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gils: Re: GILS Compliant replacement for WAIS

gils: Re: GILS Compliant replacement for WAIS ?

Re: GILS Compliant replacement for WAIS ?

Eliot Christian (echristi@usgs.gov)
Thu, 26 Dec 1996 07:14:58 -0500 

Message-Id: <2.2.32.19961226121458.00738fb0@130.118.4.2>
Date: Thu, 26 Dec 1996 07:14:58 -0500
To: gils@cni.org
From: Eliot Christian <echristi@usgs.gov>
Subject: Re: GILS Compliant replacement for WAIS ?

At 01:36 PM 12/23/96 EST, Richard Cooper wrote:
>
>At HHS we are considering our options for replacing WAIS since support 
>for the commercial version we purchased is disappearing.  We are leaning 
>towards Surfboard which is the WAIS replacement.  Other products that 
>might meet our needs are TOPIC from Verity, OpenText, and  Excite.
>
>First and foremost we want to be GILS compliant.  We believe that WAIS 
>and now Surfboard are GILS compliant but not sure about the others 
>mentioned above.  We would appreciate any information that others have 
>to share on this matter.
>
>Richard Cooper
>U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
>rcooper@os.dhhs.gov
>202-690-5408

In the following I describe first the current commercial products of which I
am aware, then some freeware offerings. I also describe the regrettable
situation with respect to WAIS.

I am aware of several commercials firms who are actively developing various
products that include GILS-compliant servers: Basis Systeme Netzwerk (BSn),
Online Computer Library Center (OCLC), Sirsi, Sovereign-Hill, and Verity. I
have been told that Fulcrum intends to come up with a plan for making
Surfboard GILS-compliant. 

I am not aware if OpenText or Excite are developing or shipping
GILS-complaint server products. I had understood that Ameritech was making
their NetPublisher product GILS-compliant, but I am not sure what happened
to that work.

There are some GILS-compliant freeware sources, most of which are built on
one of two popular Z39.50 toolkit and server packages. The Clearinghouse for
Networked Information Discovery and Retrieval (CNIDR) in North Carolina
provides freeware known as "Isite". Indexdata in Denmark provides freeware
as Yet Another Z39.50 (YAZ) toolkit and the Zebra search engine. Both of
these sources also provide clients, gateways, and various other facilities.
Blue Angel Technologies is providing a Windows-NT freeware Meta Data Server
that builds on the Indexdata products. Also built on Indexdata products is
an integrated capability for the Apache freeware Web server.

I would like to be clear that no existing WAIS server software is
GILS-compliant. The once-popular freeware products known as FreeWAIS and
WAIS-SF are not compatible with the base standard of GILS, Z39.50 version 2.
The commercial WAIS product known as WAISserver was marketed as
GILS-compliant but was found to be not compliant with GILS or even with
Z39.50 version 2. 

Efforts to repair the defective WAISserver software were complicated by the
1995 acquisition of WAIS Incorporated by America Online. The Z39.50v2 and
GILS-compliance problems were eventually fixed in May 1996 and incorporated
into WAISserver 2.2. However, WAISserver 2.2 was not distributed to
customers. The WAISserver software and WAISserver customer base was sold by
AOL to Fulcrum Technologies. I have asked Fulcrum to post a message to the
GILS list to describe their position on the issue of WAISserver 2.2
distribution as well as their plans to make their Surfboard product
GILS-compliant.

Eliot Christian, US Geological Survey, 802 National Center, Reston VA 20192
echristi@usgs.gov  Office 703-648-7245  FAX 703-648-7069  Home 703-476-6134

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