Network Working Group                                  J. Foster, Editor
Request for Comments: 1689             University of Newcastle upon Tyne
RARE Technical Report: 13                                    August 1994
FYI: 25
Category: Informational


                            A Status Report
                                   on
           Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups


     Produced as a collaborative effort by the Joint IETF/RARE/CNI
        Networked Information Retrieval - Working Group (NIR-WG)

Status of this Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  This memo
   does not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of
   this memo is unlimited.

Abstract

   The purpose of this report is to increase the awareness of Networked
   Information Retrieval by bringing together in one place information
   about the various networked information retrieval tools, their
   developers, interested organisations, and other activities that
   relate to the production, dissemination, and support of NIR tools.
   NIR Tools covered include Archie, WAIS, gopher and World Wide Web.

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) ..................... 222



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1.   Introduction

   As the network has grown, along with it there has been an increase in
   the number of software tools and applications to navigate the network
   and make use of the many, varied resources which are part of the
   network.  Within the past two and a half years we have seen a
   widespread adoption of tools such as the archie servers, the Wide
   Area Information Servers (WAIS), the Internet gopher, and the
   Worldwide Web (WWW).  In addition to the acceptance of these tools
   there are also diverse efforts to enhance and customise these tools
   to meet the needs of particular network communities.

   There are many organisations and associations that are focusing on
   the proliferating resources and tools for networked information
   retrieval (NIR).  The Networked Information Retrieval Group is a
   cooperative effort of three major players in the field of NIR: The
   Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Association of European
   Research Networks (RARE) and the Coalition for Networked Information
   (CNI), specifically tasked to collect and disseminate information
   about the tools and to discuss and encourage cooperative development
   of current and future tools.

   The purpose of this report is to increase the awareness of NIR by
   bringing together in one place information about the various
   networked information retrieval tools, their developers, interested
   organisations, and other activities that relate to the production,
   dissemination, and support of NIR tools.  The intention is to make
   this a "living document".  It will be held on-line so that each
   section may be updated separately as appropriate.  In addition, it is
   intended that the full document will be updated once a year so that
   it provides a "snapshot" report on activities in this area.

   Whilst the NIR tools in this report are being used on a wide variety
   of information sources including files and databases there remains
   much that is currently not accessible by these means.  On the other
   hand, the majority of the NIR Tools described here are freely
   available to the networked Research and Education community.  Tools
   for accessing specialised datasets are often only available at a
   cost.

   It should be noted that in many ways networked information retrieval
   is in its infancy compared with traditional information retrieval
   systems.  Thesaurus construction, boolean searching and
   classification control are issues which are under discussion for the
   popular NIR Tools but as yet are not in widespread use.  However it
   should be said that, with the vast amount of effort that is currently
   going into the NIR field, rapid progress is being made.  Much work is
   currently being done on expanding some of the NIR tools to include



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   handling of multimedia information services.  Progress has also been
   made in the discussions on classifying and cataloguing electronic
   information resources.

2.  How the information was collected

   The information contained in this report was collected over the
   network from the contacts for each NIR Tool or Group using two
   templates:

     - the NIR Tool Template, included in Appendix A;
     - the NIR Group Template, included in Appendix B.

   The contents of these templates were discussed by the NIR WG in
   Boston (July, 1992) and subsequently on the email list.  (See the
   Section on the NIR-WG for details of how to join this mailing list.)
   The initial draft report was discussed at the NIR Working Group in
   Washington (November, 1992) and updated and added to at subsequent WG
   meetings.  Before the final submission as an RFC the individual
   templates were reviewed by independent reviewers from around the
   world.  Their efforts are acknowledged in Section 9.

   The NIR Tool template was used to collect the information necessary
   to identify and track the development of networked information
   retrieval tools.  This template asked for information such as how and
   where to get the software for each NIR Tool, documentation,
   demonstration sites, etc.  The main part of the template has been
   completed by the main individual responsible for the tool.  Sections
   of the template (e.g., on clients) may have required completion by
   others.

   The NIR Group template requested information on the aim and purpose
   of the group, the current tasks being undertaken, mailing lists,
   document archives, etc.

3.  What is covered?

   In the current report you will find information on the following NIR
   tools:

      Alex
      archie
      gopher
      Hytelnet
      Netfind
      Prospero
      Veronica
      WAIS  (including freeWAIS)



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      WHOIS
      World Wide Web  (including MOSAIC)
      X.500 White Pages

      Appendix D covers "Forthcoming Attractions":
         Hyper-G
         Soft Pages
         WHOIS++

 and the following NIR Groups:

      CNI          Coalition for Networked Information (CNI)
                   Architectures and Standards
                   Directories and Resource Information Services
                   TopNode for Networked Information Resources,
                                                  Services and Tools

      CNIDR        Clearinghouse for Networked Information Discovery
                                                       and Retrieval

      IETF         Integrated Directory Services (IDS)
                   Integration of Internet Information Resources (IIIR)
                   Networked Information Retrieval (NIR)
                      joint IETF/RARE WG
                   Network Information Services Infrastructure (NISI)
                   OSI-Directory Service (OSI-DS)
                   Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI)
                   Whois and Network Information Lookup Service (WNILS)

      IRTF         Internet Research Task Force Research Group on
                     Resource Discovery and Directory Service (IRTF-RD)

      NISO         Z39.50 Implementors Group

      RARE         Information Services and User Support Working Group
                     (ISUS)

      USMARC/OCLC  USMARC Advisory Group; OCLC Internet Resources
                        Cataloging Experiment (USMARC/OCLC)

   Appendix C contains a list of the relevant email lists and Appendix D
   contains information on "Coming Attractions" which are NIR tools not
   yet in widespread use.








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4.  Updating Information

   Updates on and additions to the information contained in this report
   are welcome. CNIDR have agreed to host the report and to accept
   updates to individual templates from the template maintainers.  Send
   updates using the appropriate template (from Appendix A or Appendix B
   of this report) to:

   nir-updates@cnidr.org

   The current templates and this report may be retrieved from the UK
   Mailbase Server:

   Via anonymous ftp (use your email address as the password):

     URL: ftp://mailbase.ac.uk/pub/lists/nir/files/tool.template
     URL: ftp://mailbase.ac.uk/pub/lists/nir/files/group.template
     URL: ftp://mailbase.ac.uk/pub/lists/nir/files/nir.status.report

   or via gopher or World Wide Web to mailbase.ac.uk

   or via email:

     Mail to:  mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk

  Text of the message:

     send nir tool.template
     send nir group.template
     send nir nir.status.report

5.  Overview of the types of NIR Tools

   The following is an overview of major networked information retrieval
   (NIR) tools available on the Internet.  There are many excellent
   books which discuss the Internet and NIR Tools in detail.  Such books
   include "The Whole Internet User's Guide and Catalog" by Ed Krol and
   published by O'Reilly and Associates, Inc and "The Internet Guide for
   New Users" by Daniel Dearn and published by Meckler.

   The number of these NIR tools is large and growing quickly.  Certain
   techniques reappear regularly and seemingly different tools may
   perform similar tasks, allowing a simple classification of projects
   encompassing most of the existing tools and services.







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   The classification presented here is only one possible ordering.  The
   goal is to define in broad outlines what can be done with particular
   tools, realizing that users will always find novel unanticipated ways
   of applying them.

   Interactive Information Delivery Services (Gopher, World Wide Web)

      Basic Internet services such as electronic mail and anonymous FTP
      can be used to share information across the Internet, but neither
      allows simple browsing and neither is particularly easy for the
      newcomer to learn to use.  Gopher and the World Wide Web (W3) are
      two recent developments that attempt to make it easier to
      distribute information over the Internet.  Both allow the user to
      browse information across the network without the necessity of
      logging in or knowing in advance where to look for information.

      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 capability to recognize different
      types of files, allowing, for example, the display of selected
      types of image files.  Gateways to other services are provided
      (usually in a manner that is transparent to the user).  The
      underlying Gopher protocol is simple, and has facilitated the
      creation of freely available clients for use on 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 and the ease of
      installing and administering gopher servers has led to an
      explosive growth of gopher sites since its initial deployment.  As
      of November 1993, there were over 2200 known servers.

      World Wide Web relies on hypertext; formatted documents are
      displayed, and hypertext links within the document can be selected
      to travel from the current document to another.  W3 allows a user
      to 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 is a range of free W3 clients,
      supporting many environments.  World Wide Web was originally
      developed at CERN for the High Energy Physics Community.

      Gopher and WWW share a maintenance problem in that there is no
      automated way to update links to other documents when those
      documents are moved or removed.






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   Directory Services (WHOIS, X.500)

      Directory Service tools are intended to provide a lookup service
      for locating information about users (often referred to as White
      Pages), or services and service providers (Yellow Pages).  For
      example, a White Pages service might be used to locate an
      electronic mail address, given a name and organization, while a
      Yellow Pages service could be used to locate 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 enjoys 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 under 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, as well as a LDAP based gopher
      gateway to X.500.

      Despite years of effort, there is still no single White Pages
      Directory Service for the entire Internet; Yellow Pages services
      remain even less well developed and deployed.  The cost of setting
      up the service is one obstacle; 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 facilitate searching and retrieval.
      The first such services provided network access to library card
      catalogs, with more recent projects indexing network-based
      information.

   archie:

      The archie service began as a simple project to catalog the
      contents of hundreds of ftp-accessible online file archives.  The
      archie service gathers location information, name, and other
      details describing such files and creates an index database.



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      Users can contact an archie server and search this database for
      files they require.

      The archie service is accessible through a range of access
      methods, including telnet, stand-alone client programs running on
      a user's own machine, gopher, WWW, or via 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 are available.

      Work continues on extending the archie service 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 appearing 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 available through
      telnet sessions in which the user connects to a specific address
      and logs in using 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.  It is
      distinct from indexing tools such as archie and veronica in that
      it is used to index text-based target documents on a server, as
      well as descriptions of the contents of a server.

      A WAIS server allows the administrator to set up an index of the
      documents (or resources) to be published.  The user employs a WAIS
      client to attach to a particular WAIS server, and specifies a
      search pattern which is matched against the server's index.  In



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      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 list of words.
      Matching documents are rank-ordered according to a simple
      statistical weighting scheme which attempts to indicate likely
      relevance.  The user may choose to view selected documents, or
      further refine the search.  The results of one search may be used
      to successively refine future searches ("relevance feedback").
      Gopher clients can also access WAIS servers via a transparent
      gateway.

      Both freely available and commercial versions of WAIS servers and
      clients are available.  Current work is attempting 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 are not
      yet registered.  There are approximately another 100 commercial
      WAIS databases.

6.  NIR Tools

   This section contains detailed information about the various NIR
   Tools.  It is 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 provides users and applications transparent
      read access to files in anonymous FTP sites on the Internet.
      Today there are thousands of anonymous FTP sites with a total of a
      few millions of files and roughly a terabyte of data.  The
      standard approach to accessing these files involves logging in to
      the remote machine.  This means that an application can not access
      remote files like local files.  This also means that users do not



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      have any of their aliases or local tools available.  Users who
      want to use an application on a remote file first have to manually
      make a local copy of the file.  There is no mechanism for
      automatically updating this local copy when the remote file
      changes.  The users must keep track of where they get their files
      from and check to see if there are updates, and then fetch these.
      In this approach many different users at the same site may have
      made copies of the same remote file each using up disk space for
      the same data.

      Alex addresses the problems with the existing approach while
      remaining within the existing FTP protocol so that the large
      collection of currently available files can be used.  To get
      reasonable performance long term file caching is used.  Thus
      consistency is an issue.  Traditional solutions to the cache
      consistency problem do not work in the Internet FTP domain:
      callbacks are not an option as the FTP protocol has no provisions
      for this and polling over the Internet is slow.  Therefore, Alex
      relaxes file cache consistency semantics, on a per file basis, and
      uses special caching algorithms that take into account the
      properties of the files and of the network to allow a simple
      stateless filesystem to scale to the size of the Internet.

   USER'S VIEW:

      To a user or application, Alex is just a normal filesystem.  Any
      command that works on local files will work on Alex files.  Since
      Alex is a real filesystem, nothing needs to be recompiled and no
      libraries are changed.  Thus, users can apply all of their
      existing skills and tools for using files.

      The user sees a filesystem with a hierarchical name space.  At the
      top level (/alex) there are top-level Internet domains like "edu",
      "com", "uk", and "jp".  Each component of the hostname becomes a
      directory name. Then the remote path is added at the end.  If the
      user does a "ls /alex/edu/berkeley" he sees some machine names
      such as "ucbvax" and "sprite" and some directories on
      berkeley.edu.  From the "ls" it is not clear what is where.  The
      user may or may not be aware of host boundaries.

   INFORMATION PROVIDER'S VIEW:

      Alex is implemented as a user level NFS server.  NFS was chosen
      because it makes it easy to add Alex to a wide range of machines.
      Most machines can simply use the mount command.






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      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".

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------




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 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



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  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.PS





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  If 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.html
  ftp://alex.sp.cs.cmu.edu/doc/intro.ps
  ftp://alex.sp.cs.cmu.edu/doc/NIR.Tool
  ftp://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".

 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=















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 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 through either a telnet
      session to a machine running an archie server, or by using a
      stand-alone client program (which uses the Prospero protocol for
      sending and receiving requests).  There is also an email interface
      which allows users to send and receive search requests via
      electronic mail.

      Freely available archie clients exist for most operating systems
      and can be fetched using anonymous FTP from most of the current
      archie servers.  There are also gateways to the archie system from
      many other NIR tools, including Gopher, WAIS and WWW.  An X.500
      interface to archie is currently under development.

   Information Provider's View:

      There are two types of information providers who would be
      interested in archie.  Primary information providers are
      interested in having a summary of the information provided by
      their service tracked by an archie server.  Secondary service



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      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++ for accessing archie
      information through Gopher clients is now being tested.
      Additional collections of information to be served by the archie
      software will be announced.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 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




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  Name:           Archie Group, Bunyip Information Systems Inc.

  Email address:  info@bunyip.com

  Telephone:      +1-514-875-8611


  Level of support offered:
                  o commercial support for server
                   (primarily for systems maintainers)

                  o voluntary helpdesk support for freeware clients

                  o volunteer helpdesk support for Internet information
                   gathering tools in general

  Hours available:        - server system:
                           email:                24 hour support
                           phone support:        9-5 EST

                         - helpdesk consultation: as time permits

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Related Working Groups:

  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:




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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


   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

                        -------------------

  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"

                        -------------------

  Address:              iafa@bunyip.com

  Administration:       iafa-request@bunyip.com

  Description:

   This mailing list is for people who are involved in the Internet
   Anonymous FTP Archives Working Group of the IETF.  This group was
   involved in standardizing the encoding of information at anonymous
   FTP archives and thus is of interest to operators and users of the
   archie system.  It came to completion in November, 1992 and produced
   two documents which have been presented to the IETF as informational
   RFCs.

  Archive:              "archives.cc.mcgill.ca:/pub/mailing-lists/iafa"

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------

 News groups:

  Name:                 comp.archives.admin







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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  Description:

  This newsgroup is for operators and maintainers of Internet archives.
  Announcements and discussions of issues related to archie are
  presented here, as well as discussions of more general issues
  relating to archiving and Internet services.

  Archive:              not known

                        -------------------

  Name:                 alt.internet.services

  Description:

  This newsgroup is for people interested in Internet-related services,
  with a focus at the user level.  Announcements and discussions of
  issues related to archie are presented here, as well as discussions
  of more general issues relating to Internet services.

  Archive:              not known

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------

   Protocols:

   What is supported:

      The current archie system clients use the Prospero protocol for
      communication with the search engine on the archie server.  Freely
      available clients are available which include source to perform
      this communication for those wishing to implement additional
      clients.

      The archie server is capable of building arbitrary databases,
      using arbitrary search and access engines and the current release
      ships with the public domain implementation of WAIS.  We expect
      future archie servers to serve information using this protocol.
      The current server system assumes the TCP/IP protocol suite is
      available, and in particular the ftp protocol for data gathering.

