From: john@hopf.math.nwu.edu (John Franks)
Subject: Re: Information Services Etiquette (was Re: Gopher directories)
Organization: Dept of Math, Northwestern Univ
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 02:23:06 GMT

In article <1992Apr14.172038.8797@news.nd.edu> cooper@utopia.cc.nd.edu (Joel Cooper) writes:
>In article <1992Apr13.235227.5469@sifon.cc.mcgill.ca> peterd@cc.mcgill.ca  
>(Peter Deutsch) writes:
>
>> Perhaps you should go back and re-read the previous paragraph of
>> his reply:
>> 
>> [* Joel writes: *]
>> %> .  .  .  Also I have heard some concern expressed by individuals at  
>> %> several academic institutions about "just anyone" being able to set   
>> up their own 
>> %> Gopher server and start serving up whatever. .  .  
>> 
>> I understood this to mean that he was advocating control over
>> who would be qualified to set up a gopher server,
> 
>Nope!  Honest, I was not advocating censorship in any way, shape or form.   
>I was simply reporting concerns that I have heard from people from  
>numerous institutions of higher education.
>
>
>..., there's the neat  
>political reality of numerous "official" Gopher servers for a given  
>institution.  For the good of everyone I would again recommend the DNS  
>model of doing Gophers (granted my view is skewed by my involvement with  
>educational institutions) ...
>

I too am involved with an educational institution.  But I would be
unhappy with a hierarchical gopher structure.  There are numerous
special purpose gophers already in existence which are serving the
needs of special constituencies.  Most of these are completely 
unknown to the administration of the educational institution where
they reside.  I, for one, would resent it if I had to have the
permission of the library or computer center at my institution
in order to set up a gopher server.  Scholars are using gopher and
wais to share research activities.  Conceptually, I see no difference
in setting up a gopher server from mailing out preprints or making a 
conference call.  It's just more efficient.

What if someone decides to create a pornography server?  Then the
institution has the same recourse as if someone sent pornography through
the campus mail or made obscene phone calls from a campus phone.

Personally I would like to see student run gophers.  Of course, these
should be clearly separated from any official CWIS of the university.
The institution has the right to declare that its gopher represents
official university policy and others do not.  But there certainly is
a place for a student gopher like there is a place for a student
newspaper, which is routinely critical of the administration.

Finally, I see no real reason not to have my own personal gopher
server on my home computer, if I choose to do so.  What about the
cost / net bandwith?  Well, a gopher server uses no net resources
on its own.  The net use comes only when someone accesses it.  If
no one is interested in what I have to offer, then no one's resources
except mine will be used.  If someone does find it useful then
they use their valuable resources to access it.

>> ANd BTW, I would be very disturbed if someone told me that the
>> people in charge of DNS top level registrations had started
>> limiting who would be allowed to register in DNS to prevent
>> "just anyone" from gaining entry. We need authority, but we
>> don't need this kind of control.
> 
>> And in the Gopher world, or more generally, in the world of
>> generalized Internet service providers that I see coming into
>> existance in the next year or two, you do _not_ need or want to
>> maintain a strict hierarchy of services. I believe that what we
>> will see is a "mesh" of service providers and consumers. We may
>> impose a taxomony (or two, or three) to help find things, but we
>> may also allow archie-like indexing services as well.
>
>Given they don't eat up network bandwith, yes.
> 

I hate this  bandwidth argument.  It is just like the librarian who
wishes that no books were ever checked out, so they wouldn't get lost
or damaged.  Communication between people is important, whether it is
electronic or printed.  It is worth the bandwidth.

>---
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>Joel P. Cooper                     Internet: cooper@utopia.cc.nd.edu
>Networking Services                Bitnet:   cpctaj@irishmvs.bitnet
>University of Notre Dame           Fax:      219-283-8201
>Notre Dame, Indiana 46556          Voice:    219-283-5600
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 



John Franks 	Dept of Math. Northwestern University
		john@math.nwu.edu