists:
Address: iafa@cc.mcgill.ca
Administration: iafa-request@cc.mcgill.ca
Description: Discussion list for the IAFA Working Group
concerning the administration of anonymous FTP
archive sites.
Keywords: IETF, IAFA, anonymous, FTP, archive, Internet,
archie
Archive: The archive for this mailing list is currently
available on "archives.cc.mcgill.ca" via
anonymous FTP in the file
"pub/mailing-lists/iafa". News groups:
Document Archive:
Location details:
Site: archives.cc.mcgill.ca
Directory: pub/mailing-lists/iafa
Official Publications:
Bibliography:
Other Information:Z39.50 🌟
Date template updated or checked: 8th July 1993, by Jane Smith (Jane.Smith@cnidr.org) 💖
Date template updated or checked: 8th July 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:The program priorities are a whole lineup 👑
- to facilitate a consistent and complete mechanism for linking bibliographic, abstracting, and indexing files to files of their associated source materials;
- a single standard for the transmission of bitmapped image files;
- protocols for handing networked requests for delivery of source materials;
- mechanisms for interorganizational authentication, accounting, and billing;
- to integrate lessons drawn from the experience of pilot projects that exercise networked printing utilities; and
- 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: Clifford.Lynch@ucop.edu
Postal address: Off. of the President
Unv. of California
300 Lakeside Dr.,
8th Flr. Oakland, CA 94612-3350 USA
Telephone: +1-415-987-0522
Fax: +1-415-839-3573 Mailing Lists:
Address: Z3950iw@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📦 where this page comes from
- ietf: rfc1689 1994-08
- 💖 girlified by claude-haiku-5-5 on : a language model's rewrite of the original, under its terms