      The archie system can be accessed through systems operating the
      Gopher, WAIS and WWW (HDDL) protocols.  A gateway from the X.500
      system is under development.







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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


   What it runs over:

      The Prospero protocol implementation runs over its own
      implementation of a reliable datagram protocol based upon UDP.
      Data gathering runs over the TCP/IP protocol suite.

   Other NIR tools this interworks with:

      Prospero, Gopher, WAIS, WWW.

   Future plans:

      The archie system became a commercial product in October, 1992,
      marketed by Bunyip Information Systems Inc.  The company plans to
      market additional data gathering modules to allow the server code
      to build additional types of databases.  Work is also underway to
      integrate extensions to WHOIS to allow the building and
      maintaining of White Pages (names) directories.  The company is
      also working on other Internet information tools that will work
      with the archie system.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Servers:

  Date completed or updated:    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.com

  Location of more information:

  Additional information on the archie product line is available from
  the anonymous ftp archives on the various archie server sites. Try
  "archie.ans.net", "archie.sura.net", "archie.au", etc.



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  Latest version number:          archie 3.1

  Brief Scope and Characteristics:

  This is the  commercial inmplementation of the archie system,
  replacing a version done as a Masters project at McGill University
  during the period 1990-1992.  It comes with an archie telnet client
  that offers a number of minor improvements over earlier versions.
  Additional releases, with a number of additional improvements, are
  planned in the coming months.

  Approximate number of such servers in use:
   Currently about 27 (not all are publicly available)

  General comments:

  Most users access archie through a freeware or public domain client
  program.  These are available from most archie servers via anonymous
  FTP.  Check out the archie directory on any of the publicly available
  archie servers or the banner message when logging into any of the
  archie telnet clients for more details.

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Clients:

  Date completed or updated:    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:          1.3.2






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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  Brief Scope and Characteristics:

  This program provides a simple command line interface to the archie
  server system, using the Prospero protocol.  Written in C, it has
  been ported to MSDOS and OS2.

  General comments:

  This program should not be confused with the archie system telnet
  interface, which is a program that runs on the archie server itself.

  Future plans:  Not known

                        -------------------

  Date completed or updated:    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:          3.8

  Brief Scope and Characteristics:

  This program provides a simple command line interface to the archie
  server system, using the Prospero protocol.  Written in Perl.

  General comments:

  This program should not be confused with the archie system telnet
  interface, which is a program that runs on the archie server itself.

  Future plans:  Not known



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


                        -------------------

  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:

  This program provides a simple command line interface to the archie
  server system for users of VMS.

  General comments:

  This program should not be confused with the archie system telnet
  interface, which is a program that runs on the archie server itself.

  Future plans:  Not known

                        -------------------

  Date completed or updated:      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.



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


                                  Look for file "xarchie-1.3.tar.Z".

  Location of more information:   Packaged with software.

  Latest version number:          xarchie-1.3

  Brief Scope and Characteristics:

  This program provides an Xwindows client that allows users to search
  the archie anonymous FTP database.  Also included is the capability of
  fetching files (using ftp).

  General comments:               none.

  Future plans:  Not known

                        -------------------

  Date completed or updated:      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:

  This program provides a NeXTStep client that allows users to search
  the archie anonymous FTP database.  Also included is the capability
  of fetching files (using ftp).

  General comments:               none.

  Future plans:  Not known

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 Demonstration sites:

  Site name:      any one of:

    archie.rutgers.edu   128.6.18.15     (Rutgers University)
    archie.unl.edu       129.93.1.14     (University of Nebraska in
                                          Lincoln)
    archie.sura.net      128.167.254.179 (SURAnet archie server)
    archie.ans.net       147.225.1.2     (ANS archie server)
    archie.au            139.130.4.6     (Australian server)
    archie.funet.fi      128.214.6.100   (European server in Finland)
    archie.doc.ic.ac.uk  146.169.11.3    (UK/England server)
    archie.cs.huji.ac.il 132.65.6.15     (Israel server)
    archie.wide.ad.jp    133.4.3.6       (Japanese server)

  Client software should be supported at all of these sites.
  Additional sites are available. Use the "sites" command in the archie
  telnet interface at any of the above sites for a more complete lists.

  Access details:
                - telnet to any of the above sites
                - login as user `archie' (no password is required)
                - type `help' at the prompt to get started.

  Note:  Some people forget and use ftp in place of telnet. This will
         not work. The hint that this is being done is that they claim
         that a password is needed, not that the site can't be found.

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Documentation:

  Document Title:         What is archie
  Location details:       anonymous FTP from archie.ans.net
  Site:                   archie.ans.net
  Full file name:         "pub/archie/doc/whatis.archie"
  Description:            Brief overview of the archie system.

  Document Title:         archie man pages
  Location details:       anonymous FTP from archie.ans.net
  Site:                   archie.ans.net
  Full file name:         "pub/archie/doc/archie.man.*"
  Description:            Manual pages for the archie system telnet
                          interface in various formats (raw ASCII,
                          nroff, compressed, etc.). This document also
                          explains the various search options and other
                          features, so is of use to users of the other
                          archie client programs.



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  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:       none


 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=


































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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 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 Gopher

 Brief Description of Tool:

   The Internet Gopher protocol is a client/distributed-server document
   search and retrieval protocol originally developed at the University
   of Minnesota.  Gopher was originally created as a fast, simple,
   distributed, campus-wide information search and retrieval system;
   ease of use and implementation has made Gopher increasingly popular
   on the Internet.  Since its original release, many folks on the
   Internet have contributed to its growth, submitting patches, servers,
   clients, and linking their local servers into the worldwide network
   of Gopher servers.  Gateways exist to seamlessly access a variety of
   non-Gopher services such as ftp, WAIS, USENET news, Archie, Z39.50
   (1992 rev), X.500 directories, Sybase and Oracle SQL servers, etc.
   In addition, an "archie for gopherspace" called Veronica (very easy
   rodent-oriented net-wide index to computerized archives) has been
   developed at the University of Nevada.  Veronica makes it easy to
   search for items in gopherspace by title.

   The gopher protocol is often described as "fiercely simple"; it is
   connectionless (stateless), and uses TCP reliable streams.  A client
   connects to a server using TCP, and sends a one-line text "selector
   string".  The server responds by returning the item (a file, a
   directory listing, or a link to some other service) corresponding to
   the selector string and immediately closing the connection.  Items in
   directory listings are returned as a series of lines terminated by
   carriage-return line-feed.  Each item (line) is defined by a one-
   character tag to specify the item type, a display string or item-name
   that the client should display to the user, and a number of tab
   delimited fields to specify the selector string, host domain name and
   port number.  Because of its simple and connectionless nature, gopher
   servers make very minimal demands on their host machines and gopher
   clients are extremely easy to implement.

   The users view the Gopher world as a series of networked hierarchical
   directories much like a familiar filesystem.  However, the links
   define a graph rather than a simple rooted tree.  Links in the Gopher
   graph may define services other than simple files or directories;
   these include cso (qi) servers, telnet sessions, links to other



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


   gopher servers, and links to gateway servers.

   The information provider's simplest view is that files and
   directories below a certain root directory on their machine are all
   visible and available for retrieval by gopher clients.  More features
   like long names, item types, links, and gateway services are
   available to the more sophisticated information provider.

   Servers and clients run on most popular hardware, including Macs,
   UNIX boxes, PC-DOS boxes.  The Internet Gopher name is copyright (c)
   1991-1992 by the University of Minnesota.  The Internet Gopher
   protocol is described in an informational RFC (1436) available at
   better RFC archives everywhere.  Extensions to the base gopher
   protocol allow for associating meta-information with gopher items,
   alternate views of documents (i.e., text, postscript, rtf, etc.) and
   electronic forms.  Collectively, these extensions are referred to as
   Gopher+.  Gopher+ is upward compatible with the orginal gopher
   protocol.  The gopher software may be retrieved from numerous Gopher
   or FTP archive sites, including the University of Minnesota Gopher
   server, the Info-Mac Archive Gopher server, and by anonymous FTP from
   boombox.micro.umn.edu and sumex-aim.stanford.edu. As of December
   1993, about 1/3 of the approximately 4800 Gopher servers on the
   internet support 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



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  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.

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------

 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.



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  Archive:              Available via gopher client; connect to the
                        gopher server at gopher.tc.umn.edu port 70,
                        look in the "Information About Gopher" section.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Protocols:

  What is supported:    Internet Gopher

  What it runs over:    Anything you can run TCP/IP over.

  Other NIR tools this interworks with:

                        Z39.50 WAIS variant via WAIS gateway
                        FTP via FTP gateway
                        archie/Prospero via an archie gateway
                        veronica (an archie for gopherspace)
                        NNTP via NNTP gateway
                        Finger (subset of gopher)
                        X.500 via X.500 gateway
                        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.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 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



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


                                /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+.




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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  Approximate number of such servers in use:
                                Current estimates between 300 and 400.

  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.

                         -------------------

  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.






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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  General comments:
   Written by Chris McNeil <cmcneil@mta.ca>, based on Phil Karns net
   package.  The U of M Gopher team forwards difficult problems to
   Chris.

                         -------------------

  Date completed or updated:    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.

                         -------------------

  Date completed or updated:    14 March, 1994
  By: Name:                     Mark McCahill
      Email address:            mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu

  Platform:                     VM/CMS



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  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/





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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  Location of more information:
   As above.

  Latest version number:        2.00.00

  Brief Scope and Characteristics:
   Gopher server for IBM VM/CMS installations.

  Approximate number of such servers in use:
   Unknown.

  General comments:
   This server was written and is maintained by Gerhard Gonter.
   This server is commonly referred to as the Vienna VM/CMS server.
   There is also another VM/CMS server: the Rice VM/CMS server.

                         -------------------

  Date completed or updated:    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.



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


                         -------------------

  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

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------

 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




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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  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+.

                         -------------------

  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.



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  General comments:
   Written and maintained by Don Gilbert.  Supports Gopher+.

  Future plans:

                         -------------------

  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:

                         -------------------

  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



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  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:        0.3

  Brief Scope and Characteristics:
   sgopher is a simple gopher client for inetd/batch/online; it does not



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


   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.

                         -------------------

  Date completed or updated:    14 March, 1994
  By: Name:                     Mark McCahill



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


      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.

                         -------------------

  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



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  Via FTP:                      boombox.micro.umn.edu
                                /pub/gopher/

  Location of more information:
   As above.

  Latest version number:        (please check software distribution)

  Brief Scope and Characteristics:
   Makes full use of the NeXT interface.

  General comments:
   Initial version written by Max Tardiveau.
   Now maintained by Paul Lindner.

  Future plans:

                       -------------------------

  Date completed or updated:    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).




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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  General comments:
   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:

                         -------------------

  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




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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  Client software available from:
  Via Gopher:                   U of M Gopher
                                Information About Gopher
                                Gopher Software Distribution
  Via FTP:                      boombox.micro.umn.edu
                                /pub/gopher/

  Location of more information:
   As above.

  Latest version number:        1.12

  Brief Scope and Characteristics:
   Identical to Unix gopher1.12. Works on a VMS 5.5-2 system running
   MultiNet 3.1B.  UCX and Wollongong are also supported.

  General comments:
   A port of the University of Minnesota Unix client to VMS.

  Future plans:

                         -------------------

  Date completed or updated:    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:



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


   Gopher client for IBM VM/CMS installations.

  General comments:
   This client was written and is maintained by Rick Troth.
   This client is commonly referred to as the Rice VM/CMS client.
   There is also another VM/CMS client: the Vienna VM/CMS client.

  Future plans:

                         -------------------

  Date completed or updated:    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:

                         -------------------

  Date completed or updated:    14 March, 1994
  By: Name:                     Mark McCahill



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


      Email address:            mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu

  Platform:                     DOS with PC/TCP.

  Primary Contact:
  Name:                         Steven E. Newton
  Email address:                snewton@oac.hsc.uth.tmc.edu
  Telephone:

  Client software available from:
  Via FTP:                      oac.hsc.uth.tmc.edu:/public/dos/misc/

  Location of more information:
   As above.

  Latest version number:        (please check software distribution)

  Brief Scope and Characteristics:
   Gopher client for DOS with PC/TCP

  General comments:
   Written and maintained by Steven E. Newton

  Future plans:

                         -------------------

  Date completed or updated:    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



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  General comments:
   Written and maintained by Stan Barber

  Future plans:

                         -------------------

  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:

                         -------------------

  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:



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  Via Gopher:                   U of M Gopher
                                Information About Gopher
                                Gopher Software Distribution
  Via FTP:                      lister.cc.ic.ac.uk
                                /pub/wingopher

  Location of more information:
   As above.

  Latest version number:        (please check software distribution)

  Brief Scope and Characteristics:
   Gopher client for Windows; uses either Winsock DLL or PC/NFS network
   interface.

  General comments:
   Written and maintained by Martyn Hampson.  Gopher+ support.

  Future plans:

                         -------------------

  Date completed or updated:    14 March, 1994
  By: Name:                     Mark McCahill
      Email address:            mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu

  Platform:                     Windows with Winsock and ToolBook.

  Primary Contact:
  Name:                         Kevin Gamiel
  Email address:                kgamiel@kudzu.cnidr.org
  Telephone:

  Client software available from:
  Via Gopher:                   U of M Gopher
                                Information About Gopher
                                Gopher Software Distribution
  Via FTP:           sunsite.unc.edu
                     /pub/micro/pc-stuff/ms-windows/winsock/gophbook.zip

  Location of more information:
   As above.

  Latest version number:         1.0

  Brief Scope and Characteristics:
   Gopher client for Windows; uses Asymetrix's ToolBook to paint the
   screen and speaks to the network via a Winsock DLL.



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  General comments:
   Written and maintained by Kevin Gamiel

  Future plans:

                     ------------------------------

  Date completed or updated:    14 March, 1994
  By: Name:                     Mark McCahill
      Email address:            mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu

  Platform:                     Air Gopher commercial client for windows

  Primary Contact:
  Name:                         David Pool, Spry Software, Inc.
  Email address:                dave@spry.com
  Telephone:                    +1-206-447-0300

  Client 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, 1994
  By: Name:                     Mark McCahill
      Email address:            mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu

  Platform:                     Win Gopher

  Primary Contact:
  Name:                         Bill Easton, Notis, Inc.
  Telephone:                    +1-708-866-0159

  Client software available from:

  Location of more information:

  Latest version number:



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  Brief Scope and Characteristics:

  General Comments:
   Requires Winsock.  Supports gopher.

  Future plans:
   Gopher+ support planned.

                     ------------------------------

  Date completed or updated:    14 March, 1994

  By: Name:                     Mark McCahill
      Email address:            mpm@boombox.micro.umn.edu

  Platform:                     GINA

  Primary Contact:
  Name:                         Mark Resmer, California Technology
                                Project
  Email address:                resmer@eis.calstale.edu

  Client software available from:

  Location of more information:

  Latest version number:

  Brief Scope and Characteristics:

  General Comments:
   Macintosh and windows clients include netnews, email.

  Future plans:

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Demonstration sites:

  List of sites which are willing to act as demonstration
  sites for this application.

          site name              ip address   login as   serving area
     ----------------------------------------------------------------
     consultant.micro.umn.edu  134.84.132.4    gopher    North America
     gopher.uiuc.edu           128.174.33.160  gopher    North America
     panda.uiowa.edu           128.255.40.201  panda     North America
     info.anu.edu.au           150.203.84.20   info      Australia



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


     gopher.chalmers.se        129.16.221.40   gopher    Sweden
     tolten.puc.cl             146.155.1.16    gopher    South America

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Documentation:

  Title:  (1) Gopher Protocol and
          (2) Gopher+ Proposed Extensions
  Location details:
       Via Gopher: U of M Gopher
                 Information About Gopher
                      Gopher Software Distribution
  Via FTP: boombox.micro.umn.edu
              /pub/gopher/

  Title: RFC 1436   The Internet Gopher Protocol
                    (a distributed document search and retrieval
                    protocol)
  Via FTP: nic.ddn.mil
              /rfc/rfc1436.txt

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Bibliography:

  The Whole Internet, Ed Kroll, O'Reilly, 1992

  The Internet Gopher, "ConneXions", July 1992, Interop.

