Discussion about a new nntp newsgroup - comp.infosystems.www

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Date: Thu, 18 Feb 93 15:47:20 -0500
From: murphy@dccs.upenn.edu
Message-id: <9302182047.AA25717@lam.dccs.upenn.edu>
To: engineering@dccs.upenn.edu, nav@dccs.upenn.edu, www-talk@nxoc01.cern.ch
Subject: Discussion about a new nntp newsgroup - comp.infosystems.www

Here's my two cents worth:

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From: murphy@scotty.dccs.upenn.edu
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: murphy@dccs.upenn.edu
Network Engineering                  Data Communications and Computing Services
University of Pennsylvania                                       (215) 898-9534