# Mosaic with beta whois++ extensions ready and available

echristi@isdres.er.usgs.gov
Fri, 20 May 1994 06:44:29 -0400

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    From: echristi@isdres.er.usgs.gov

    Message-Id: <9405201043.AA02036@mocha.bunyip.com>

    Date: Fri, 20 May 1994 06:44:29 -0400

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From: echristi@isdres.er.usgs.gov (Eliot Christian)
Subject: Global Information Locator Service
X-Mailer: <Windows Eudora Version 2.0.2>

I am trying to draft some language that I would propose to be included in a
Global Information Infrastructure document. (This would be through the
International Working Group within the Information Infrastructure Task Force.)

Please send me any comments you may have on the following, and feel free to
share it with anyone who may be interested.

DRAFT

Toward a Global Information Locator Service

The Global Information Infrastructure is emerging at a revolutionary
period in the history of information where technological breakthroughs
have radically expanded the range of feasible strategies for electronic
access to information. In particular, the realization of peer computer
networks allows for a decentralized approach where many different
information sources are separately maintained yet can be viewed
collectively from the perspective of a specific user.

Using such a decentralized approach, the United States Federal
Government is establishing a Government Information Locator Service
(GILS) to help the U.S. public locate and access information. The U.S.
Federal initiative could be offered to the international community as a
model for a Global Information Locator Service. A decentralized Global
Information Locator Service would preserve the decentralized character
of information dissemination on a global scale, and the wide diversity
of sources, both public and private, that serve the public need for
information access.

Success of the Global Information Locator Service would not be
predicated on massive government investments or sweeping international
agreements. Rather, it would adopt existing international information
standards and build on the efforts of the responsible, talented, and
creative people worldwide already working on information access issues.
The Global Information Locator Service would use this solid base of
widely accepted standards to help governments and diverse information
services to focus their efforts and leverage existing technologies.

In contrast to a centralized design, the proposed decentralized approach
assumes that many different implementations will be separately developed
yet will be fully interoperable when implemented. Achieving such
interoperability is only possible if a stable base of reference, known
as an application profile, is documented and made widely known. In the
proposed Global Information Locator Service, that application profile
would be negotiated among government representatives and active
implementors working through the International Organization for
Standardization (ISO).

An International Standardized Profile (ISP) for the Global Information
Locator Service would build upon the existing GILS Profile that
establishes common mechanisms to identify and describe information
resources. As with the GILS Profile, the Global Information Locator
Service ISP would be based primarily upon the ISO standards for
information search and retrieval (ISO 10162/10163), part of the Open
Systems Interconnection family of standards. The ISP would state the
functions and environment within which it applies, and identify chosen
classes, subsets, options, and parameters of existing international
standards to achieve the same purposes on a global scale.

The ISP for the Global Information Locator Service would not limit how
information is maintained at the source nor how the information is
displayed to the user. Alternative ways to organize and present
networked information would continue to be encouraged, but participants
in the Global Information Locator Service would implement such
alternatives in addition to supporting access in a manner compliant with
the ISP. For example, information organized via the OSI X.500 Directory
Services standard could be made accessible also via ISO 10162/10163.

Public domain client software that supports direct access would be
freely available from many sources worldwide. Access software is also
expected to become embedded within many different computer applications,
ranging from the very simple to those that support concept searching
across languages, dynamically interpret natural language, or filter
search requests to sift huge amounts of information automatically.

The decentralized Global Information Locator Service would supplement
other government and non-government information dissemination
mechanisms. Members of the public would use the Global Information
Locator Service either directly or through intermediaries, such as
government agencies, non-government organizations, libraries, and
private sector information services. Access through intermediaries could
include kiosks, "800 numbers," electronic mail, bulletin boards, FAX,
and off-line media such as floppy disks, CD-ROM, and printed works.
Direct users would have access to many information sources freely
accessible on networks such as the Internet, and could also have access
to many other information resources, linkages to data systems, and
electronic delivery of information products.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
SideBar: The final report to the U.S. Information Infrastructure Task Force
on the Government Information Locator Service is dated May 2, 1994. It is
available on 130.11.48.107 in the directory /pub as four files by format:
Microsoft Word for Windows is gils.doc
Word Perfect 5.0 is gils.wp
Rich Text Format is gils.rtf
ASCII text is gils.txt
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you..

Eliot Christian, US Geological Survey, 802 National Center, Reston VA 22092
echristi@usgs.gov Phone(703)648-7245 FAX(703)648-7069

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