Re: centroid propagation

[Mark Prior <[e-mail]>]

     # I wonder how much I understand what you said... Sorry.

     On Tue, 19 Oct 1993 09:25:03 +0930,
          Mark Prior <[e-mail]> said:

     >    >  I don't support centroids since it is too difficult to do a complete
     >    >  implementation when you are constrained by another system that doesn't
     >    >  map into whois++ cleanly. I would attempt to do a partial

     >     What type of constraints can be there? I can't image concretely. For
     >     example?

     >  Well I have another API to deal with and for all whois++ concepts I
     >  must try to translate them into X.500 concepts. Whois++ is designed
     >  with a WAIS style indexing facility in mind but X.500 doesn't provide
     >  access in this way. I must issue typed searches against X.500 so there
     >  is no easy way for me to get at all the possible values of items so
     >  they may be provided to an index server.

     I'm sure there are many types of attribute but is it needed to get
     "all" of the values?

Well you are suppose to be able to supply all available values of an
attribute to the index server. whois++ as it currently stands mandates
an all or nothing approach. If I can't guarantee returning everything
then my only option is to say I can't participate.

     >                                           I also have a system that can
     >  (and does) defend itself from people trying to "trawl" data from it,
     >  so if you send it a whois query like "*" it will return nothing, even
     >  though it has had thousands of matches. You must be must more specific.

     Is there any problem to arrow "trawl"ing data?

It's a privacy issue. While someone might allow their entry to be
looked up in the system they may not want people to be able to just
fish for it. Also we are concerned that the system may be used for
bulk mailing (physical or electronic) if you can find out the contact
details for everyone on campus. While we can't stop it (as we want to
supply the individual entries to legitimate users) we can make it as
difficult as possible.

Mark.