  Exploring Internet GopherSpace "The Internet Society News", v1n2 1992

  The Internet Gopher Protocol, Proceedings of the Twenty-Third
      IETF, CNRI, Section 5.3

  Internet Gopher, Proceedings of Canadian Networking '92

  The Internet Gopher, INTERNET: Getting Started, SRI
      International, Section 10.5.5

  Tools help Internet users discover on-line treasures, Computerworld,
      July 20, 1992

  TCP/IP Network Administration, O'Reilly.

  Balakrishan, B. (Oct 1992) "SPIGopher: Making SPIRES databases
     accessible through the Gopher protocol".  SPIRES Fall '92
     Workshop, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Other Information:

 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=














































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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 HYTELNET

 Date template updated or checked: 28 February, 1994
 By: Name:              Peter Scott
     Email address:     aa375@freenet.carleton.ca

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 NIR Tool Name: HYTELNET

 Brief Description of Tool:

   HYTELNET is a terminate-and-stay-resident hypertext browser, which
   gives a user full instructions for logging into telnet-accessible
   sites on the Internet i.e., library catalogs, campus-wide information
   systems, bulletin boards, directory services, gophers, etc.  The
   browser does not make remote connections.  A Unix/VMS version, which
   does make remote connections, has been written by Earl Fogel,
   Computing Services, University of Saskatchewan.  Macintosh and Amiga
   versions are also available (see ftp site information below).

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Primary Contact(s):

  Name:                 Peter Scott

  Email address:        aa375@freenet.carleton.ca

  Postal Address:       324 8th Street East
                        Saskatoon, Sask, Canada S7H 0P5

  Telephone:            +1-306-966-5920

  Fax:                  +1-306-966-6040

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Help Line:

  Name:                 Peter Scott

  Email address:        aa375@freenet.carleton.ca

  Telephone:            +1-306-966-5920

  Level of support offered:
                        o volunteer



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994



  Hours available:      8:00 a.m - 3:30 p.m CST

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Related Working Groups:

  None

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Sponsoring Organisation / Funding source:

  None

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Mailing Lists:         HYTELNET Updates Distribution

  Address:              hytel-l@kentvm.kent.edu

  Administration:       By listowner Peter Scott
                        aa375@freenet.carleton.ca

  Description:

  To inform members of new versions of the software, and to keep users
  informed of new/changed/defunct Telnet-accessible sites
  To subscribe send e-mail message to listserv@kentvm.kent.edu with
  no subject, and    sub hytel-l firstname lastname  as the body of the
  message.

  Archive:              None

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 News groups:           bit.listserv.hytel-l

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Protocols:

  What is supported:

  What it runs over:

  Other NIR tools this interworks with:




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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  Future plans:         Possible translation into gopher format

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Servers:

   None.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Clients:

  Date completed or updated: 21 December, 1993
  By: Name:                  Peter Scott
      Email address:         aa375@freenet.carleton.ca

  Platform:                  DOS

  Primary Contact
  Name:                      Peter Scott
  Email address:             aa375@freenet.carleton.ca
  Telephone:                 +1-306-966-5920

  Client software available from:

   ftp.usask.ca in
   pub/hytelnet/pc as hytelnXX.zip, where XX = latest version number.
   pub/hytelnet/{amiga,unix,vms,mac}/* for respective versions

  Location of more information: finger scottp@jester.usask.ca

  Latest 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 to access.usask.ca
  (login: hytelnet)

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994



 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:

 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=






























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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 NETFIND

 Date template updated or checked:  1 March, 1994
 By: Name:              Mike Schwartz
     Email address:     schwartz@cs.colorado.edu

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 NIR Tool Name: Netfind

 Brief Description of Tool:

   Given the name of a person on the Internet and a rough description of
   where the person works, Netfind attempts to locate information about
   the person.  People can be specified by first, last, or login name.
   Their place of work can be described by name and/or the
   city/state/country.

   Netfind provides textual information about people, when it is able to
   locate such information.  It is not a directory in the usual sense of
   the word.  Rather, it searches for people using a number of Internet
   services and heuristics about how to locate user information.
   Because of the techniques it uses, Netfind can locate information
   about more people than any other Internet user directory - over 5
   million people in over 9,000 domains worldwide when last measured.

   You can use the University of Colorado Netfind server by telnet to
   bruno.cs.colorado.edu: login as "netfind" (with no password).  Help
   screens providing more detailed instructions and technical
   information are available there.  There is currently no way for non-
   Internet users to access Netfind (e.g., using an email interface).

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Primary Contact(s):

  Name:                 Mike Schwartz

  Email address:        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.)




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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  Fax:                  Declined.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Help Line:

  There are an increasing number of Netfind servers being set up at
  various Network Information Centers (including the U.S. Internic).
  However, since Netfind is provided as a volunteer service at this
  time, there is no help line.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Related Working Groups:

  Gopher, NIR, IIIR, IRTF-RD.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Sponsoring Organisation / Funding source:

  None.  Netfind was originally a research prototype.  It is offered
  as-is, on an unsupported basis.  From time to time the original
  developers make improvements, but it is not currently funded.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Mailing Lists:

  Address:              netfind-users@cs.colorado.edu

  Administration:       netfind-users-request@cs.colorado.edu

  Description:          mailing list for user changes and updates.

  Archive:              None.

                      ----------------------------

  Address:              netfind-servers@cs.colorado.edu

  Administration:       netfind-servers-request@cs.colorado.edu

  Description:          mailing list for sites running Netfind servers.

  Archive:              None.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 News groups:

  None.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Protocols:

  What is supported:    NVT ASCII.  At present no formal protocol is
                        used. We are currently implementing a client/
                        server protocol, which will allow better clients
                        and more efficient servers.

  What it runs over:    TCP/IP.

  Other NIR tools this interworks with:
                        Finger, Gopher, PH, SMTP, USENET news, UUCP
                        maps, Various NIC databases, Various service
                        logs, WAIS, WHOIS, X.500, DNS

  Future plans:

   Many.  Telnet to the server and see the "Future Directions" menu
   under the "Frequently Asked Questions" help menu.

   In addition to the above list, we are currently exploring
   possibilities to integrate the Netfind seed database gathering
   mechanisms into the Fremont framework, to make the process more
   scalable, and to support other types of information (e.g., to help
   with mapping the Internet).

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Servers:

  Date completed or updated:    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



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


          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 incorporates the ability for sites to
     register a set of URLs in their DNS server, pointing Netfind to a
     variety of different sources for information.  Netfind can now tap
     information from X.500, WHOIS, and PH, in addition to the previous
     sources it used (finger, etc.).  For more information see
     ftp://ftp.cs.colorado.edu/pub/cs/distribs/netfind/Netfind.WP.URLs

   Approximate number of such servers in use:

   17 public servers; hundreds or thousands of private stand-alone
   clients.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Clients:
  The Netfind client is available in the same release as the server.
  See above.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Demonstration sites:
  Site name: bruno.cs.colorado.edu
  The current list is:
     archie.au (AARNet, Melbourne, Australia)
     bruno.cs.colorado.edu (University of Colorado, Boulder)
     dino.conicit.ve (Nat. Council for Techn. & Scien. Research,
       Venezuela)
     ds.internic.net (InterNIC Directory and DB Services,
       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)



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


     nic.uakom.sk (Academy of Sciences, Banska Bystrica, Slovakia)
     redmont.cis.uab.edu (University of Alabama at Birmingham)

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Documentation:

  There are three primary sets of information available about Netfind.
  The first is a set of help information, available in the FTP
  distribution as well as from the help screens available from any
  Netfind server.  This information includes a fairly complete set of
  Frequently Asked Questions, as well as user help information and
  pointers to other related information.  The second is a
  pre-publication version of a technical paper about Netfind, available
  in

  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).

  An earlier paper is also available in

  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,

  containing some of the original ideas in Netfind and measurements of
  the system.  The Netfind.Gathering paper contains an up-to-date
  description of the data gathering and integration algorithms.

  The third source of information focuses particularly on the URL-based
  remote site customization mechanism, and is available in
  ftp://ftp.cs.colorado.edu/pub/cs/distribs/netfind/Netfind.WP.URLs

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Bibliography:

  Netfind is one prototype developed by the Networked Resource Discovery
  Project, at the University of Colorado - Boulder.  A bibliography and
  set of project papers is available by anonymous FTP from



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  ftp.cs.colorado.edu, in pub/cs/techreports/schwartz.  This directory
  contains a file called "README" that contains a project overview and
  bibliography.  The files in this directory are also available via an
  electronic mail interface.  For more information, send a mail message
  to infosrv@ftp.cs.colorado.edu, containing the message body (not
  subject line) "send HELP" (without quotes).

 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=











































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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 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:

   The Prospero directory service supports a user centered view of files
   scattered across the Internet.  It can be used to organize references
   to files as if they were on your local system, without the need to
   physically move them.

   Prospero provides access to existing directories and indices that can
   be used to find files of interest that are available from Internet
   archive sites.  Among the indices available is the archie database
   and a gateway to all Gopher menus, files, and searches.  We hope to
   have WAIS indices and World Wide Web documents online in the near
   future.

   Prospero also provides a mechanism to make directories and indices
   available to end-users and applications in a format that allows
   information from different sources to be integrated into a coherent
   whole.

   Prospero does not interpret the data that it organizes.  It does
   provide mechanisms to retrieve the data, but the display and use of
   the data is up to the user's application.  Prospero is intended to
   serve as infrastructure that integrates information from a variety of
   sources and supports a variety of user applications.

   Prospero allows fine grained authorization of requests to all
   objects, including directories and indices.  Prospero supports the
   authentication of clients through four mechanisms: (a) simple client
   assertion of the user's identity; (b) a trusted port mechanism
   similar to that used by the Berkeley UNIX R commands; (c) a simple
   cleartext passwording mechanism; (d) Kerberos (version 5).  The
   maintainer of an ACL chooses which of these mechanisms he or she
   wishes to accept as proof of the client's identity.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Primary Contact(s):




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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  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:            +1-310-822-1511

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Help Line:

  Name: Info Prospero

  Email address: info-prospero@isi.edu

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Related Working Groups:

  IETF IAFA WG
  IETF IIIR WG
  IETF URI WG
  IETF NIR WG
  IRTF Resource Discovery WG




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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Sponsoring Organisation / Funding source:

  Information Sciences Institute, University of Southern California

  The design and implementation was supported in part by the National
  Science Foundation (Grant No. CCR-8619663), the Washington Technology
  Center, Digital Equipment Corporation, and the Advanced Research
  Projects Agency under NASA Cooperative Agreement NCC-2-539.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Mailing Lists:

  Address:              info-prospero@ISI.EDU

  Administration:       info-prospero-request@ISI.EDU

  Description:          This mailing list is really two one-way mailing
                        lists.  Send mail to INFO-PROSPERO to obtain
                        information about Prospero, papers, or the
                        release.  Mail to INFO-PROSPERO will not be
                        passed on to subscribers. INFO-PROSPERO is also
                        the list to which we will send status updates
                        and information on how to obtain new releases.

  Archive:              Via anonymous FTP to PROSPERO.ISI.EDU as
                        /pub/prospero/mail/info-prospero.arc

            Via Prospero in the "#/INET/EDU/ISI/GUEST/prototype" virtual
            system as /sites/isi.edu/pub/prospero/mail/info-prospero.arc

                       --------------------------

  Address:              prospero@ISI.EDU

  Administration:       prospero-request@ISI.EDU

  Description:          This mailing list is for general discussion of
                        Prospero, for announcements of new sites that
                        have come on board, and for announcements of
                        directories that people have created to organize
                        the information already accessible.

  Archive:              Via anonymous FTP to PROSPERO.ISI.EDU as
                        /pub/prospero/mail/prospero.arc




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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


            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



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


   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




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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  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.



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 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,



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


     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.



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  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.

  Anonymous FTP: /pub/prospero/papers/UW-CSE-90-05-01.PS.Z
  (POSTSCRIPT)
     @TECHREPORT{vsmtp,
     AUTHOR      = "Neuman, B. Clifford",
     TITLE       = "The {V}irtual {S}ystem {M}odel: A Scalable Approach
                    to Organizing Large Systems (A Thesis Proposal)",
     INSTITUTION = "Department of Computer Science and Engineering,
                    University of Washington",
     YEAR        = 1990,
     MONTH       = "May",
     NUMBER      = "90-05-01"}

  for a long time this was the best description of Prospero, but



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  all the information in this document appears in more recent papers and
  the dissertation itself.

  Anonymous FTP: /pub/prospero/papers/prospero-closure.ps.Z
  (POSTSCRIPT)
     @ARTICLE{nfclosure,
     AUTHOR      = "Neuman, B. Clifford",
     TITLE       = "The Need for Closure in Large Distributed Systems",
     JOURNAL     = "Operating Systems Review",
     MONTH       = "October",
     YEAR        = 1989,
     VOLUME      = 23,
     NUMBER      = 4,
     PAGES       = "28--30"}

  This paper describes the reasons that operating systems need to
  support closure, that is they need to make it clear which name space
  is to be used when resolving names.  While closure is one of the
  important features of Prospero, the concept should be applied in other
  operating systems too.


  Prospero:
 /papers/subjects/operating-systems/prospero/prospero-neuman-thesis.ps.Z
  Anonymous FTP: /pub/prospero/papers/prospero-neuman-thesis.ps.Z
  (POSTSCRIPT)
     @PHDTHESIS{phdneuman,
     AUTHOR      = "Neuman, B. Clifford",
     TITLE       = "The {V}irtual {S}ystem {M}odel: A Scalable Approach
                    to Organizing Large Systems",
     SCHOOL      = "University of Washington",
     MONTH       = "June",
     YEAR        = 1992,
     NOTE        = "Department of Computer Science and Engineering
                    Technical Report 92-06-04"}

  This is Clifford Neuman's Ph.D. Dissertation.  It is currently the
  definitive work on Prospero and the Virtual System Model.  Includes
  an obsolete version of the Prospero User's Manual and of the Prospero
  Protocol Specification.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Other Information:

  We provide three documented library interfaces to Prospero in order to
  make client writing easy.




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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  The PFS and PCOMPAT libraries are documented in the library reference
  manual.  The PFS library allows one to directly make Prospero requests
  and parse the results and to manipulate Prospero objects as
  abstractions.  The PCOMPAT library is an interface to the PFS library
  which uses the same interface as the UNIX filesystem; one can link
  many existing programs with the PCOMPAT library in order to get it to
  resolve names in the Prospero namespace.  It is not as portable as the
  PFS library and does not provide as much functionality.

  The third library interface is the menu-browser API library.  It is
  documented in the menu-based browser API manual and is used by our
  menu-based browser.

 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=





































Foster                                                         [Page 73]


RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 VERONICA

 Date template updated or checked:      28 February, 1994
 By: Name:              Steven Foster
     Email address:     foster@veronica.scs.unr.edu

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 NIR Tool Name:  veronica

 Brief Description of Tool:

   veronica: Very Easy Rodent-Oriented Net-wide Index to Computerized
             Archives.

   veronica is the comprehensive title-index of the world's gopher
   servers.  Because of veronica, the Gopher web is a search-and-
   retrieval system as well as a browsing system.  veronica is popular
   because the ubiquitous Gopher client can both access the search
   server, and provide immediate access to the discovered resources.
   Taking advantage of Gopher's linked menus, and of the policy of open
   access at most gopher sites, veronica finds and indexes almost all
   items on publicly-accessible gopher servers.

