Scout Report: Week ending November 4, 1994

November 4, 1994

The Scout Report is a weekly publication provided by InterNIC Information Services to assist InterNauts in their ongoing quest to know what's new on and about the Internet. It focuses on those resources thought to be of interest to the InterNIC's primary audience, researchers and educators, however everyone is welcome to subscribe and there are no associated fees.

The Scout Report is posted on the InterNIC InfoGuide's gopher and WorldWideWeb servers where you can easily follow links to resources of interest. Past issues are stored on the InfoGuide for quick reference, and you can search the InfoGuide contents to find the items reported in all previous issues. The Scout Report is also distributed in an HTML version for use on your own host, providing fast local access for yourself and other users at your site.

http://www.internic.net/infoguide.html
gopher is.internic.net choose Information Services/Scout Report

Comments and contributions to the Scout Report are encouraged and can be sent to scout@cs.wisc.edu.

See the end of the report for additional information and detailed access and subscription instructions.

Highlights In This Week's Report:

CNIDR & Patent and Trademark Office provide the first AIDS patent library accessible through the Internet.
Harvest -- the next step in information discovery, from the folks who brought us Netfind.
National Infrastructure for Education grant program announced.
What's good on the tube tonight? Find it in your email each morning.

World Wide Web

The nation's first Internet-accessible AIDS patent library allows instantaneous search through hundreds of AIDS-related patents. Linkages among patents enable automatic cross-references - a process that takes place behind the scenes. In addition, the system automatically generates a paper trail noting the various patents retrieved and reviewed providing researchers not only text-based access to patent information but also high-resolution images complete with drawings, equations and diagrams of the full patents as issued by the PTO. The system also fully integrates other significant patent resources such as U.S. Patent Classifications.
The prototype AIDS patent library is a system designed by MCNC's Clearinghouse for Networked Information Discovery and Retrieval (CNIDR) for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) and will serve as a model for storing and disseminating government and other public documents in the future. The system uses CNIDR-developed information retrieval software and supports direct access to patents through a variety of popular network information services such as Z39.50, World Wide Web and electronic mail. Because anticipated demand will severely tax available resources at MCNC, the files will be relocated soon to an InterNIC network fileserver at the AT&T offices in New Jersey.
Email: send mail to ezgate@cnidr.org
in the body of the text type the word: help
The ARTSEDGE worldwide web pages and the Arts Information Gallery gopher are provided by the John F. Kennedy Center, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the U.S. Department of Education. The web pages are filled with information, including a newsletter about the Arts in K-12 education, Goals 2000 information, links to art and education related resources, stories about teachers who are using the web in the classroom -- and a link to the Information Gallery. The Information Gallery is a collection of information resources about Goals 2000, meetings and conferences, professional development opportunities, media resources, research and more.
gopher to: purple.tmn.com
choose: artsedge information gallery (#6)
[Note: Originally reviewed as a gopher site; gopher site has been replaced by web site.]
Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions Information Network, or InfoNet, is a campus-wide information service providing access to information from and about the medical institutions. Sections include training, research, information for patients, and information for health care providers.
The Arthritis Foundation is pleased to announce the WWW availability of Information About Arthritis as well as information about the Arthritis Foundation's programs and services. Topics include an extensive set of frequently asked questions about arthritis, ordering information for free literature about various arthritis-related topics, as well as pointers to other internet resources.
AT&T has developed a WWW 800 number directory that can be browsed by name or category. Find a florist in literally any state in the union, among many, many other things. The directory is also searchable via a Harvest demonstration.
The Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research (JAIR), which is published both electronically and in print, has commenced publishing articles formatted in HTML. The first is a re-release of a 1993 JAIR article, Software Agents: Completing Patterns and Constructing User Interfaces. The article is accompanied by an online appendix containing a QuickTime demo. It is an excellent example of what is possible with electronic publications.
Medical Matrix is a new Web resource that offers a database of Internet clinical medicine resources. Medical Matrix categorizes resources by disease, specialty, and other interest areas. It is designed as a "home page" for a physician's or healthworker's computer. Medical Matrix is a project of the Internet Working Group of the American Medical Informatics Association.

Gopher

National Information Infrastructure

As part of an expanding effort to encourage innovation and leverage the power of computer and networking technology to support science and mathematics education reform, the National Science Foundation's Directorates for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) and for Education and Human Resources (EHR) issue the second solicitation of a joint Program on Networking Infrastructure for Education (NIE). In addition, information on three related areas of networking applications are included: electronic libraries, Native American Telecommunications and programs with the Department of Defense Dependent Schools.
The NIE Program aims to hasten the development of a widespread high performance electronic communications infrastructure in support of science, mathematics, engineering and technology (SMET) education reform, and to help lay a foundation on which strategies for the appropriate use of technology in support of increased student achievement can be developed. NIE's goal is to build synergy between technology and education researchers, developers and implementers so they can explore networking costs and benefits, test self-sustaining strategies, and develop a flexible educational networking infrastructure that will be instrumental in the dissemination, integration and application of technologies to speed the pace of educational innovation and reform.
NIE seeks proposals in the areas of (a) policy studies, (b) research and development in support of NIE goals, (c) demonstrations and model sites, and (d) infrastructure and testbeds. These are not formal categories, but guides to types of projects and associated funding levels.
For a copy of the complete announcement released by NSF, send mail to mailserv@is.internic.net
in the body of the message type:
```
send /faq/nie
```
For general information, contact the NIE:
Phone: (703) 306-1651
E-mail: nie@nsf.gov

NetBytes

Harvest -- a new network information discovery and retrieval system form the folks at UC Boulder who brought us Netfind -- is an integrated set of tools to gather, extract, organize, search, cache, and replicate relevant information across the Internet. With modest effort users can tailor Harvest to digest information in many different formats, and offer custom search services on the Internet. Moreover, Harvest makes very efficient use of network traffic, remote servers, and disk space.
A number of content indexes have been built with Harvest and are available for general use to illustrate the capabilities of Harvest, including an index of AT&T's 1-800 phone numbers, an index of WWW home pages, and an index of over 24,000 Computer Science technical reports from around the world. Harvest has been in beta-testing for four months, and as of November 7 the software is available on the Internet. You can get to demonstrations, papers, software and documentation at http://harvest.cs.colorado.edu/
The Internet Conference Calendar is an organized and concise listing of conferences, workshops, exhibitions and seminars related to the Internet. Sections include what's new, calls for papers, and a geographic listing.

