Clearinghouse for Networked Info. Discovery & Retrieval

[[e-mail]]

 I don't think I've seen the announcement of this Clearing House on
 this list.  This is very good news for our NIR WG activities.

 Well done George and Jane.

 -- Jill

%%%%%%%% Forwarded message %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Date:     Thu, 08 Oct 1992 15:40:41 -0500
>From:    jds @ concert.net
Subject:  Clearinghouse for Networked Info. Discovery & Retrieval
To:       resource-discussion @ unt.edu

The Clearinghouse 
for Networked Information Discovery and Retrieval (CNIDR)


On October 1, 1992, the Clearinghouse for Networked Information Discovery
and Retrieval (CNIDR) received a 3-year grant from the National Science
Foundation (NSF). CNIDR is headquartered at the Center for Communications
at MCNC in the Research Triangle Park, NC. The Center for Communications
has provided primary support for the past several months and additional
initial support has come from Apple Computer, Inc., Digital Equipment
Corporation, IBM, NeXT, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Office of Information Technology.

Two existing staff members have been actively promoting the use of
networked information discovery and retrieval tools such as WAIS, gopher,
archie and WWW at many national and international conferences. CNIDR is
participating with associations such as the Internet Engineering Task Force
(IETF), the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI), and the Reseaux
Associes pour la Recherche Europeenne (RARE; the Association of European
Networking Organizations and their users) to further the development and
appropriate uses of networked information. 

In February, 1992 CNIDR, with funding from NSF, held a successful two-day
workshop on the topic of WAIS. The Clearinghouse will use the new NSF grant
to sponsor more workshops, add staff members, and increase its collection,
classification, and dissemination activities. To keep the Internet
community informed of its priorities, goals, and projects, CNIDR will use
as many avenues as possible, including both print and electronic media. 

One of the first priorities is to provide pointers to the locations of the
various flavors of clients and servers for WAIS, gopher, WWW, and other
similar tools which have been developed for use in the public domain -- and
we need your help. If you have written a client or server we'd like to hear
from you. Our immediate goal is to compile an annotated list which
describes the uniqueness of each tool, attributes the author(s), and
provides a reliable address from which to ftp or otherwise obtain the tool.
With the authors' permissions, we would like to gather all the different
flavors into one or more of our internet-connected computers and offer
"one-stop shopping" for potential users via anonymous ftp -- and/or other
servers such as WAIS and gopher as appropriate.

We're also interested in improving the documentation for installing,
maintaining, and using the tools. If you've written any guides, articles or
descriptions for your local community -- whether technical or end-user
oriented -- we'd like to collect and distribute those as well.

Finally, if any of you have suggestions for other Clearinghouse activities
we'd like to hear from you and consider your suggestions and concerns in
our planning.

Below is an outline of our general goals. We look forward to serving and
hearing from you.

-- Promote and support the implementation and use of neworked information
discovery and retrival (NIDR) applications such as the Wide Area
Information Server (WAIS), the Internet Gopher, the WorldWide Web, and
Archie.

-- Coordinate to create consensus among NIDR applications developers to
ensure compatibility and interoperability.

-- Disseminate information about NIDR applications to the network community
as well as individuals or organizations active with NIDR applications
development.


For more information about the Clearinghouse contact:
George Brett, [e-mail] or Jane Smith, [e-mail]
CNIDR
Center for Communications - MCNC
PO Box 12889
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2889
tel. [phone] or 919-248-9213
fax [phone]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Jane Smith   [e-mail]
Clearinghouse for Networked Information Discovery and Retrieval (CNIDR)
Center for Communications - MCNC
PO Box 12889  3021 Cornwallis Road
Research Triangle Park, NC  27709-2889