   As of 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 are 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 easily accessed via any Gopher client.  It offers various
   types of searches, ranging from single-keyword searches to boolean
   queries of indefinite complexity.

   A veronica search originates with a user's request for a search,
   submitted from a gopher client.  The searches may include boolean
   operators ( AND, OR, NOT, and parentheses ) and several options to
   control the number of items returned, and to restrict the search to
   certain gopher types.  The result of a veronica search is a set of
   gopher-type data items, which is returned to the gopher client as a
   gopher menu.  Each item on this menu contains the user's desired
   keyword or keywords in the item title.

   The user can access any of the gopher items by selecting from the
   returned menu.  Items on this menu may be drawn from many gopher
   servers.  Because veronica is accessed through gopher clients, it
   provides immediate access to all types of data supported by the



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


   gopher protocol and the client implementation.

   The veronica service comprises two functions:

   1) Harvesting menu data from gopher servers, and preparing it for
      use;
   2) Offering searches of that database to gopher clients.

   These two functions are not necessarily provided by the same host
   computer.  Currently collection and preparation of data are done at
   University of Nevada, and datasets are distributed to the other
   veronica servers.

   The veronica service infrastructure has been fairly stable since
   July, 1993, with 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 to build a locally held menu of Public available
   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



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  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:                  +1-702-784-1108

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Help Line:

  Name:                 veronica development team

  Email address:        veronica@veronica.scs.unr.edu

  Telephone:            no telephone support available

  Level of support offered:  all users

  Hours available:      irregular response latencies to email queries,
                        based on schedule of developers.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Related Working Groups:        GOPHER, FACETS

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Sponsoring Organisation / Funding source:

  University and Community College System of Nevada Computer Services,
  and University of Nevada, Reno.  Additional support has been
  provided by CNIDR, Pandora Systems, Inc., and Pacific Bell Co.
  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.edu




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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 News groups:

  Name:         veronica discussion happens on comp.infosystems.gopher

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Protocols:

  What is supported:    Gopher protocol, Gopher+ protocol

  What it runs over:    TCP

  Other NIR tools this interworks with:  Gopher, WAIS, ftp

  Future plans:         Implement extensions with Gopher+.
                        Support for URN/URL standards.
                        Per-site updates of indexes.
                        Subject-area-specific indexes.
                        Indexes for USENET news and LISTSERV articles.
                        Automated server load-levelling.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Servers:

  Date completed or updated:    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/



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


                                    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.

   1.      Data-collector runs on any Unix computer that does TCP
           and compiles perl.  This has not been distributed yet.
           Data collection, data preparation, and indexing are being
           done at veronica.scs.unr.edu.  The harvester "walks" all
           advertised gopher servers, and any newly-discovered servers.
           Almost all redundant links are removed, leaving the
           ( hopefully ) canonical reference for each item.
           Indexes are built at Nevada, and the indexed dataset is
           distributed to server sites.

   2.      Server module.
           Servers run on unix computers and answer to gopher-type-7
           requests.  Boolean keyword logic is implemented.  See file
           "how-to-compose-veronica-queries".  Several options allow
           retrieval of items with specified gopher-types, retrieval
           of a file of links containing the search results, and
           override for the default limit on number of results returned,
           which is 200 items.

           Server software runs on most flavors of unix, requires dbm
           and perl, and requires about 1.4 GB of data on disk, with
           considerable /tmp space available.

           Server software is available to any site which wants to run
           a server.  Server sites are encouraged to offer the service
           to the net at large.




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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  Approximate number of such servers in use:  twelve.


  Auxiliary tool:  Maltshop v. 0.2d
  Maltshop builds a menu of Public Gopher Servers for the local
  gopher menu.

   Maltshop software 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 menu

  General comments:

   Basic veronica service has been fairly stable since July 1993.
   Indexing is quite efficient, and most queries are resolved in ten
   seconds or quicker.  More than 1,000,000 queries were resolved in
   February, 1994.

   Though veronica is well-accepted at this level of service, we are
   undertaking significant upgrade efforts during Winter 93-94.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 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+



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


                                clients, allowing queries to be
                                composed by ASK blocks.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Demonstration sites:

  Site name:            UCCSN veronica server
  Access details:       gopher to veronica.scs.unr.edu, port 70.
                        Open "veronica" folder; choose one of
                        the search types available.

  Site name:            University of Minnesota Gopher server
  Access details:       gopher to gopher.tc.umn.edu, port 70.
                        Other Gopher and Information Servers
                        Search Gopherspace with veronica.
                        choose one of the search types available.

  Site name:            NYSERNET veronica server
  Access details:       gopher to nysernet.org, port 70.
                        Open "Search the Internet" folder;
                                choose one of veronica searches.

  Site name:            SERRA veronica server
  Access details:       gopher to gopher.unipi.it, port 70.
                        Open "University of Pisa - Services"  folder;
                                choose the veronica search.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Documentation:

  Document Title:       veronica FAQ:  Common Questions and answers
                        about veronica, a title search and retrieval
                        system for use with the internet gopher.

  Location details:
        Via Gopher:
        Site:           veronica.scs.unr.edu, port 70.
                          veronica
                             veronica FAQ
                        Full file name: veronica-faq

        Site:           gopher.micro.umn.edu, port 70.
                          Other Gopher and Information services
                            Search Gopherspace with veronica
                              veronica FAQ
                        Full file name: veronica-faq



Foster                                                         [Page 80]


RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


        Site:           gopher.cnidr.org, port 70.
                          veronica
                            veronica FAQ
                        Full file name: veronica-faq

        Via anonymous ftp:
        Site:           veronica.scs.unr.edu
                        veronica-docs/veronica-faq

  Document Title:       How to Compose veronica Search Queries.

  Location details:
        Via Gopher:
        Site:           veronica.scs.unr.edu, port 70.
                          veronica
                             How to Compose veronica Search Queries.
                        Full file name:  how-to-query-veronica

        Site:           gopher.cnidr.org, port 70.
                          veronica
                             How to Compose veronica Search Queries.
                        Full file name:  how-to-query-veronica

        Via anonymous ftp:
        Site:           veronica.scs.unr.edu
                        veronica-docs/how-to-query-veronica


  Document Title:       About veronica.

  Location details:
        Via Gopher:
        Site:           veronica.scs.unr.edu, port 70.
                          veronica
                            About veronica
                        Full file name: veronica-about

        Site:           gopher.micro.umn.edu, port 70.
                          Other Gopher and Information services
                            Search Gopherspace with veronica
                              About veronica
                        Full file name: veronica-about

        Site:           gopher.cnidr.org, port 70.
                          veronica
                            About veronica
                        Full file name: veronica-about




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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Bibliography: none

 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=














































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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 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.org

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 NIR Tool Name:   WAIS

 Brief Description of Tool:

   WAIS - The Wide Area Information Servers system - is an electronic
   publishing software set which allows you to search out and retrieve
   multimedia information from databases anywhere in the world.  WAIS
   databases may 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, and server
   software that provides automatic indexing of databases.

   WAIS was developed by Thinking Machines Corporation of Cambridge,
   Massachusetts in collaboration with Apple Computer, Inc., Dow Jones &
   Company, and KPMG Peat Marwick.  With over 100 databases and 5,000
   users worldwide, WAIS is rapidly becoming a standard for information
   distribution within the Internet environment.

   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 enables you to
      find personal, corporate and public information.  The information
      is accessible regardless of format: text, formatted documents,
      pictures, spreadsheets, graphics, sound, or video.




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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


      WAIS recognizes natural language queries. The search and retrieval
      of relevant information is made using your native language.  To
      date, we have used English, French, Italian, and Latin!  The most
      relevant documents, regardless of size, can be sent back to the
      server in their entirety to further refine your search (telling
      the server, "Find me more like this document.") Proven searches
      can be automatically repeated, monitoring and alerting you to new
      information as it becomes available.

   How does WAIS work?

      WAIS uses a single computer-to-computer protocol (NISO Z39.50-
      1988).  Each WAIS server reads your question and based on its
      words, searches the full text of the database for the most
      relevant documents, and ranks them using automatic word weighting.
      Servers need not fully understand your query; the retrieval
      process is based on a search method called relevance feedback.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 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:                  +1-415-327-6513

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Primary 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:                  +1-919-248-1101




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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Help Line (WAIS, Inc.):

  Name:

  Email address:        support@wais.com

  Telephone:

  Level of support offered:      commercial customers only

  Hours available:      anytime

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Help 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 EST

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Related Working Groups (WAIS, Inc.):

  Z39.50 protocol group

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Related Working Groups (CNIDR):

  NISO: Z39.50 Implementor's Group (ZIG)
  IETF: IIIR (Integrating Internet Information Resources) Working Group
        URI (Uniform Resource Identifiers) Working Group

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Sponsoring Organisation / Funding source (WAIS, Inc.):

  WAIS, Inc.




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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Sponsoring Organisation / Funding source (CNIDR):

  National Science Foundation Cooperative Agreement MCNC University of
  North Carolina at Chapel Hill Other U.S.  Government agencies

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 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 server

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 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.com

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 News groups (WAIS, Inc. and CNIDR):

  Name:                 comp.infosystems.wais

  Description:          Variable quality information on WAIS/freeWAIS.

  Archive:              wais-talk-archive WAIS server

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------




Foster                                                         [Page 86]


RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 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 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.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Servers (CNIDR):               freeware for most UNIX platforms



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  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.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 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



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  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 released

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 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:

                          ------------------

  Date completed or updated:    13th December, 1993
  By: Name:                     Brewster Kahle



Foster                                                         [Page 89]


RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


      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:

                       --------------------------

  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




Foster                                                         [Page 90]


RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  Location of more information:
       telnet to quake.think.com log in as wais.

  Latest version number:

  Brief Scope and Characteristics:

  General comments:

  Future plans:

                          ------------------

  Date completed or updated:    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:

                          ------------------

  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



Foster                                                         [Page 91]


RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  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 present

                          ------------------

  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:

                          ------------------



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  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:

                          ------------------

  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:




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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  Future plans:

                          ------------------

  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:

                          ------------------

  Date completed or updated:    13th December, 1993
  By: Name:                     Brewster Kahle
      Email address:            Brewster@wais.com

  Platform:                     RS6000

  Primary Contact:
  Name:                         Dennis Shiao
  Email address:                shiao@ans.net
  Telephone:

  Client software available from:
       /pub/freeware/rs6000/wais-8-b3-dist.tar.Z@wais.com

  Location of more information:

  Latest version number:




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  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:

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Demonstration sites:

  List of sites which are willing to act as demonstration sites for this
  application.

      Site name:                  quake.think.com
      Access details:           telnet quake.think.com
                                        login as wais.
      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:

  o   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.com

  - "Interfaces for Distributed Systems of Information Servers",
     Brewster Kahle, Harry Morris, Jonathan Goldman (Thinking Machines
     Corporation), Thomas Erickson (Apple Computer), John Curran (NSF
     Network Service Center), March, 1992.  (formally named "Interfaces
     for Wide Area Information Servers")



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  Available via anonymous ftp:
       /pub/wais-inc-doc/txt/Interfaces.txt@ftp.wais.com
       or WAIS server wais-discussion-archives.src

  o   instructions to information providers

  See the documentation in the release:
       /pub/freeware/unix-src/wais-8-b5.1.tar.z@wais.com
       or the wais-docs.src WAIS server.

  o   user manuals

  The Mac interface WAIStation has a user manual.  The unix
  commands have man pages.

  o   training materials
       - tutorials
       - canned demos

  - Macintosh demostration screen-movie: Steve Cisler of Apple put
    together a short screen-recorder movie for seeing some of what
    WAIStation does.
    Available via anonymous FTP:
    /pub/wais-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

  Available in special circumstances. Contact info@wais.com.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Bibliography:

  - "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.src









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 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Other Information:

  Check for current information about freeWAIS on CNIDR's gopher and WWW
  servers: gopher.cnidr.org and www.cnidr.org

 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=











































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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 WHOIS

 Date template updated or checked:       17 March, 1994
 By: Name:       Joan Gargano
     Email address:  jcgargano@ucdavis.edu

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 NIR Tool Name: Whois

 Brief Description of Tool:

   As currently defined, NICNAME/WHOIS services is a TCP transaction
   based query/response server, running on a few specific central
   machines, that provides netwide directory service to internet users.
   Since the WHOIS service was defined in 1985, it has evolved into a
   distributed service.

   The 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.



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


   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(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:            +1-703-742-4777

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 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)



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 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Sponsoring Organisation / Funding source:

  National Science Foundations

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Mailing Lists:

  Address:              ietf-wnils@ucdavis.edu

  Administration:       ietf-wnils-request

  Description:          This mailing list is used by the IETF Whois and
                        Network Information Lookup Service (WNILS)
                        working group which is defining enhancements
                        to whois.

  Archive:              ftp.ucdavis.edu:/archive/wnils-archive

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 News groups:           None.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Protocols:

  What is supported:    TCP/whois

  What it runs over:    TCP/IP networks

  Other NIR tools this interworks with:

  Future plans:         Enhancements through Whois++
                        Enhancements  through Referral Whois.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Servers:

  Date completed or updated:      4 March, 1994
  By: Name:                       Joan Gargano

  Platform:                       Unix

  Primary Contact:                Network Solutions, Inc.



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  Name:                           Hostmaster
  Email address:                  hostmaster@rs.internic.net
  Telephone:                      +1-703-742-4777

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 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:

  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:

  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.Paper

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 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





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        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:

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Evaluation:

 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=





































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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 World-Wide Web

 Date template updated or checked:      28th January, 1994
 By: Name:                              Tim Berners-Lee
     Email address:                     timbl@info.cern.ch

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 NIR Tool Name:            World-Wide Web

 Brief Description of Tool:

   The WWW project merges the techniques of 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.

   READER VIEW

      The WWW world consists of documents, and links.  Indexes are
      special documents which, rather than being read, may be searched.
      The result of such a search is another ("virtual") document
      containing links to the documents found.  A simple protocol ("
      HTTP ") is used to allow a browser program to request a keyword
      search by a remote information server.

      The web contains documents in many formats.  Those documents which
      are hypertext, (real or virtual) contain links to other documents,
      or places within documents.  All documents, whether real, virtual
      or indexes, look similar to the reader and are contained within
      the same addressing scheme.

      To follow a link, a reader clicks with a mouse (or types in a
      number if he or she has no mouse).  To search and index, a reader
      gives keywords (or other search criteria).  These are the only
      operations necessary to access the entire world of data.






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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


   INFORMATION PROVIDER VIEW

      The WWW browsers can access many existing data systems via
      existing protocols (FTP, NNTP) or via HTTP and a gateway.  In this
      way, the critical mass of data is quickly exceeded, and the
      increasing use of the system by readers and information suppliers
      encourage each other.

      Providing information is as simple as running the W3 server and
      pointing it at an existing directory structure.  The server
      automatically generates the hypertext view of your files to guide
      the user around.

      To personalize it, you can write a few SGML hypertext files to
      give an even more friendly view.  Also, any file available by
      anonymous FTP, or any internet newsgroup can be immediately linked
      into the web.  The very small start-up effort is designed to allow
      small contributions.  At the other end of the scale, large
      information providers may provide an HTTP server with full text or
      keyword indexing.  This may allow access to a large existing
      database without changing the way that database is managed.  Such
      gateways have already been made into Oracle(tm), WAIS, and
      Digital's VMS/Help systems, to name but a few.

      The WWW model gets over the frustrating incompatibilities of data
      format between suppliers and reader by allowing negotiation of
      format between a smart browser and a smart server.  This should
      provide a basis for extension into multimedia, and allow those who
      share application standards to make full use of them across the
      web.

      This summary does not describe the many exciting possibilities
      opened up by the WWW project, such as efficient document caching.
      The reduction of redundant out-of-date copies, and the use of
      knowledge daemons.  There is more information in the online
      project documentation, including some background on hypertext and
      many technical notes.

