Newsgroups: bit.listserv.pacs-l
Date:         Tue, 7 Apr 1992 09:34:52 CDT
From:         Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <LIBPACS@UHUPVM1.BITNET>
Subject:      CNI Task Force Report, Part 1 of 2

From: Craig A. Summerhill <craig@cni.org>
Subject: Spring 1992 Meeting of the Coalition Task Force, Part 1 of 2

Attached is our initial meeting report from the recent Coalition
for Networked Information 1992 Spring Task Force meeting -- which
was held March 24-25, 1992 in the Sheraton City Center, Washington,
D.C.  Thanks to Joan Lippincott for her hard work in preparing it!

This report is available in the following data formats on the
Coalition's FTP server.  Have fun!

        Abode postscript             ASCII text
        MS Word (Mac)                Word Perfect (DOS)


     FTP host:   ftp.cni.org     or     192.100.21.1
     Login:      anonymous
     Password:   send e-mail address as password
     Directory:  /CNI/tf.meetings/1992a.spring

Please contact me for further clarification...

                               Craig A. Summerhill, Systems Coordinator
                               Coalition for Networked Information
              preferred --->   Internet: craig@cni.org
                               BITNET:   SUMMERHI@UMDC

-------------------- Top of File ------------------------------



April 1, 1992


SPRING 1992 MEETING OF THE TASK FORCE
        SUMMARY REPORT


We encourage you to use this report to provide information to other
individuals in your organization or institution and to prepare articles
for local newsletters or entries in local reports.

Introduction

The Spring 1992 Meeting of the Coalition Task Force took place on
March 24-25 in Washington, DC.  Over 350 individuals from over 200
institutions and organizations attended the Meeting.  A total of 159
institutions and organizations now belong to the Coalition Task Force,
and 87% of them were represented at this Meeting.  Ten institutions and
organizations attended this meeting as new members of the Task Force.
In addition, seven individuals travelled from outside of North America
to attend the Meeting.

Network Navigating and Navigators

The Meeting theme, "Network Navigating and Navigators," was
introduced by Coalition Director Paul Evan Peters in the opening
plenary session.  He noted that interest in this theme has been growing
in proportion to the growth in the user population of and in the
complexity of the information environment represented by the Internet.
He commented that effective responses to the challenge of navigating
the Internet are appearing in growing numbers, and tools that now exist
or are under development promise to improve the usability of the
Network to make life easier for network navigators.  He then
introduced four individuals who are "true pathfinders and pioneers
whose work is breaking new ground in this area of vital importance to
realizing the full promise of networks to advance scholarship and
intellectual productivity."  Peters also noted that the theme for this
meeting grew out of an invitational meeting held by the Working Group
on Directories and Resource Information Services at Stanford
University in June, 1991.

Vinton Cerf, Vice President, Corporation for National Research
Initiatives, described his vision of the digital library system and the
role of "knowbots" in locating "nuggets" of information on networks.
Knowbots are dynamic programs that move around in networks and
carry out algorithms or searches.  While the knowbot is carrying out a
search, it can modify it, for example, by searching another database.
The Corporation for National Research Initiatives has developed a
prototype knowbot for white pages services and is develping the Abide
project which uses knowbots to query multiple databases produced by
the National Library of Medicine.

Brewster Kahle, Project Leader, Thinking Machines Corporation, sees a
fundamental shift in the way that information services are being
delivered in contemporary society.  In commenting on the pervasiveness
and power of technology and information services to the individual,
Kahle noted that he announced the Wide Area Information System
(WAIS) project via an Internet e-mail message, and ten months later
has 10,000 users of the product.  The goals of WAIS, an electronic
publishing system, are:  to make personal information accessible; to
have published information find the user; to be usable anywhere; and,
to allow others to use what an individual has learned, if appropriate.
WAIS, which is based on the Z39.50 protocol, employs English
language query and relevance feedback as its navigational techniques.
At present, 100 databases are being served via WAIS in nine countries,
and three new databases are being registered per week.

