Path: netnews.upenn.edu!scotty.dccs.upenn.edu!murphy
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Newsgroups: news.groups
Subject: RFD: comp.infosystems.www
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Date: 18 Feb 93 20:39:46 GMT
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Tom Fine writes:
>> The purpose of this group will be to exchange information and ideas
>> regarding the use, design and development of the World Wide Web, and
>> the information in the Web.
>>
>> World Wide Web is an information system which is hypertext based. It
>> will currently interface with both WAIS and gopher systems. Future
>> plans include a move toward the use of MIME documents. There are a
>> number of applications already in place for using this information
>> system.
Thank you for proposing the WWW group. Let me know when
you plan to vote.
I agree on the name of the group (comp.infosystems.www).
I agree that part of the purpose should be discussing the
use, design, and development of WWW (double-ewe three)
and discussing what information that is/will be/should be
available in the Web.
I would also like to see:
* Announcements about what software is available, how to get
it, how stable it is, who worked on it, where to report
problems to or get help from, etc. I realize that this
information is also in the Web itself -- perhaps someone
can come up with a tool which automatically groks the
appropriate portions of WWW hypertext and posts it once a
month the comp.infosystems.www, for those who don't
already have the ability to get to the Web but who are
interested in it?
* Discussion of how to package WWW software so that it is
trivial to build and install on as many platforms as
possible, including Macintosh and other microcomputers?
By "software", I mean:
1) WWW hypertext browsing clients,
2) WWW hypertext servers,
3) WWW hypertext preparation tools -- utilities &
clients which make it possible for a non-technical
clerical staff person to write and provide
information in the Web.
There are also gateway programs to other sources of info
(e.g. FTP, NNTP, TechInfo), but they don't necessarily
have to run on as wide a variety of platforms as the
three types of tools above. But they should be easily
installable by a Unix sys admin type person.
* Discussion of comparisons between WWW and Gopher as well
as other CWIS technology, both on a technical level and
on a non-technical level. For example:
1) What functionality do you get from WWW that you don't
get from the other cwis info systems?
2) Are they competing or complimentary technologies?
3) Why has Gopher caught in the Internet on while WWW has
not?
4) How can folks working on WWW make WWW more accessible
to people who are not part of the High Energy Physics
research area -- how to target a bigger audience so that
if there is something worthwhile in WWW but not in
Gopher, someone else beside me and a few others will know
about it!
Clearly I think that WWW has more to opher than Gopher
(whoops, please forgive my spelling, I meant 'offer'! ;-)
LAM
Linda A Murphy Internet: [email protected]
Network Engineering Data Communications and Computing Services
University of Pennsylvania (215) 898-9534