   GETTING STARTED

      You can bootstrap yourself into the web by telnetting to
      info.cern.ch (no user or password). You can try a full screen
      interface "Lynx" by telnetting to ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu, login in
      as "www".  You can also find out more about WWW in this way.
      These are the least sophisticated browsers -- remember that the
      window-oriented ones are much smarter!  It is much more efficient
      to install a browser on your own machine, and you have many more
      facilities.



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


      If you have an X-windows based workstation, PC or Mac just FTP to
      FTP.NCSA.UIUC.EDU and get the binary of NCSA's "Mosaic" browser in
      directory /Web/Mosaic-binaries. Download it, uncompress it, set it
      executable, and run it.  It will tell you all you need to know.

      Mosaic is now available for PCs and Apple Macs.

      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] if
      you take both files

                /pub/www/src/WWWLibrary_v.vv.tar.Z.
                /pub/www/src/WWWLineMode_v.vv.tar.Z.

      (v.vv is the version number - take the latest.)

   Also available is a hypertext editor for the NeXT (in
   /pub/www/bin/next), the MidasWWW and ViolaWWW browsers for X11, an
   alpha-test Mac browser, and and a basic server
   (/pub/www/src/WWWDaemon_v.vv.tar.Z).  Documentation, including the
   latest list of software available , is readable using www.  A plain
   text version of the installation instructions is included in the tar
   file!

   Printable (postscript) documentation and articles are in /pub/www/doc
   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




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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 -------------------------------------------------------------------------

 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.



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


                        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.



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994



  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 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




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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  General comments:

       Some servers serve many databases.

       Many tools available for serving different sorts
       of information

               Gnu info
               teX
               SGML
               man pages

       etc., as hypertext.

                    --------------------------------

  Other servers:
   For more information use WWW to access
   http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/Daemon/Overview.html

   Servers include:

    NCSA server    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.

                      ---------------------------

 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



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994



  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.

       When hypertext messages are retrieved, the links are
       numbered like [1] and a list of URLs of referenced documents
       is appended to the document.

       Send message containing HELP to listserv@info.cern.ch for
       details.

  Approximate number of such servers in use:   1 (-3?)

  General comments

       Extends potential readership of W3 information to anyone
       with email, so an important step for universal readership.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 NOTE: A full list of client software is kept in
       http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/Clients.html
       and is not repeated here, as the list is constantly
       changing. Around 20 different clients. Telnet to info.cern.ch
       to see the list. Only the Line Mode Browser, lynx and
       Mosaic are covered here.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 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




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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  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:        2.14

  Brief Scope and Characteristics:

   The LineMode Browser is suitable for use on dumb terminals, requiring
   no control sequences except for carriage return and line feed.  It is
   also of course useable from terminal emulators in workstation windows.
   It can also be used as a text formatter, as part of a mail server,
   and as a general information retrieval tool.

   History list, Back/Next/Previous/Home navigation, ability to print or
   save documents (or pipe to shell commands on unix).

  General comments:

   Very stable product which has many uses apart from interactive use.
   Generates C .h files from hypertext marked files, etc.
   Source release requires W3 library product.
   Public Domain.

  Future plans:

   Future enhancements to 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)

                  -----------------------------------

  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



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


   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:       2.2

  Brief Scope and Characteristics:

   Lynx clients provide a user-friendly hypertext interface to
   all of the major internet protocols for character cell (vt100)
   terminal users on UNIX and VMS platforms.  Lynx natively
   understands Gopher, HTTP, WAIS, FTP, NNTP (USENET NEWS) and
   CSO protocols and can transparently retrieve information using
   any of them.  Lynx can also launch telnet and tn3270 sessions
   and has support to run executable programs on the local machine
   so that it can be used as a menuing system.  Lynx is a part of
   the World Wide Web (WWW) project and has all of the features
   of a WWW client including HTML support and HTML+ forms support.
   Additional resource types such as Archie Techinfo, X.500, and
   Hytelnet may be also accessed through HTTP and Gopher gateway
   functions.

  Future plans:

   Development of 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 CST

  Demonstration sites:

   Site name:                  ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
   Access details:             telnet ukanaix.cc.ukanse.du
                               login as "www"



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  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.Z

  Sponsoring Organisation / Funding source:

    Academic Computing Services
    University of Kansas

  Mailing Lists:

    Address:                   lynx-dev@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
    Administration:            listserv@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu

                  -----------------------------------

  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





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   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:  1.1

  Brief Scope and Characteristics:

   NCSA Mosaic for the X Window System is a client interface to a wide
   variety of networked information systems, including World Wide Web,
   Gopher, WAIS, FTP, Usenet News, Archie, Techinfo, X.500, Hytelnet,
   Telnet, NCSA Data Management Facility, CSO ph/qi and others.  It
   offers a Motif-based point-and-click X interface with support for
   plaintext, formatted text, and embedded images; hyperlinks can also
   refer to images, video sequences, audio clips, PostScript files, etc.

   Mosaic also offers substantial interaction and collaboration
   facilities, including global history tracking, text and voice
   annotations, group/community-wide annotations, and more.

  General comments:

  Sponsoring Organisation:
   National Center for Supercomputing Applications

  Future plans:

   Enhancement of the NCSA Mosaic environment to support advanced
   networked information systems and collaboration capabilities;
   development of clients on other architectures; research and
   development into intelligent agent-style user assistance mechanisms
   and novel navigation and representation strategies for dense, dynamic
   distributed information spaces.  (This is all dependent upon funding,
   of course.) Beta-test versions of Mac and Microsoft Windows 3.1
   were released in the fall of 1993.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Demonstration sites:

   See individual sections on clients.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------







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 Documentation:

  All the W3 documentation available is in the web.  Some is also dumped
  off into postscript.  Here are the URLs of entry points into the web
  for the subjects requested:

  ** To retrieve any document by URL, use WWW (www <url> for example) or
  ** send mail containing the command "send " followed by the URL to
  ** listserv@info.cern.ch

    o current overview

       http://info.cern.ch./hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html

       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.html

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------






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 [General WWW bibliography]

 Bibliography:

  o For latest list, see:
           http://info.cern.ch./hypertext/WWW/Bibliography.html

                  Bibliography 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 of course 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 is not there
  somewhere, it may not be anywhere.

  Seek and ye shall find.  And if ye don't, mail someone to fix it.

 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
























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 X.500 White Pages

  Date completed or updated: 10 March, 1994
  By: Name:          Chris Weider
      Email address: clw@bunyip.com

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 NIR Tool Name: X.500

 Brief Description of Tool:

   X.500 is an international standard designed to provide a distributed
   global directory service.  It is primarily used today to provide
   'White Pages' services, although other types of services which have
   directory components (automated mail aliasing, for example) are
   beginning to be run over X.500.  In addition to information about
   people and organizations, the Directory also contains a pilot K-12
   Directory, pilot Information Resource information, and some other
   non-White Pages information.  X.500 contains a number of security
   features, which are implemented on different paradigms in the various
   servers.

   User's View:

      Users (either human or electronic) run a client program to connect
      to a local X.500 server.  Since X.500 is distributed, it appears
      that the entire global X.500 directory is available from the local
      server.  From this server connection, the user can add, delete, or
      modify information held by the Directory, or issue powerful search
      commands to locate individuals or other information.

      The first solid version of the X.500 protocol was released in
      1988, and has been the subject of much research in the past 5
      years.  Consequently, there are a large number of clients, for
      almost every platform, and a healthy number of servers.  There are
      mail interfaces to some parts of the X.500 directory, and there is
      a X.500 to Gopher gateway.  An X.500 interface to archie is
      currently under development, as well as an X.500 to WWW interface.

   Information Provider's View:

      X.500 provides a set of mechanisms to allow distributed location
      of, maintenance of, and access to a large set of data.  However,
      current servers force a hierarchical view on the location of the
      data, so it may not be suitable for all applications.  Also, the
      X.500 directory is today unable to provide access to information
      at a rate which would allow 'real-time' applications (such as



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      keeping routing information in the directory).

      Also, there is a great effort underway to reduce the startup costs
      of X.500 access by providing a lightweight X.500 access protocol
      for client-server applications.  This work is detailed in RFC
      1487:

      "Lightweight Directory Access Protocol", by Yeong, Howes, and
      Kille.  This protocol is expected to make the cost of entry for a
      service provider much less that it has been.

   Information Types Supported:

      X.500 allows information to be served in an attribute:value
      paradigm, with related attributes grouped into 'objects'. Each
      entry in the directory can be described by multiple objects.
      Attributes can have values which are text strings, dereferenceable
      file names, or text-encoded photographs, and experimentation is
      underway to keep digitally encoded sounds in the directory.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Primary Contact(s):

  Name:                 The PARADISE Project

  Email address:        helpdesk@paradise.ulcc.ac.uk


  Name:                 The White Pages Pilot Project

  Email address:        wpp-manager@psi.com

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Help Line:

  X.500 encompasses a great number of clients and as a distributed
  system does not have a central help line. Please see the
  Documentation section for pointers to servers, clients, and associated
  help lines.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Related Working Groups:

  IETF's OSI-DS (OSI Directory Services)
  IETF's IDS (Integrated Directory Services)



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  OSI Implementor's Workshop's DS-SIG (Directory Services-SIG)
  RARE's WG-NAP (Network Application Support)

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Sponsoring Organisation / Funding source:

  Not Applicable

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Mailing Lists:

  Address:              osi-ds@cs.ucl.ac.uk

  Administration:       osi-ds-request@cs.ucl.ac.uk

  Description:          Mail list for OSI-DS working group.

                         -------------------

  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/current



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 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Protocols:

  What is supported:    X.500

  What it runs over:    Applications run on full ISO stack down to
                        transport over TCP/IP + RFC1006, CONS, CLNS, or
                        X.25(80)

  Other NIR tools this interworks with: Gateways to Gopher and WWW.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Servers:

  A full list of servers and clients is available in FYI 11, RFC 1292,
  "A guide to available X.500 Implementations". See the Documentation
  section for the location of this document. However, the most widely
  deployed server is listed here for convenience.

  QUIPU

  Date completed or updated:    21 October, 1993
  By: Name:                     Chris Weider
      E-Mail:                   clw@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: 400

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

  Demonstration sites:

   Site name: paradise.ulcc.ac.uk



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   Access details: telnet to paradise.ulcc.ac.uk
                   login as dua

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Documentation:

  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



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  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.

 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=






































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7.   NIR Groups

   This section contains information about the various groups working in
   the area of networked information retrieval.  The groups are listed
   alphabetically within their overall groupings (CNI, IETF, RARE,
   etc.).  See Section 3.

 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

 CNI Groups

 Date template updated or checked: 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.org

 Description of main group:

   The Coalition for Networked Information was founded in March 1990 to
   help realize the promise of high performance networks and computers
   for the advancement of scholarship and the enrichment of intellectual
   productivity.  The Coalition is a partnership of the Association of
   Research Libraries (ARL), CAUSE, and EDUCOM.  ARL is dedicated to
   equitable access to, and effective use of, recorded knowlege in
   support of teaching, research, scholarship, and community service,
   and CAUSE and EDUCOM are dedicated to different aspects of the
   introduction, use, and management of information technology and
   related resources in research and education in general and higher
   education in particular.  The Coalition pursues its mission with the



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   assistance of a task force that provides a common vehicle by which
   more than 190 institutions and organizations are exploring a shared
   vision of how information management must change in the 1990s to meet
   the social and economic opportunities and challenges of the 21st
   century.  Members of the Coalition Task Force include, among others,
   higher education institutions, publishers, network service providers,
   computer hardware, software, and systems companies, library networks
   and organizations, and public and state libraries. A truly diverse
   collaboration of institutions and organizations.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Primary Contact(s):

  Name:                         Paul Evan Peters

  Email address:                paul@cni.org

  Postal Address:               Coalition for Networked Information
                                21 Dupont Circle, N.W.
                                Washington, D.C. 20036
                                USA

  Telephone:                    +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




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  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

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Mailing Lists:

  Address:         cni-announce@cni.org

  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

                        ------------------------



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  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




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                       --------------------------

  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:

  None.  The Coalition relies on the publication programs of its parent
  organizations (ARL, CAUSE, and EDUCOM) to disseminate printed
  information on the Coalition's projects and programs.  Information on
  the Coalition's program is also disseminated via electronic mailing
  lists on the network.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Bibliography:                  None

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Other Information:

  URL:gopher://gopher.cni.org 70/CNI Working Group Forums/*



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  BRS/SEARCH full-text       telnet a.cni.org
  information retrieval
  system:                    login: brsuser

 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=














































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 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

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------




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 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

 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

















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 Date template updated or checked: 1st March, 1994
 By: Name:          Craig A. Summerhill
     Email address: craig@cni.org

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 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

 Description of main group:

  This group recognizes the need for open systems, standards, and
  therefore, interoperable products and services based upon a
  distributed architecture of servers that draw upon a common or at
  least comparable set of data elements.  It is creating a (printed
  and networked) directory of directories and resource information
  services that provide qualitative (consumer) as well as descriptive
  information.  The group supports the Library of Congress effort to
  enhance the MARC formats to account for the cataloging requirements of
  networked resources and services, and the National Science Foundation
  effort to procure a new NSFNet Network Information Center.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Primary Contact(s):

  Name:                         George Brett

  Email address:                George.Brett@cnidr.org

  Postal Address:

   Clearinghouse for Networked Information Discovery and Retrieval
   Center for Communications at MCNC
   PO Box 12889, 3021 Cornwallis Road
   Research Triangle Park, NC  27709-2889
   USA

  Telephone:                    +1-919-248-1499

  Fax:                          +1-919-248-1101



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                         ---------------------

  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

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------




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 Bibliography:                  None

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Other Information:             None

 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=












































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 Date template updated or checked: 1st March, 1994
 By: Name:          Craig A. Summerhill
     Email address: craig@cni.org

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 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.

      Based on their response to a Call for Statements of Interest and
      Experience, Indiana University and Merit Network, Inc.  were
      chosen to lead the development effort on the Coalition TopNode
      project.  Pete Percival, Manager, Academic Information Environment
      at Indiana University and Craig Summerhill, Coalition Systems
      Coordinator, have completed the design for the database structure
      which is being built on the Coalition's Internet fileserver using
      BRS/SEARCH.  Based on earlier work of the leaders of the
      Directories and Resource Information Services Working Group,
      George Brett II of the University of North Carolina General
      Administration and Peggy Seiden of Skidmore College Library,
      Percival and Summerhill have developed a data structure that they
      believe to be both flexible and responsive to the needs of the
      many interested parties who have been consulted.

      Under the direction of Gary Charbonneau of the Indiana University
      Libraries, records are being created and prepared for loading.  A



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      thesaurus of added descriptor terms is being maintained.  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.  In
      addition, MERIT will use the TopNode database in an experiment to
      test the viability of the X.500 directory format standard for
      providing yellow pages-type services (e.g., with subject access).
      After its initial release, the database will be maintained by
      Indiana University libraries on the Coalition server; BRS has
      assisted in the development of procedures for online data entry.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Primary Contact(s):

  Name:                         Pete Percival

  Email address:                percival@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



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  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

 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 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:

 Description of main group:

  Several user-friendly client-server software tools have  been
  developed recently for locating and retrieving information
  published on computer platforms reachable over wide-area data
  communications networks like the Internet. Among them, freeWAIS
  (freely available wide-area information system), the Internet
  Gopher, archie, and the WorldWide Web (WWW) have become popular.
  freeWAIS, archie, and Gopher indicate where information of
  interest is likely to reside and then assist the user in locating
  specific information. WWW permits a user to thread a path through
  the network by selecting tagged hypertext items.

  While focused on the evolution of wide-area information retrieval
  systems, the Clearinghouse for Networked Information Discovery
  and Retrieval (CNIDR) works closely with developers of other
  tools toward providing compatibility, consistency, and, to the
  extent possible, convergence of the tools.

