. . .
> > We'd be happy to work with the WWW community as it defines a
> > standardized mechanism for indexing files but such a project will
> > have to be held up until we can get the new gopher index service
> > deployed and stabilized. Hopefully this will take no more than a
> > couple of months (I say with a silly grin on my face :-) at which
> > point we can look to the next collection to target.
>
> Of course there is no reason the WWW community can't start using
> such a service now.
Exactly. We see our strength in providing a relatively
stable service to fetch and serve info, reaching agreement
on needed formats, the deployment of the data and such are
things that clearly belong in the hands of the community
and we wouldn't presume to do anything other than try to
follow your lead here.
> > We'll certainly be keeping your suggestion in mind and if
> > in the meantime the WWW community can agree upon the
> > format of indexing files and start deploying them onto the
> > net, we'd be happy to mine the data as soon as we have the
> > resources to do so.
>
> Are you aware of ALIWEB? It is currently the only system that is doing
> what you want: it retrieves hand-prepered IAFA templates via HTTP, and
> rolls them into a searcheable database (which in turn is included in
> the W3 Catalog; one of the best WWW catalogs about). Currently about
> 20 sites have deployed index files, and the number is growing. I am
> hoping to give a talk on the upcoming WWW conference on this, which I
> expect will bring it to attention of more sites.
Thanks for the pointer. It's great to see the IAFA work
starting to be used, I have great hopes for such
approaches in the next little while. Assuming we can keep
to our schedule with gopher, we'll be coming back to the
WWW list ASAP to work out how we might add WWW.
>
> For details see http://web.nexor.co.uk/aliweb/doc/aliweb.html
>
> I would like to expand the discussion on the use of the IAFA templates
> -- maybe a new template-type is called for, maybe not. Either way I
> have some comments about them, but all attempts at initiaing a
> discussion with the IAFA people have failed so far.
<*Embarassed blush*> Sorry about the delays. As one of the
co-chairs I _am_ one of the IAFA people. Unfortuantely
we've been swimming against the tide due to our success
right now. We've been trying to get the gopher project off
the ground while also finishing up several major project
proposals to allow funding for this work. We've now got
things a little bit more under control and both my partner
Alan and I are trying to clear up the backlog (of course I
spent yesterday at the ComNet conference and Alan flies
out today to speak at a Merit Networking seminar but we
are trying!)
- peterd
--
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"I don't break out into warm glows thinking about technologies, I break
out into warm glows thinking about how customers will use our stuff to
improve their businesses."
- Jim Manzi, quoted in Communications Week...
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