Newsgroups: bit.listserv.cwis-l
Date:         Wed, 11 Nov 1992 10:06:29 PST
From:         "(Steve Cook x4753)" <cook%bluemoon@HUB.UCSB.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Justification for CWIS
Comments: To: "Campus-Wide Information Systems" <CWIS-L@wuvmd.wustl.edu>

>	Date:         Tue, 10 Nov 1992 13:55:56 PST
>	From: "(Steve Cook x4753)" <cook%bluemoon%HUB.UCSB.EDU@wuvmd.wustl.edu>
>	Subject:      Re: Justification for CWIS
>
>	>	But I just wonder how many of the units that might be in a
>	>position to supply cwis-able information--schedules of events, notices of
>	>meetings, whatever--would be in a position to "gopher-ize" that
>	>information themselves. Perhaps someday, but it might be that the way to
>	>package a CWIS right now is as a way-station on the path to a network
>	>where information is exchanged desktop-to-desktop, with little in the way
>	>of "central" information services.
>	>	Good luck.
>	>
>	>--
>	>FROM - Charles Forrest           VOICE  404-727-0137
>	>       Woodruff Library            FAX  404-727-0805
>	>       Emory University         BITNET  libcgf@emoryu1
>	>       Atlanta, GA   30322    INTERNET  libcgf@unix.cc.emory.edu
>
>
>	In fact, this is what a gopher server on the back end of a
>	Macintosh can do today.  So it is possible to publish a local
>	CWIS, and connect to others everywhere with gopher.
>
>	Steve Cook
>	Computing Coordinator
>	College of Letters and Science
>	UC Santa Barbara
>	Santa Barbara,  CA  93106
>	cook@bluemoon.ucsb.edu
>	805 893-4753
>
>Or, to put in a more interesting way, I on my Macintosh Plus (hypothetical,
>as I'm on an SE/30) could connect to, oh, say Tokyo University and peruse
>some of their papers on quantum physics, at the same time searching through
>Harvard's name server (or program of comparable function) for that guy named
>Smith I met last year at the Conference in Boulder, etc.
>
>Sounds kind of like an Apple, Inc. commercial I saw a while ago...all it takes
>is more CWIS's....and more bandwidth.
>
>Shy Aberman
>(litbu741@vader.cc.emory.edu)

Ok, so I should also add the fact that this works today on unix
'desktop-to-desktop' stations, but it's not working this way yet on
PC's.  I do have an experimental SE-20 here as a server, and although
it cannot handle a lot of loading, it is functional for low-demand
sites.  I would like to see a windows gopher server and client
software someday -- this would make the concept more usable on the
pc side of the house.

But, there is a basic problem with publishing out of the back end
of a 'desktop system': reliability.  If the information is only available
when the system is on, then few people will use it if they get a
'cannot reach' message on the first few attempts.  Servers will continue to
be valuable since they tend to be on more often than not.

I view the desktop publication capability as one that helps get some
folks over the 'becoming a provider' hump.  Once they are there, and they
understand the mechanics of a CWIS, then I encourage them to move to a
predicatble server, if that's a mac -- fine, but it could be any box.

The bottom line to me is that the gopher technology is getting to the
point where there is something for everybody, and that helps getting
the concept up and running.

(this is beginning to sound like an add for gopher, would you guess
that I like the software?)

Steve
cook@bluemoon.ucsb.edu