  Specific activities are to provide a central focus and forum for
  networked information discovery and retrieval (NIDR) tools and to
  minimize the divergence of individual implementations by
  providing a repository for the collection, evaluation, and
  distribution of protocol-compliant releases and enhanced
  versions.

  CNIDR participates in standards and policy associations such as
  the Internet Engineering Task Force and the Coalition for
  Networked Information, with the goal of increasing consensus
  among developers and exploring appropriate uses of networked



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  information. CNIDR also actively promotes the use of networked
  information discovery and retrieval tools at many national and
  international conferences to inform and educate implementors and
  end users.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Primary Contact(s):

  Name:                         George Brett

  Email address:                George.Brett@cnidr.org

  Postal Address:

   Clearinghouse for Networked Information Discovery and Retrieval
     (CNIDR)
   Center for Communications at MCNC
   PO Box 12889, 3021 Cornwallis Road
   Research Triangle Park, NC  27709-2889 USA

  Telephone:                    +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



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  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



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Document Archive:              ftp.cnidr.org

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Official Publications:         None

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Bibliography:                  None

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Other Information:             info@cnidr.org

 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=


































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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 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".

 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
























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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 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




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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 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




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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


   Marine, A, X.500 Pilot Projects, June 1993. Available as
   draft-ietf-ids-pilots-00.txt from any Internet Draft server.

 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=















































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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 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:

   The IIIR group was chartered in September 1992 to facilitate
   interoperability between and integration of the various Internet
   information services (Archie, Gopher, WAIS, etc.), just as the IETF
   was founded to facilitate the integration of various LANs running
   different protocols. It will develop, specify, and align protocols to
   integrate the services into a single "virtually unified information
   service" (VUIS).

   Also, where necessary for interoperability, IIIR will create
   technical documentation for protocols used for information services
   in the internet.

   Membership is open, and is not limited to IETF attendees. A full
   charter for this group is available via anonymous FTP from
   ds.internic.net as 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




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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  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.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------








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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 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.

 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=











































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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 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:

   There are many organizations and associations that have begun to
   focus on the proliferating resources and tools for networked
   information retrieval (NIR).  The Networked Information Retrieval
   Group will be a cooperative effort of three major players in the
   field of NIR: IETF, RARE, and the Coalition for Networked Information
   (CNI) specifically tasked to collect and disseminate information
   about the tools and to discuss and encourage cooperative development
   of current and future tools such as the archie servers, the Wide Area
   Information Servers (WAIS), the Internet Gopher, and the WorldWide
   Web (WWW).

   The NIR Working Group intends to increase the useful base of
   information about networked information retrieval (NIR) tools, their
   developers, interested organizations, and other activities that
   relate to the production, dissemination, and support of NIR tools.

   Membership is open and is not limited to attendees of the quarterly
   IETF meetings; the mailing list is open to all.  The NIR-WG charter
   is available via anonymous ftp from the various IETF repositories as
   nir-charter.txt.

 Goals:

   To disseminate information about NIR tools and those groups working
   on them.  The information in the NIR Status report will be updated
   and new entries added as appropriate once per year.  This report will
   be submitted as an RFC.

   Current work includes discussing the criteria for evaluating the
   major NIR tools available.




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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 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:




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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  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.

 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=












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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 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:

   The NISI Working Group will explore the requirements for common,
   shared Internet-wide network information services.  The goal is to
   develop an understanding for what is required to implement an
   information services "infrastructure" for the Internet.  Membership
   is open.  Charter is online in the various IETF repositories as
   nisi-charter.txt.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Primary Contact(s):

  Name:                 April Marine

  Email address:        april@atlas.arc.nasa.gov

  Postal Address:       Network Applications and Information Center
                        NASA Ames Research Center
                        M/S 204-14
                        Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000
                        USA

  Telephone:            +1-415-604-0762

  Fax:                  +1-415-604-0978

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Mailing Lists:

  Address:              nisi@merit.edu

  Administration:       nisi-request@merit.edu




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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 ----------------------------------------------------------------------

 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

 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=





































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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 OSI-DS

 Date template updated or checked: 24 February, 1994
 By: Name:          Chris Weider
     Email address: clw@bunyip.com

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 NIR Group Name: OSI Directory Services (OSI-DS)

 Sponsoring Organisation: Internet Engineering Task Forces (IETF)

 Working subgroups: NONE

 Description of main group:

   The OSI-DS group's mission is to enable building a global Directory
   Service based on X.500 and to facilitate its deployment on the
   Internet.  The primary focus is on developing agreements and
   technical specifications needed to make this happen.  The WG will not
   be directly concerned with piloting and service activities, but will
   liaise with such activities.

   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 ietf/osids/osids-charter.txt

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Primary Contact(s):

  Name:                 Steve Kille, Chair

  Email address:        kille@isode.com

  Postal Address:       ISODE Consortium
                        P.O. Box 505
                        SW11 1DX London
                        England

  Telephone:            +44-71-223-4062

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Mailing Lists:

  Address:              ietf-osi-ds@cs.ucl.ac.uk




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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  Administration:       ietf-osi-ds-request@cs.ucl.ac.uk

  Archive:              Anonymous FTP, bells.cs.ucl.ac.uk

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Document Archive:

  Location details:
   Site: bells.cs.ucl.ac.uk
   Directory:/osi-ds

   Site: ds.internic.net
   Directory: /ietf/osids

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Official Publications:         None.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Bibliography:

  The COSINE and Internet X.500 Schema, P. Barker, S. Kille, RFC-1274.

  Replication and Distributed Operations Extensions to Provide an
   Internet Directory Usign X.500, S. Hardcastle-Kille, RFC-1276

  Requirements to provide an Internet Directory using X.500.
   S. Hardcastle-Kille, RFC-1275

  A Strategic Plan for Deploying an Internet X.500 Directory Service,
   S. Hardcastle-Kille et al, RFC-1340

 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
















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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 URI

 Date template updated or checked: 14 March, 1994
 By: Name:          Chris Weider
     Email address: clw@bunyip.com

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 NIR Group Name:    Uniform Resource Identifiers (uri)

 Sponsoring Organisation: Internet Engineering Task Forces (IETF)

 Working subgroups:    NONE

 Description of main group:

   The Uniform Resource Identifiers Archives Working Group is chartered
   to define a set of standards for the encoding of system independent
   Resource Location and Identification information for the use of
   Internet information services.  There are three classes of
   information being standardized in this group:


      1)  Uniform Resource Locators (URLs), which specify a standardized
          method for encoding location and access information to
          resources across multiple information systems,

      2)  Uniform Resource Names (URNs), which specify a standardized
          method for encoding a unique resource identifier for a given
          content, and

      3)  Uniform Resource Citations (URCs), which specify a
          standardized method for encoding information about a given
          instantiation of a content.

   The URLs allow an information service to give a user access and
   location information for a resource.  The URN allows an information
   service to determine if the contents of two information resources are
   the same or not.  The URC allows an information service to select
   which of a number of different encodings of a resource are
   appropriate for a given user's retrieval capabilities, and may
   contain such things as file size and compression techniques.

   Membership is open, and is not limited to IETF attendees.  A full
   charter for this group is available for anonymous FTP from
   ds.internic.net as /ietf/uri/uri-charter.txt

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 Primary Contact(s):

  Name:                 Jim Fullton, co-chair

  Email address:        fullton@concert.net

  Postal Address:       Center for Communications
                        P.O. Box 12889
                        3021 Cornwallis Road
                        Research Triangle Park
                        North Carolina 27709-2889

  Telephone:            +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:            +1-514-875-8611

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Mailing Lists:

  Address:              uri@bunyip.com

  Administration:       uri-request@bunyip.com

  Archive:              archives.cc.mcgill.ca:~/pub/uri-archive

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Document Archive:

  Location details:
       Site: ds.internic.net
       Directory: internet-drafts. All documents will start with the
         string draft-ietf-uri.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  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.

 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=




































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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 WNILS

  Date template updated or checked: 28 February, 1994
  By: Name:          Joan Gargano
      Email address: jcgargano@ucdavis.edu

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 NIR Group Name: Whois and Network Information Lookup Service (WNILS)

 Sponsoring Organisation: Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)

 Working subgroups:
  Name of subgroup:
  Mailinglist-Address:  ietf-wnils@ucdavis.edu

 Description of main group:

 This description is the current WNILS-WG charter.

   The Network Information Center (NIC) maintains the central NICNAME
   database and server, defined in RFC 954, providing online look-up of
   individuals, network organizations, key nodes, and other information
   of interest to those who use the Internet.  Other distributed
   directory information servers and information retrieval tools have
   been developed and it is anticipated more will be created.  Many
   sites now maintain local directory servers with information about
   individuals, departments and services at that specific site.
   Typically these directory servers are network accessible.  Because
   these servers are local, there are now wide variations in the type of
   data stored, access methods, search schemes, and user interfaces.
   The purpose of the Whois and Network Information Lookup Service
   (WNILS) working group is to expand and define the standard for WHOIS
   services, to resolve issues associated with the variations in access
   and to promote a consistent and predictable service across the
   network.

 Goals and Milestones:

  Done    Review and approve the charter making any changes deemed
          necessary. Examine the particular functional needs for
          expanded whois directory service. Begin work on a framework
          for recommendations.  Assign writing assignments for first
          draft of document.

  12/1/93 Submit the Whois and Network Information Lookup Service
          Recommendations document to the IESG as an Internet Draft.




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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  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; the
  mailing list is open to all.  The WNILS-WG charter can be obtained via
  anonymous ftp from the Document Archive sites listed in the Networked
  Information Retrieval Working Group (WNILS-WG) template.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Primary Contact(s):

  Name:                Joan Gargano

  Email address:       jcgargano@ucdavis.edu

  Postal Address:      Distributed Computing Analysis and Support (DCAS)
                       Information Technology
                       University of California, Davis
                       Davis, California  95616
                       U.S.A

  Telephone:           +1-916-752-2591

  Fax:                 +1-916-752-9158

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Mailing Lists:

  Address:             ietf-wnils@ucdavis.edu

  Administration:      ietf-wnils-request@ucdavis.edu

  Description:

  Archive:             ftp://ftp.ucdavis.edu:/pub/archive

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 News groups:          None.




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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Document Archive:

 Location details:     Gopher: gopher.ucdavis.edu 70
                       ftp://ftp.ucdavis.edu/archive/wnils-archive

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Other Information:

  This Working Group formed jointly in the User Services and
  Applications Areas of the Internet Engineering Task Force.

 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=




































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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 IRTF-RD

 Date template updated or checked: 1st March, 1994
 By: Name:          Mike Schwartz
     Email address: schwartz@cs.colorado.edu

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 NIR Group Name: Internet Research Task Force Research Group on Resource
                 Discovery and Directory Service (IRTF-RD)

 Sponsoring Organisation: Internet Society

 Working subgroups: None

 Description of main group:

  The IRTF-RD group is focused on problems of scale that will arise in
  resource discovery systems in the next 3-5 years.  We divide these
  scaling problems into three dimensions: volume of information, size of
  the user base, and information diversity.

  Our goal is to explore techniques for dealing with these problems
  through a set of interrelated prototypes demonstrating advances in
  each of these dimensions.  Briefly, our current approaches are:
     - deal with information diversity through a coordinated set
       of techniques to gather, transform, and manage entropy of data
     - deal with user scale through large scale replication
     - deal with information volume using a combination of
       views, space efficient indexing, and customization w.r.t.
       vocabulary, search methods, and personal user history
  We expect these approaches to evolve significantly over time.

  Membership of this group is closed.  We will consider new members,
  with two constraints.  First, the group must be kept small and focused
  to make substantive progress - at most 4 or 5 members seems
  appropriate at this time.  Second, prospective members must be active
  resource discovery researchers, who will bring clear strengths to the
  group.  Prospective members should send a vitae and a one page
  position paper describing what they propose to do to advance the
  group's efforts, addressed to the group chair.

  The group currently consists of:
     Mic Bowman (Transarc, Inc.)
     Peter Danzig (University of Southern California)
     Udi Manber (University of Arizona)
     Mike Schwartz (University of Colorado - Boulder; chair)




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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Primary Contact(s):

  Name:                 Mike Schwartz

  Email address:        schwartz@cs.colorado.edu

  Postal Address:       Department of Computer Science
                        University of Colorado
                        Boulder, CO  80309-0430

  Telephone:            +1-303-492-3902

  Fax:                  Declined.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Mailing Lists:

  The IRTF-RD group has no formal mailing list or archive.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 News groups:

  The IRTF-RD group has no news groups.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Document Archive:

  The IRTF-RD group has no document archive, although our paper(s) and
  prototype(s) are available from the members' FTP archives (see below).

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Official Publications:

  Occasional updates in the Internet Monthly Report.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Bibliography:

    C. Mic Bowman, Peter B. Danzig and Michael F. Schwartz.
    Research Problems for Scalable Internet Resource Discovery.
    Technical Report CU-CS-643-93, Department of Computer Science,



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


    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).

 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=





























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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 Z39.50 Implementors Group

  Date template updated or checked:  28 February 1994
  By: Name:          Mark Needleman
      Email address: mhn@stubbs.ucop.edu

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 NIR Group name: Z39.50 Implementors Group

 Description of main group:

   The Z39.50 Implementors group (ZIG) is a volunteer organization
   consisting of representatives of most of the organizations in the
   United States and Canada that are actively engaged in implementing
   the Z39.50 protocol.  This includes the United States Library of
   Congress, The National Library of Canada, the major bibliographic
   utilities, many library automation vendors, and other information
   service providers.  The group is a volunteer effort whose meetings
   are open at no charge to all.  The group meets about 3 times a year
   and conducts its activities extensively on its mailing list which is
   also open to any interested party.

   The group was originally formed to deal with interoperability issues
   among the Z39.50 implementations that were beginning to emerge in
   1989 and 1990 but the group has since expanded its role and has now
   become the primary forum in which new features and versions of the
   Z39.50 are developed.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Primary Contact(s):    Z39.50 Implementors Group

  Name:                 Mark Hinnebusch (Chair)

  Email address:        fclmth@nervm.nerdc.ufl.edu (Internet)
                        FCLMTH@NERVM  (Bitnet)

  Postal address:       Florida Center For Library Automation
                        Suite 320
                        2002 NW 13th Street
                        Gainesville, FL 32609

  Telephone:            +1-904-392-9020

  Fax:                  +1-904-392-9185

                        ------------------------



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  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:            +1-202-707-5795

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 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/z3950

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Documentation and References for the Z39.50 Protocol

  American National Standard Information Retrieval Application
  Service Definition and Protocol Specification for Open Systems
  Interconnection Version 2, National Information Standards
  Organization, July 1992

  Mark Hinnebusch "A Primer on Z39.50 Parts 1-8", Academic and
  Library Computing Volume 9, Numbers 2-9, February-October 1992,
  Meckler Corporation, Westport CN. (ISSN 1055-4769)

  Mark Hinnebusch "The Z39.50 Explain Service", Campus Wide
  Information Systems, Volume 10, Number 1, January/February 1993,
  Meckler Corporation, Westport, CT. (ISSN 1065-0741)

  Michael Buckland and Clifford Lynch. "THE LINKED SYSTEMS PROTOCOL
  AND THE FUTURE OF BIBLIOGRAPHIC NETWORKS AND SYSTEMS,"



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  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)




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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  Kunze, John A.  "Nonbibliographic Applications of Z39.50."  The
  Public-Access Computer Systems Review 3, no. 5 (1992): 4-30.
  (Refereed Article.)  To retrieve this article, send the following
  e-mail message to LISTSERV@UHUPVM1 or LISTSERV@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU:
  GET KUNZE PRV3N5 F=MAIL.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Other Information:

 Brief Description of the Z39.50 Protocol

   Z39.50 is a US ANSI standard protocol for information retrieval.  It
   uses a client server model that allows clients ( or origins in Z39.50
   terminology) to search servers (targets in Z39.50 usage) and retrieve
   records from remote databases.  The type and format of the data
   retrieved is not constrained by the protocol but is agreed to by the
   origin and the target.  There is a mechanism that allows popular
   record syntax's to be registered and then referred to by well known
   identifiers.  Z39.50 is an OSI application layer protocol; that is,
   it is designed to make use of the OSI presentation layer protocol.
   It may be used with or without the presentation protocol, and below
   that, it is irrelevant (to the Z39.50 protocol) what protocols are
   used.  Most implementations of Z39.50 currently run directly over
   TCP/IP.