Weekend Scouting

"tv2nite" is a daily guide to America's favorite pastime -- watching prime time network and cable television. "tv2nite" has been designed for those of us who don't get complete cable listings in their newspaper (or don't get a newspaper), and/or don't want to shell out $40 a year for TV Guide. It's also for people who just like the idea of having their evening's entertainment choices pop up on their computer screen every day when they log in. Every morning, you'll get a new e-mail which summarizes the evening's best viewing, followed by a complete programming guide for all major broadcast and cable networks. This will include cable stations that many major newspapers don't have the space to list, such as Comedy Central, the Science Fiction channel, MTV, etc. We'll also let you know who's scheduled to appear on the evening's late night talk shows. (Local programming listings are not included.)
Email: send mail to listserv@netcom.com
in the body of the message type: subscribe tv2nite-l

About the Scout Report

The Scout Report is a weekly publication offered by InterNIC Information Services to the Internet community as a fast, convenient way to stay informed about network activities. Its purpose is to combine in one place the highlights of new (and newly-discovered) online resources and other announcements seen on the Internet during the preceding week.

A wide range of topics are included in the Report with an emphasis on resources thought to be of interest to the InterNIC's primary audience, the research and education community. Each resource has been verified for substantial content and accessibility within a day of the release of the Report.

The Scout Report is provided in multiple formats -- electronic mail, gopher, World Wide Web, and now HTML. The gopher and World Wide Web versions of the Report include links to all listed resources. The Report is released every weekend.

In addition to the ascii version, the Scout Report is distributed in HTML format via a separate mailing list. This allows sites to easily add the Scout Report to their local WorldWideWeb servers each week, providing fast access for local users. Subscription information for the scout-report-html mailing list is included below. Note that permission statements appear on both versions of the Scout Report, and we ask that these be included in any re-posting or re-distributing of the report. Thank you.

If you haven't yet subscribed or told your friends and colleagues, now is the time. Spread the news by word-of-net. Join thousands of your colleagues already using the Scout Report as a painless tool for tracking what's new on the 'Net!

Comments and contributions to the Scout Report are encouraged and can be sent to scout@cs.wisc.edu.

-- InterNIC Info Scout (SM)

Scout Report Access Methods

** To receive the electronic mail version of the Scout Report each Friday, join the scout-report mailing list which is used only to distribute the Scout Report once a week. Send mail to:

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in the body of the message, type:

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to unsubscribe to the list, repeat this procedure substituting the word "unsubscribe" for subscribe.

** To receive the Scout Report in HTML format for local posting, subscribe to the scout-report-html mailing list, used exclusively to distribute the Scout Report in HTML format once a week. Send mail to:

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in the body of the message, type:

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** To access the hypertext version of the Report, point your WWW client to:

http://www.internic.net/infoguide.html

>> Gopher users can tunnel to:

is.internic.net

select: Information Services/Scout Report.

Resource Addressing Conventions

After each resource in the Scout Report one or more network addresses are listed. In all cases a convention is used for listing the network address of each resource. It is assumed that users recognize the type of address and know how to use it. However, for those users unfamiliar with the Internet we provide here the order in which addresses are listed (by network tool) and instructions for accessing additional information in the InterNIC InfoGuide about each network tool. A brief explanation of one tool, WWW is included below.

The four network tools referenced most often in the Scout Report are World Wide Web, gopher, email, and FTP. Occasionally WAIS and Telnet addresses are also listed.

After each resource at least one address is listed, and sometimes more. This is because some resources are available through multiple network tools. The network tool addresses are always listed in the same order after each resource:

World Wide Web (WWW)
Gopher
FTP
Email
Telnet
WAIS

A WWW address is called a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) and always begins with a string of characters followed by a colon and two right brackets. For example:

http://www.internic.net/
gopher://gibbs.oit.unc.edu:70/11/research.d/grants.d
ftp://ftp.digex.net/pub/access/hecker/internet/slip-ppp.txt

To access the resource through the WWW you will need a WWW client installed on your host computer. Clients are available for all major computer platforms, including Macintosh, PC, and UNIX. To use a WWW client on your computer, you will need a TCP/IP connection to the Internet, either through a dedicated line connection or a SLIP/PPP connection. See the InfoGuide for additional information about the World Wide Web and for sites which archive WWW clients. For more information about SLIP/PPP, which can be used over a dial-up connection, see the document listed in the NetBytes section above.

gopher://is.internic.net/11/infoguide/using-internet/basic-resources/email/

Gopher to: is.internic.net
** Choose: Information Services/Using the Internet/

Send email to: mailserv@is.internic.net
In the body of the message type:

send INDEX

Copyright 1994 General Atomics.
Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of the Scout Report provided the copyright notice, this permission notice, and the two paragraphs below are preserved on all copies.

The InterNIC provides information about the Internet and the resources on the Internet to the US research and education community under the National Science Foundation Cooperative Agreement No. NCR-9218749. The Government has certain rights in this material.

Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation, General Atomics, AT&T, or Network Solutions, Inc.

scout@is.internic.net
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