networks and information retrieval

John Lindsay <is_s377@ceres.king.ac.uk> Tue, 08 December 1992 16:36 UTC

Via: uk.ac.kingston; Tue, 8 Dec 1992 14:09:29 +0000
Sender: ietf-archive-request@IETF.CNRI.Reston.VA.US
From: John Lindsay <is_s377@ceres.king.ac.uk>
Subject: networks and information retrieval
To: nir@cc.mcgill.ca
Date: Tue, 08 Dec 1992 14:08:30 +0000
Message-Id: <9212081408.aa27780@ceres.king.ac.uk>

Networked information retrieval

Framework for Contributions for Special Issue of Information
Processing and Management.

The development of Internet within the academic and company communities
has reached the stage where vast chunks of data are swirling round the
planet, millions are communicating with one another digitally, but
almost none of this is information, and finding anything out is well
nigh impossible.  Experiments such as WWW, Gopher, Archie, Usenet
News, WAIS, CWIS, BIDS, NISS, BUBL, Mailserve, all give ideas, but
none are engineered as working systems, and none move us forward in
terms of what is known about information retrieval.  Indeed most move
us back before the 1960s.  We are at the level of development of
hunters and gatherers in the information age.  It is time we tried agriculture!

Information Processing and Management intends to dedicate a special
issue to Networked Information Retrieval,  partly to disseminate
information about developments and partly to establish a shared
position of where we are at the moment.  It therefore invites papers
on a range of topics, either synthetic or analytic, to be posted to
Lindsay@kingston.ac.uk.  These will then be posted to
ir@mailbase.ac.uk. Thereafter will follow an unmoderated discussion on
each of them.  The Journal will involve the papers, some of the
contributors being invited to give a short summary of the electronic
discussion, an introductory essay, and a conclusion.

The suggested topics are:

Does the political economy of the networks inhibit information retrieval?

Will XOpen crack the problem?

What are the fundamentals of ir and how does networking change them?

Store and forward versus go and fetch

Just in time or just in case?

Is it a bandwidth problem or a semantics problem?

If anyone has another topic just post it, we are completely open in
the call for contributions at the moment.  Feel free to cross post as
much as you like. (Oops - better add a disclaimer to that!)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Lindsay
School of Information Systems
Kingston University
Kingston Upon Thames KT1 2EE
081 547 2000  x 2699 (Tel)
081 547 1457 (Fax)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

networks and information retrieval John Lindsay