 User's View:

   Users (either human or electronic) run client software to connect
   with servers to retrieve information using the Z39.50 protocol.  Many
   clients already exist at least in prototype version today and more
   are being written.  Most of the major library automation vendors have
   announced that they will be supporting Z39.50 in either client or
   server mode or both.  Many of the major information vendors either
   currently have or are working on implementations of Z39.50 for their
   systems.  There are also a couple of Z39.50 implementations that are
   expected to be put in the public domain at some point.  The recently
   announced FREEWAIS software incorporates Z39.50 Version 2 into it
   (the older version used a variant of the 1988 version 1 protocol).
   The Library of Congress acts as the maintenance agency for Z39.50 and
   can be contacted for a list of registered Implementors.

   Z39.50 provides a protocol mechanism for accessing remote information
   sources.  It defines the model for the interaction between two sides,
   a client and a server.  It makes no assumptions or presumptions about
   how the data is actually organized in the server, nor about how the
   data is presented to the end user by the client.




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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


   The model postulates one or more databases on the remote system that
   can be searched using attributes from defined search attribute sets,
   creating a result set.  Records can be retrieved from the result set
   using agreed upon record formats.

 Information types supported:

   The Z39.50 protocol was designed as a general purpose search and
   retrieval mechanism that could be used with a wide variety of data
   types.  The MARC format (a format used for cataloging library
   material among other things) and a search attribute set suitable for
   bibliographic and similar types of data are registered within the
   current version of the standard.  It is assumed that, as the protocol
   begins to be used by other communities and for other types of data,
   other attribute sets and record syntaxes will be developed.  This
   process has already begun and a generic record syntax and attribute
   set are already under development, as well as some others,
   specifically those supporting chemical structures, general science
   and technology, and business information.  The design philosophy
   behind Z39.50 is that it will be used with other standards such as
   Postscript, SGML, ODIF (and others), to communicate a wide variety of
   data types, including full text, images, and many others.

 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=



























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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 RARE Groups

  RARE (Reseaux Associes pour la Recherche Europeenne) is the
  Association of European Networking Organizations and their users.
  RARE's aim is to overcome national boundaries in research networking
  by creating a harmonized computer communications infrastructure for
  the European research community.  At this point in time RARE has over
  40 members, most of which are national networking organizations
  providing networking services to their national research and education
  community.

  RARE's technical programme is carried out by volunteers working in a
  number of Working Groups.

  For further information on RARE contact:

  RARE Secretariat
  Singel 466-468
  NL-1017 AW AMSTERDAM

  Telephone number        +31-20-639-1131
  Fax number              +31-20-639-3289

  E-mail address RFC8222
  raresec@rare.nl

  E-mail address X.400
  C=nl; ADMD=400net; PRMD=surf; O=rare; S=raresec;

 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=





















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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 RARE ISUS

  Date template updated or checked: 28th February, 1994
  By: Name:            Jill Foster
      Email address:   Jill.Foster@newcastle.ac.uk

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 NIR Group Name:  RARE Information Services and User Support Working
                  Group

 Sponsoring Organisation:
                  RARE (Reseaux Associes pour la Recherche Europeenne)

 Working subgroups (of relevance to nir):

  Name of subgroup:     MMIS Task Force
  Mailinglist-Address:  mmis@mailbase.ac.uk

  Name of subgroup:     NIR Task Force
  Mailinglist-Address:  nir@mailbase.ac.uk

  Name of subgroup:     UNITE Task Force
  Mailinglist-Address:  unite@mailbase.ac.uk

 Description of main group:

  The Information Services and User Support (ISUS) Working Group has
  been established by the RARE Technical Committee as one of the major
  working groups in the RARE Technical Programme.  ISUS is concerned
  with all aspects of networked information services, group
  communications and network user support.  It is open to all those
  involved in working in these areas and should include:

  Network User Support Staff: National and European Support Staff
                              (whether RARE, RIPE, EARN, Eunet etc.)
                              Site Computing Centre Support Staff
                              Special subject related User Support Staff

  Library Staff
  Networked Information Providers
  Networked Information Service Providers
  Application Developers

  The ISUS WG mailing list will act both as a forum for discussion
  amongst experts in this field and as a means for disseminating
  information to the wider community.




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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  The ISUS Working Group is chartered to have a very broad area of
  interest which is broken down into several sub-areas:
               Network User Support
               Asynchronous Group Communication
               Networked Information Retrieval and Services
               Liaison

  Current tasks being worked on in the area of NIR include:

  o    Coordination of NIR services in Europe

  o    Collection of information related to NIR tools and groups.
       This is a joint effort with the IETF and CNI.

  o    Network Interface to everything (UNITE).  This group is starting
       to look at the user requirements for a single interface to the
       network (network information services, email, bulletin boards,
       etc.).   (unite@mailbase.ac.uk)

  o    Multimedia Information Services task force (MMIS).  This group is
       a joint task force of the RARE ISUS Working Group and RARE
       Interactive Multimedia Working Group (mmis@mailbase.ac.uk).

  charter:  anonymous ftp from mailbase.ac.uk
            file:  /pub/lists/wg-isus/files/isus.charter

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Primary Contact(s):

  Name:                 Jill Foster

  Email address:        Jill.Foster@newcastle.ac.uk

  Postal Address:       Computing Service
                        University of Newcastle upon Tyne
                        Newcastle upon Tyne
                        NE1 7RU
                        UK

  Telephone:            +44-91-222-8250

  Fax:                  +44-91-222-8765

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Mailing Lists:




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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  Address:              wg-isus@rare.nl

  Administration:       Auto subscriptions to: mailserver@rare.nl
                        "subscribe wg-isus <firstname> <lastname>"

                        Human admin to: wg-isus-request@rare.nl

  Description:          General purpose mailing list for whole ISUS WG.

  Archive:              Not yet available

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 News groups:           None

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Document Archive:

  Location details
       Site:            raredoc.rare.nl
       Directory:       /rare/working-groups

  Location details
       Site:            mailbase.ac.uk
       Directory:       /pub/lists/wg-isus/files
                        /pub/lists/nir/files

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Official Publications: RARE Technical Reports

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Bibliography:

  RARE Technical Report 1: User Support and Information Services
  in the RARE Community - a Status Report.   Jill Foster

  RARE Technical Report 5: A Survey of Distributed Multimedia -
  Research, Standards and Products.  Chris Adie

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Other Information:

  This group was formed in May 1992 and takes over and expands on the
  work of the former RARE WG3 USIS Subgroup. The group conducts most



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  of its business by email, but meets twice a year before the European
  Networking Conferences.

  The EARNinfo group has recently joined forces with RARE ISUS WG, they
  will be working together in the areas of documentation and network
  training.

 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=











































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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 USMARC/OCLC

  Date template updated or checked:  10 March 1994
  By: Name:          Rebecca Guenther
      Email address: rgue@seq1.loc.gov

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Working Group or Organisation:  USMARC/OCLC

 Name of group: USMARC Advisory Group; OCLC Internet Resources
                Cataloging Experiment

 Sponsoring Organisations: OCLC, Library of Congress,
                           USMARC Advisory Group

 Working subgroups:  None

 Description of main group:

  OCLC and the Library of Congress have formed a working group to
  consider how libraries can create cataloging records for online
  information resources.  The group initiated a cataloging experiment
  designed to test and verify the applicability of the cataloging rules
  and the USMARC format for computer files.  Guidelines have been
  written for cataloging Internet resources and were considered by the
  American Library Association committee responsible for maintaining the
  Anglo- American Cataloging Rules.  Changes to the USMARC format were
  initiated to accommodate a subset of these materials (electronic data
  resources, such as software, electronic text, bibliographic and
  nonbibliographic databases).  USMARC format changes which were
  approved included an identification of type of file and a field for
  location and access of the resource (very much like a URL).

  The group is continuing its work by looking at how online systems and
  services can be accommodated in USMARC.  This work will be done within
  the USMARC Advisory Group of the American Library Association, which
  considers changes to the USMARC formats.  Data elements will be
  defined with mapping to MARC fields; in some cases new fields will be
  proposed.  This will be accomplished in conjunction with efforts by
  other working groups (e.g., Government Information Locator Service, or
  GILS).

  A proposal was presented and approved in February 1994 to the USMARC
  Advisory Group to add data elements to the Electronic Location and
  Access Field (USMARC field 856).  Included among these was a subfield
  for URL (Uniform Resource Locator).  It is intended to be used instead
  of or in addition to other data identifying location of and access to



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  a networked information resource.

  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:                  +1-202-707-6269

                    -------------------------------

  Name:                 Erik Jul

  Email address:        ekj@oclc.org

  Postal address:       OCLC, Inc.
                        6565 Franz Rd.
                        Dublin OH 43017-0702

  Telephone:            +1-614-764-4364

  Fax:                  +1-614-764-2344

                      ----------------------------

  Name:                 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:                  +1-312-702-6623




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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


                      ----------------------------

  Name:                 William W. Jones, Jr.

  Email Address:        jones@acfcluster.nyu.edu

  Postal Address:       New York University/Elmer Holmes Bobst Library,
                        Technical and Automated Services Division,
                        70 Washington Square South,
                        New York, NY 10012

  Telephone:            +1-212-998-4070

  Fax:                  +1-212-995-4070

                      ---------------------------

  Name:                 Nancy Olson

  Email Address:        nbolson@msus1.msus.edu

  Postal Address:       Memorial Library,
                        Mankato State University,
                        Mankato, MN 56001

  Telephone:            +1-507-389-5062

  Fax:                  +1-507-389-5488

                      ----------------------------

  Name:                 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



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994



  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



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


   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



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


   Standards Office, Nov. 1992 (rev. Mar. 1993).

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

  Other Information:             None.

 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=












































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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


8.  Security Considerations

   Security issues are not discussed in this memo.

9.  Acknowledgements

   The report was very much a collaborative effort of the members of the
   NIR WG and in particular Peter Deutsch (who contributed the mailing
   list section and the basis for Section 5), April Marine, Rick
   Rodgers, Lars-Gunnar Olsson, Farhad Anklesaria, Marsha Perrott, Kevin
   Gamiel, George Brett, Barbara Thomas and all those who helped review
   the document.  Special thanks are due to all those contributors who
   took the time to submit and update descriptions of their NIR tools
   and groups; their names are included in the templates in Sections 6
   and 7.

   Before final submission of the report as an RFC, independent
   reviewers from around the world took two or three templates each and
   checked them out for accuracy and currency as best they could.  They
   liaised with the original template authors over the changes they
   made.  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
   provided some very valuable input.

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.uk













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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


APPENDIX A

 NIR TOOL Template (last updated 22.12.93)


 Purpose and scope:

  This template is to be used to collect the information necessary to
  identify and track the development of networked information retrieval
  tools.  It is intended that the main part of this will be completed by
  the main individual responsible for the tool.  Sections of the
  template may require completion by others.

  The NIR tools included are defined by enumeration.  The IETF/RARE/CNI
  NIR-WG welcome suggestions for others to be included.

 NIR Tools:

      Alex
      archie
      gopher
      Hytelnet
      Netfind
      Prospero
      Veronica
      WAIS  (including freeWAIS)
      WHOIS
      World Wide Web  (including Mosaic)
      X.500 White Pages


 New entries: Please complete this template and return it to
 Jill.Foster@newcastle.ac.uk (NIR-WG co-chair).  Receipt of your
 message will be acknowledged.

 Please imbed descriptive text by at least one more column than the
 heading for that item:

 For example:

 Brief description of tool:

  This is the best application ever seen.  It makes finding information
  very easy.  This is the decription imbedded one more column.

  Updates: updates to existing information on NIR Tools may be sent by
  the appropriate contact person at any time to:




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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


        nir-updates@cnidr.org

  The full report will be updated annually and will form the basis of a
  "snapshot" report on the activities in the area of networked
  information retrieval (NIR).

 -------------------------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



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  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]




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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  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:



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  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



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 ----------------------------------------------------------------------

 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.]

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 Other Information:

  [Feel free to add other information that you feel is relevant.
  This will be considered for inclusion in the report.]

 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=













































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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


APPENDIX B

 NIR Group Template (last updated 22.12.93)

 Purpose and scope:

  This template is to be used to collect the information necessary to
  identify and track major groups that are working to promote or develop
  networked information retrieval.  It is intended that this will be
  completed by the group representative.

  The groups included are defined by enumeration.  The IETF/RARE/CNI
  NIR-WG welcome suggestions for other groups to be included.

 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: Please complete this template for your group or
 organisation and return it to Jill.Foster@newcastle.ac.uk (NIR-WG
 co-chair).  Receipt of your message will be acknowledged.



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 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 information on NIR Groups may be sent by
 the appropriate contact person at any time to:

       nir-updates@cnidr.org

 The full report will be updated annually and will form the basis of a
 "snapshot" report on the activities in the area of networked
 information retrieval (NIR).

 -----------------------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]



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  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:

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 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.]

 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

































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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


APPENDIX C


  /* 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 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



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


                         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



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


                         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





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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


                   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



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 Administration:         wais-talk-request@wais.com

 Description:            Implementors forum on WAIS.  This is for
                         talking about nitty gritty details of protocols
                         and implementations.

 Archive:                /pub/wais/mail-archives/wais-talk@wais.com

                     -----------------------------

 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.



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 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

                    -------------------------------





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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 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





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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


                    -------------------------------

 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



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


                         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



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 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)




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 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



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 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 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.edu

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Mailinglist-Name:       IAFA: Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
                         Internet Anonymous FTP Archive working group

 Address:                iafa@bunyip.com

 Administration:         iafa-request@bunyip.com

 Description:            This mailing list is for people who are
                         involved in the Internet Anonymous FTP Archives
                         Working Group of the IETF.  This group was
                         involved in standardizing the encoding of
                         information at anonymous FTP archives and thus
                         is of interest to operators and users of the
                         archie system.  It came to completion in
                         November, 1992 and produced two documents which
                         have been presented to the IETF as informational



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                         RFCs.

 Archive:                archives.cc.mcgill.ca:/pub/mailing-lists/iafa

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 /* The following Usenet newsgroups discuss various issues in */
 /* resource discovery or specific NIR projects.              */

 Newsgroup-Name:         comp.archives.admin

 Mailinglist-Gate:       <unknown>

 Description:            This group discusses problems in administering
                         Internet archives. It has also been used as an
                         informal source of announcements for project
                         releases, a place for new-comers to ask
                         questions, etc.

 Keywords:               anonymous FTP, archives, Internet, archie

 Archive:                <unknown>

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Newsgroup-Name:         comp.infosystems.wais

 Mailinglist-Gate:       <unknown>

 Description:            This group was created to host discussions
                         about the Wide Area Information Server
                         Also included are information and help with the
                         public domain release available from Thinking
                         Machine Corp. and setting up your own WAIS
                         server.

 Keywords:               WAIS, resource discovery, indexing, Internet

 Archive:                <unknown>

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Newsgroup-Name:         alt.wais

 Mailinglist-Gate:       <unknown>

 Description:            This alt. group was created to host discussions
                         about the Wide Area Information Service. It has



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                         been superceeded by the group
                         "comp.infosystems.wais" and its use is
                         discouraged.

 Keywords:               WAIS, resource discovery, indexing, Internet

 Archive:                <unknown>

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Newsgroup-Name:         comp.infosystems.www

 Mailinglist-Gate:       <unknown>

 Description:            This group was created to host discussions
                         about the World Wide Web distributed hypertext
                         information services project based at CERN in
                         Switzerland, including discussion of the many
                         public domain implementations of WWW clients
                         and servers available.

 Keywords:               World Wide Web, campus-wide information
                         systems, resource discovery, indexing, Internet

 Archive:                <unknown>

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Newsgroup-Name:         alt.gopher

 Mailinglist-Gate:       <unknown>

 Description:            This group was created to host discussions
                         about the Gopher distributed information
                         project, based at University of Minnesota,
                         including discussion of the many public domain
                         implementations of Gopher clients and servers
                         available. It has been superceeded by the
                         group "comp.infosystems.gopher" and its use is
                         discouraged.

 Keywords:               Gopher, campus-wide information systems,
                         resource discovery, indexing, Internet

 Archive:                <unknown>

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------




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 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 known

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Newsgroup-Name:         bit.listserv.hytel-l

 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=



































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APPENDIX D

 COMING ATTRACTIONS

  This section will be used to keep a note of NIR Tools which are
  considered by the NIR Group to be sufficiently well developed to
  include here, but that are not yet in widespread use.

  Items currently included here are:

        Hyper-G
        Soft Pages
        Whois++

 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=


 HYPER-G

  Date template updated or checked: 19th October, 1993
  By: Name:   Frank Kappe
      Email address:fkappe@iicm.tu-graz.ac.at

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------

 NIR Tool Name: Hyper-G

 Brief Description of Tool:

  Hyper-G is the name of an ambitious hypermedia project currently being
  developed as a joint effort by a number of institutes of the IIG
  (Institutes for Information-Processing Graz) and the Computing and
  Information Services Center of the Graz University of Technology and
  the Austrian Computer Society.

  Hyper-G is designed as a general-purpose, large-scale, multi-user,
  distributed hypermedia information system.  As such, it combines
  concepts of hypermedia, information retrieval systems, documentation
  systems with aspects of communication and collaboration, and computer
  supported teaching and learning.  It also provides seamless
  integration of other systems (e.g., World-Wide Web, Gopher, WAIS) that
  also operate under the client/server paradigm and allows remote logins
  to interactive services.

  In addition to hypertext links, Hyper-G allows navigation through
  hierarchies, queries (including full text), guided tours, and is
  multilingual.




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  Hyper-G is currently operated at some 10 locations throughout the
  world, including a University Information System at the Graz Technical
  University.  Clients and the server are available without fee for
  educational institutions, and are distributed as binaries for a number
  of platforms.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Primary Contact(s):

  Name:                 Frank Kappe

  Email address:        fkappe@iicm.tu-graz.ac.at

  Postal Address:       Schieszstattg. 4a, A-8010 Graz, AUSTRIA

  Telephone:            +43-316-832551-22

  Fax:                  +43-316-824394

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Help Line:
  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

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------




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 Protocols:

  What is supported:   RPC

  What it runs over:   TCP/IP

  Other NIR tools this interworks with: gopher, WAIS, World Wide Web

  Future plans: Too numerous to mention.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Servers:

  Date completed or updated:     12th October, 1993
  By: Name:                      Gerald Pani
      Email address:             gpani@iicm.tu-graz.ac.at

  Platform: UNIX

  Primary Contact:
      Name:           Gerald Pani
      Email address:  gpani@iicm.tu-graz.ac.at
      Telephone:      +43-316-832551-34

  Server software available from:  anon-ftp from iicm.tu-graz.ac.at,
                                   in directory pub/Hyper-G/Server

  Location of more information:    see README in above directory

  Latest version number:

  Brief Scope and Characteristics:

  Approximate number of such servers in use: 13

  General comments:

   Currently available as binary distribution for SUN, DEC, HP,
   and SGI workstations.

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Clients:

  UNIX curses client (a.k.a. VT100 Client)

  Date completed or updated:    19th October, 1993



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  By: Name:                     Frank Kappe
      Email address:            fkappe@iicm.tu-graz.ac.at

  Platform:  UNIX

  Primary Contact:
  Name:                         Frank Kappe
  Email address:                fkappe@iicm.tu-graz.ac.at
  Telephone:                    +43-316-832551-22

  Client software available from:

      anonymous ftp:  iicm.tu-graz.ac.at:/pub/Hyper-G/UnixClient

  Location of more information:

  Latest version number: 1.41

  Brief Scope and Characteristics:

   Fairly sophisticated terminal viewer with ~50 commands, multi-
   language user interface, history, authoring capabilities (text
   documents and links) and the ability to speak to gopher,
   World-Wide-Web, WAIS and to start telnet sessions.

  General comments:

  Future plans:

   The terminal viewer will probably remain rather stable in the future.
   Our main effort now goes into the development of clients for
   X-Windows and MS-Windows.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 MS-Windows Client

  Date completed or updated:    10th October, 1993
  By: Name:                     Thomas Dietinger
      Email address:

  Platform:  UNIX

  Primary Contact:
  Name:                         Thomas Dietinger, Frank Kappe
  Email address:                tdieting@iicm.tu-graz.ac.at
  Telephone:                    +43-316-832551-22




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  Client software available from:

      anonymous ftp:  iicm.tu-graz.ac.at:/pub/Hyper-G/pc-client

  Location of more information:

  Latest version number: 1.37

  Brief Scope and Characteristics:

  Preliminary version of a Hyper-G client for MS-Windows 3.1 and Windows
  NT.  Currently mostly identical to the UNIX curses client.  An
  exception is its ability to elegantly import and export RTF text files
  to/from Hyper-G, and its multimedia capabilities.

  General comments:

  Future plans:

  Will become more fancy (menus, icons, buttons...) in the near future.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Demonstration sites:

  List of sites which are willing to act as demonstration
  sites for this application.

       Site name: hyperg.tu-graz.ac.at
       Access details: 'rlogin hyperg.tu-graz.ac.at' or
                       'telnet hyperg.tu-graz.ac.at', login 'info'

                       (rlogin has the advantage that the terminal size
                       of xterms is handled correctly (can even be
                       changed in the middle of a session)

  Note: The same information is available through Gopher and WWW
        gateways.
        Gopher: host gopher.tu-graz.ac.at, port 70
        WWW:    URL=http://www.tu-graz.ac.at:80/ROOT

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Documentation:


 Document Title: Most of the documentation is available on-line in the
                 Graz server. The server distribution include man-pages



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                 of the additional authoring tools and utilities that
                 are supplied with the server. The ideas behind Hyper-G
                 are described in a number of research papers (see
                 Bibliography).

 Location details:
                 Site:      iicm.tu-graz.ac.at
                 Full file name: look in directory /pub/Hyper-G/doc

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Bibliography:

  Kappe F.: Aspects of a Modern Multi-Media Information System.  IIG
  Report 308, IIG, Graz University of Technology, Austria, June 1991.
  Available by anonymous ftp from
  iicm.tu-graz.ac.at:/pub/Hyper-G/doc/report308.ps.Z

  Kappe F., Maurer H., Sherbakov N.: Hyper-G - A Universal Hypermedia
  System. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, Vol. 2,
  No. 1, pp. 39-66 (1993). Also available by anonymous ftp from
  iicm.tu-graz.ac.at:/pub/Hyper-G/doc/report333.txt.Z

  Kappe F., Pani G., Schnabel F.: The Architecture of a Massively
  Distributed Hypermedia System. Internet Research: Electronic
  Networking Applications and Policy, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 10-24; Meckler
  (Spring 1993)

  Kappe F., Maurer H.: Hyper-G: A Large Universal Hypermedia System and
  Some Spin-Offs; ACM Computer Graphics, experimental special online
  issue; available by anonymous ftp from siggraph.org in directory
  publications/May_93_online/Kappe.Maurer (May 1993)

  Kappe F.: Hyper-G: A Distributed Hypermedia System; Proc. INET '93,
  San Francisco, California, pp. DCC-1 - DCC-9 (Aug. 1993).

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

  Other Information:

 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=










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 SOFT PAGES

 Date template updated or checked: 4th November, 1993
 By: Name:          Glenn Mansfield
     Email address: glenn@aic.co.jp

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 NIR Tool Name:    SoftPages

 Brief Description of Tool:

  A tool to aid users in the efficient retrieval of documents, s/w, and
  the like from servers ( anonymous FTP, FTAM, ..  ) connected to the
  network.  In principle, it uses the X.500 Directory framework to store
  information about the network.  This includes the network
  configuration, the properties of the links that connect the network
  elements, location of servers and their contents.  When a user looks
  for a particular document or s/w the above information is used to
  search for the object starting from the server that is
  "nearest" (cheapest) to the user.

  The X.500 directory services is 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 sought

  However, under present circumstances, due to lack of deployment of
  network information in the directory, when information is unavailable
  from X.500, alternate sources/methods are used.  [Static-lists of
  file-servers, or lists of file servers from other clients (e.g.,
  archie); Paths and/or costs are obtained from static lists or derived
  by other direct means (e.g., ping, traceroute); file information is
  sought from other servers (e.g., archie).]

  User's View:

  A "single window" view of the public archives connected to the
  network.  It locates the server that contains the sought object and is
  near(/cheap/fast) server.

  Query of files based on incomplete name is supported.  The system also
  supports queries based on keywords.

  Information Provider's View:

  The information about the server contents have to be updated



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  at a single place- namely, the local Directory Service Agent.
  The Directory Service Agent makes the information globally
  accessible.
  It is not necessary to carry out periodic updates on one or
  more information servers.

  - information types supported (e.g., text, sound, etc.)

  Since the system supports query on name and keywords (not on
  contents) all kinds of information may be supported.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Primary Contact(s):

  Name:            Manager, SoftPages Project
  Email address:   spp-manager@aic.co.jp
  Postal Address:  AIC Sytsems Lab.
                   Minami Yoshinari 6-6-3
                   Aoba-ku, Sendai-shi 989-32, Japan

  Telephone:       +81-22-279-3310
  Fax:             +81-22-279-3640

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Help Line:
  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



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      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



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        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:



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 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.

 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=























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 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 service

 Brief Description of Tool:

  whois++ and the whois++ index service are extensions of the WHOIS
  protocol.  They are designed to a) subsume in a standardized fashion
  the many enhancements which have been added to individual WHOIS
  servers; b) extend the flexibility of WHOIS by enriching the query
  syntax, and c) provide a distributed indexing system to tie the
  various whois++ servers into a distributed information lookup service.

  The protocols describe two logically distinct types of servers that an
  information provider can set up.  The first type is the base-level
  whois++ server.  This contains primary information, such as entries
  for individual people or entries describing resources available
  locally.  For example, if one wished to provide a campus directory
  through whois++, one would set up a base-level whois++ server that
  contained entries for each student.  In addition, this base-level
  server must be able to generate 'forward knowledge' for the
  information it contains.  The second type of server collects the
  'forward knowledge' generated by a number of base-level servers, and
  can take a query sent to it and determine which of the base-level
  servers it indexes might contain information relevant for the query.
  A single physical server may contain both primary information and
  'forward knowledge' for a number of other servers, and an index server
  can also index 'forward knowledge' for a number of other index
  servers, allowing a hierarchical mesh of index servers to be built.
  For more details on the information provider's point of view, see the
  'Documentation' section of this template.

  The basic information model is centered on the concept of 'templates'.
  A template is a collection of attribute:value pairs, where the
  allowable attributes are specified by the template type.  The whois++
  templates are based on the templates defined by the IAFA working group
  of the IETF.  The values associated with given attributes are not
  necessarily limited to text, they can be digitized sound clips, etc.

  Depending on the client she uses, the user will see a connection to
  the local whois++ base-level server.  The user can ask the server for
  a list of templates supported by that server, and can then call up a



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  blank version of the template so that she can fill in values for the
  attributes she knows.  Once she has filled in the template as much as
  she wants, she issues a query to the server to find all the entries
  which have these attribute:value pairs.  If she is not satisfied with
  the responses, she can then start traversing the index service to
  locate a server which can adequately answer her query.  In addition,
  if a user makes frequent use of the index service, she can set
  'bookmarks' which can be used later to directly contact servers she's
  found useful in the past, without having to traverse the index service
  again.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Primary Contact(s):

  Name:                 Chris Weider

  Email address:        clw@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:            +1-514-875-8611

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Help Line:
  Not yet deployed.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Related Working Groups:



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


  Whois Network Information Lookup Service (WNILS) Working Group of the
  Internet Engineering Task Forces (IETF)

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Sponsoring Organisation / Funding source:
    None

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Mailing Lists:

  Address:              ietf-wnils@ucdavis.edu

  Administration:       ietf-wnils-request@ucdavis.edu

  Archive:              pub/archive/wnils@ucdavis.edu

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 News groups:

   NONE

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Protocols:

  What is supported:    WHOIS, whois++

  What it runs over:    TCP/IP

  Other NIR tools this interworks with: None yet.

  Future plans: Providing resource location services and URN/URL
   mappings for GOPHER, ARCHIE, WAIS, and WWW.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Servers:

   Only beta versions available at this time (21 October, 1993). Please
   contact clw@bunyip.com (Chris Weider) for more information.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Clients:




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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


   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)

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Documentation:

  Document Title: Architecture of the Whois++ Index Service
  Location details:
       Site: gopher.ucdavis.edu
       Full file name: /pub/IETF/WNILS/Architecture.Index.Service

  Document Title: Architecture of the WHOIS++ Service
  Location details:
       Site: gopher.ucdavis.edu
       Full file name: /pub/IETF/WNILS/Architecture.Overview

  Document Title: Specifications for WHOIS Services
  Location details:
       Site: gopher.ucdavis.edu
       Full file name: /pub/IETF/WNILS/Discussion.Paper

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Bibliography:

   See the documentation section of this template.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Other Information:

  As this is a coming attraction, we encourage people to get in on the
  ground floor.  The authors of this protocol see it as potentially
  being a key player in any integrated Internet information
  architecture, and we can always use more volunteers who want to
  beta-test code for us.

 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=






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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


APPENDIX E

 Extinct Critters (Tools)

 This section will contain information on Tools moved from the main
 body of the report as the Tool falls out of common usage.

 There are no items currently in this section.

 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

APPENDIX F

 Extinct Critters (Groups)

 This section will be used as a historical record of groups which were
 once in the main body of the report, but which have since been closed.

 Items in this section:

        IAFA
        Z39.50  Interoperability Testbed

 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

 IAFA

 Date template updated or checked:      8th July 1993
 By: Name:              Peter Deutsch
     Email Address:     peterd@bunyip.com

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 NIR Group Name:       Internet Anonymous File Archive Working Group

 Sponsoring Organisation:  IETF

 Working subgroups:      none.

 Description of main group:

  This working group came to completion during the IETF meeting in
  November, 1992 and two Internet drafts are are now circulating.  The
  archive for this mailing list is currently available on
  "archives.cc.mcgill.ca" via anonymous ftp in the file
  "pub/mailing-lists/iafa".

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------



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 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

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------



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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 Official Publications:

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Bibliography:

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Other Information:

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RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 Z39.50

 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:

 Description of main group:

  Program priorities are 1) to facilitate a consistent and complete
  mechanism for linking bibliographic, abstracting, and indexing files
  to files of their associated source materials; 2) a single standard
  for the transmission of bitmapped image files; 3) protocols for
  handing networked requests for delivery of source materials; 4)
  mechanisms for interorganizational authentication, accounting, and
  billing; and 5) to integrate lessons drawn from the experience of
  pilot projects that exercise networked printing utilities and 6) to
  provide an "interoperability workshop" to specify, implement, and test
  advanced functions of Z39.50 to accelerate the pace and to ensure the
  quality of standardization efforts in this area.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Primary Contact(s):

  Name:                 Clifford Lynch

  Email address:        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




Foster                                                        [Page 225]


RFC 1689   Networked Information Retrieval: Tools and Groups August 1994


 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

 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

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Foster                                                        [Page 226]