Next, Joyce Reynolds, Information Sciences Institute, University of
Southern California, described user services planning being carried out
via the nine User Services Working Groups (USWG) of the Internet
Engineering Task Force (IETF).  The USWG provides a regular forum for
those interested in all user services to identify and initiate projects
designed to improve the quality of information available to end-users
of the Internet.  They have seven types of objectives:  user information;
network information services infrastructure; network operational
management; education; documentation and distribution; interaction
with other IETF areas; interaction with other international user
services entities; and, user information.  Reynolds highlighted some of
the products of User Services, including fourteen "For Your Information"
(FYI) publications available on the Network.

The final panelist, George Strawn, Program Officer, National Science
Foundation, discussed the current state of the NSF network information
centers and the recently issued NSF "Network Information Services
Manager(s) for NSFNET and NREN" project solicitation.  He stated
that the purposes of the solicitation were the regulation of non-
military Internet networks; the provision of directory and database
services; and, development of an expanded array of information
services.  He noted that "considerable latitude exists for creative
responses" and stressed the NSF's interest in an open and fair selection
process.

Project Briefings

Following the plenary panel, attendees had the opportunity to talk in
small group sessions with the four panelists and, in addition, to attend
project briefings by others involved in implementing directory and
resource information services:  Chris Weider, Advanced Network and
Services, Inc. discussing the X.500 protocol; Mark McCahill, University
of Minnesota describing Gopher; Peter Deutsch, McGill University,
describing Archie; Martin Dillon, OCLC, Inc., and Sally McCallum,
Library of Congress, discussing bibiliographic description and control
for the Internet; Michael Schwartz, Univesity of Colorado, Boulder,
describing Netfind; and Howard Curtis, Cornell University, discussing
the Mann Library "Gateway."

Synergy Sessions

These informal sessions provide an opportunity for Coalition members
to convene a small group discussion on topics of their choice.  Synergy
sessions held at this meeting were:  John Waiblinger, University of
Southern California, and Judith Turner, Chronicle Information
Services, discussing USC Info and the Online Chronicle of Higher
Education; John Garrett, Corporation for National Research Initiatives
and Joseph Alen, Copyright Clearance Center, discussing their recently
issued report Toward a Copyright Management System for Digital
Libraries; Brian Kahin, Harvard University, reviewing the joint
Harvard/Coalition project on Scholarly Communications; Laura
Isenstein, Baltimore County Public Library, and Charles McClure,
Syracuse University, discussing partnerships for navigating the NREN,
including public libraries, state libraries, school libraries, and colleges
and universities; George Brett, University of North Carolina General
Administration, and Steven Cisler, Apple Computer, Inc., describing
two examples illustrating the gift economy and the market economy on
the network; Stephen Hall, Harvard University, and M. Stuart Lynn,
Cornell University, discussing the CUPID project; and John Haak,
University of Hawaii at Manoa, discussing regional accreditation
standards in a networked environment.

Networked Information Professionals

In a dinner address, Pat Molholt, Associate Director of Libraries,
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and, starting July 1, Assistant Vice
President and Associate Dean for Scholarly Resources, Columbia
University Medical School, decried that while we invest in system and
network research and development, we are lagging behind in human
resources research and development.  She exhorted the audience to
make investments in the human capital of our organizations.  In
analyzing parallels between issues routinely faced with systems and
appplying them to the human counterpart issues, she noted that  "it is
easier to master a new task than a new technology; adopting a new
technology is easier than altering an organization's structure; and,
accepting a new organizational structure is easier than making changes
in the cultural fabric of an organization, or a profession."  She
continued, "at present, we have changed the tasks, we have put in new
technologies, we have altered the organizational structures, and we're
now facing the most exciting challenge of all - changing the cultural
fabric, the norms, the expectations, the definition of our profession."  As
a start, Moholt suggested that we begin to make the kinds of
investments in our human resources, e.g. our staffs, as we do in our
technologies.  She noted "we need both the technology and the people.
We've become very adept with the former and now need to turn to the
latter with equal excitement and zeal."

Part 1 of 2
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU