🚀 go-pugleaf

Komas Pentakalos recently asked for an index of information available
on the Internet.  The service described in the two attached notes
might be useful for locating resources on the Inet.  I haven't yet
tried WAIS; if any of you have, perhaps you could share your exper-
iences with the list.

Jim

++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1st Forwarded Message ++++++++++++++++++++++

 Date:         Mon, 6 Jan 1992 09:39:21 EST
 Reply-To:     Discussion of Government Document Issues <GOVDOC-L@PSUVM.BITNET>
 Sender:       Discussion of Government Document Issues <GOVDOC-L@PSUVM.BITNET>
 From:         PONNAPPA@utklib.lib.utk.edu
 Subject:      Wide Area Information Servers (wais)
 To:           Jim Cassell <CASSELL@UNCVM1.BITNET>

 ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
         The enquiry from Arrigo Paul about the availability of patent
 information on internet prompted me to share my knowledge (however limited!)
 about the Wide Area Information Servers (wais) developed by Thinking Machines
 Inc. some months ago.
         By using this system one can access information from different
 databases located in different parts of the world.  This is indeed the
 forerunner for the "virtual databases" that we hear so much about.  As of
 today, one can access 121 different sources, including information about
 patents, full text of supreme court decisions, etc.
         To access this server:
                 telnet quake.think.com
                 login: wais (please use lower case letters)
                 user: type in your address or just hit return
                 terminal type: vt100 (for most) or your terminal type

         This, if successful, should bring up the list of sources.  One can
 move from one source to another either by using the arrow keys or by typing
 the number of the source.  For example typing in 90 will highlight the
 Patent source.  From there using the arrow key, if you go down to 102, you
 will highlight the Supreme court source.

         While a particular source is highlighted, if you press the 'v' key,
 you will get some general information about the source.  You can select a
 source for searching by highlighting the source and pressing the 'space' bar.
 Then press the 'w' key to type in the keyword/s and enter.  That will bring up
 the segments containing the keywords from the main source.  Use the 'space' bar
 again to read the info.

         I don't want to curtail your fun by giving more details!  Just try it
 for yourself and learn by doing.  Typing in '?' should give you more info
 about other keys to use.

         If you need more clarification, you can contact me at:

                 -Ponnappa, B.P.
                  University of Tennessee Libraries
                  Knoxville, TN 37996-1000
                  Ph:615-974-6797
                  Ponnappa@UTKVX  (CREN)
                   Ponnappa@utklib.lib.utk.edu  (Internet)

++++++++++++++++++++ 2nd forwarded message +++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 Date:         Mon, 6 Jan 1992 13:38:17 EST
 Reply-To:     Discussion of Government Document Issues <GOVDOC-L@PSUVM.BITNET>
 Sender:       Discussion of Government Document Issues <GOVDOC-L@PSUVM.BITNET>
 From:         Edward Vielmetti <emv@msen.com>
 Subject:      Re: Wide Area Information Servers (wais)
 To:           Jim Cassell <CASSELL@UNCVM1.BITNET>
 In-Reply-To:  <01GEW6XKJH2O9D4TU1@utkvx.utk.edu>

 ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
 In article <01GEW6XKJH2O9D4TU1@utkvx.utk.edu> you write:

 >        The enquiry from Arrigo Paul about the availability of patent
 >information on internet prompted me to share my knowledge (however limited!)
 >about the Wide Area Information Servers (wais) developed by Thinking Machines
 >Inc. some months ago.

 Let me fill in a few more details about WAIS.  In addition to the
 public telnet'able server running at quake.think.com, there are
 also a number of other ways to search the various WAIS databases
 on the net:

 - telnet to "info.cern.ch", select W.A.I.S from the first screen
 (I think it's currently about number 20).  That'll get you to
 "World Wide Web", a CERN information system that has a reasonable
 WAIS interface.  This system groups the various servers in different
 ways, so that you can somewhat more easily locate one that might
 be of interest.

 - telnet to "samba.ois.unc.edu", the UNC BBS.  Once you navigate
 through the login screens, select "bulletins and other information",
 then "search newsgroups" (I may have this a little bit wrong, but
 it's close).  That ends you up at a somewhat less busy screen which
 makes it easy to run searches on the UNC databases or to fill in
 your own information.

 - ftp some client software from think.com:/wais/ for Macintosh, unix,
 NeXT, or X Windows.  You'll be looking for something called
 "WAIStation" which provides a snappy mouse-and-windows kind of
 full screen interface.

 WAIS is interesting, it has its good and bad points right now.
 On the good side, it's the first freely available software that's
 taken hold to solve the problem of interactively searching remote
 databases over the internet.  Some of the first things that have
 been put in as WAIS databases (archives of mailing lists and newsgroups,
 directories of computer networks) had been difficult to find on
 the net and when you did find them you couldn't really search
 them in place, not usually.  WAIS also employs a non-Boolean
 search mechanism & offers relevance feedback as an additional
 way to look for things, features not generally found in traditional
 database front end.

 On the bad side, any number of people have tried the simplest
 telnet user interface exactly once and then given up because it
 was not obvious that it was worth continuing to learn.  The
 data that is available on the net under WAIS is the usual Internet
 mixed bag of good, bad, indifferent, and inappropriate; Sturgeon's
 law (90% of everything is crap) works here too.

 I must say though, after having used WAIS to index some data that
 I had carefully been hoarding for two or three years it's a big
 leap up from using simple text editors to search for things.  I
 was at the library doing a Silver Platter search on ERIC and
 found myself wishing that I could WAIS through it knowing that
 for some of the searches I was doing it would have been much easier.

 If I run across any databases of particular interest to GOVDOC-L
 readers I'll leave a note.

 --
 Edward Vielmetti, vice president for research, MSEN Inc. emv@msen.com
       MSEN Inc., 628 Brooks, Ann Arbor MI  48103 +1 313 741 1120

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Jim Cassell                                    CASSELL@UNCVM1.OIT.UNC.EDU
Institute for Research in Social Science       CASSELL@UNCVM1.BITNET
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill       Phone:  919-962-0782
Chapel Hill, NC  27599-3355                    Fax:    919-962-4777
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