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Navigating the Internet: Tools for Discovery

By Judy Smith and Daniel Updegrove

Reprinted from Penn Printout, Volume 9, Number 4, February 1993, Page 1
Newsletter of the Office of Information Systems and Computing University
of Pennsylvania, contact: danu@DCCS.UPENN.EDU

	Franklin, Penn's online library catalog, PennInfo, our campus-wide
information system, and Whois, the online electronic mail directory, are
three popular resources on PennNet, the campus data network.  Since
passwords are not required for these systems, many users are, in fact,
affiliates of other universities, government agencies, or industrial
firms.  Their link to PennNet is the Internet, a network of more than
one million computers in forty countries.

	Penn students, faculty, and staff, in turn, can access thousands
of resources around the world:  library catalogs, campus information
systems, directories, databases, and archives.  The number of
institutions joining the Internet, the number of individuals with
access, and the number of resources being contributed to this public
domain continue to grow rapidly.  But how does one navigate in such a
vast sea of information?

	Until recently, only intrepid researchers and networking gurus
understood enough about network addressing, user command interfaces, and
technical tricks to use the Internet for more than electronic mail.  New
navigation tools--easy to use, widely available, and free--have
dramatically changed this.  Now anyone can, in a matter of minutes,
learn to explore from Sweden to Singapore in search of scholarly,
technical, or avocational treasure. (See the "Internet hunt," sidebar
for examples.)

     Five Internet navigation tools--Archie, Gopher, Veronica, WAIS, and
World-Wide Web--are introduced in this article, followed by instructions
on accessing Gopher, which provides links to the other four tools, as
well as to PennInfo.  As with PennInfo, these tools are usable via any
computer that can emulate a VT100 terminal, but additional power and
ease of use are available with versions that operate as clients on
Macintoshes and other workstations with IP/ethernet connections.


Archie -----

     The Internet community has been amassing text, image, software, and
database resources for over twenty years.  Historically, these resources
have been stored in public repositories known as anonymous FTP servers.
FTP is the Internet-standard high-speed file transfer protocol, used for
exchange of private information by trusted parties with passwords as
well as for publishing information without passwords, i.e., anonymously.

     Hundreds of archives now exist but, up until a year ago, no one
tracked them.  Archie (ARCHIvE server) was developed at McGill
University to index the contents of all FTP servers and provide keyword
searching of the index.  Its approach is simple but powerful:  Every
night it re-indexes roughly one thirtieth of the servers; the result is
a database that is completely refreshed each month.

     Although Archie enables you to locate information, it does not
allow you to view or retrieve the information.  To do that, you need FTP
software on an IP-connected workstation or host (see Penn Printout,
March 1992).


WAIS ---

     Wide Area Information System (a joint project of Apple Computer,
Dow Jones, KPMG Peat Marwick, and Thinking Machines Corporation)
provides a uniform interface to many full-text databases, together with
a sophisticated "relevance search" capability.  You can search any WAIS
database using any word or phrase and the system will return a menu of
documents, ordered from more to less relevant.  WAIS databases are
commonly collections of related data (The Bryn Mawr Classical Review),
primary source documents (Clinton speeches), or reference works (CIA
World Fact Book, Roget's Thesaurus).  There are currently almost 400
WAIS databases, and new ones appear frequently.

     Since it can be difficult to determine the focus of a WAIS database
from its name, a Directory of Servers, itself a WAIS database, was
developed.  You can search this directory for topics that interest you,
and it will suggest WAIS databases for you to explore.  For example, you
could search the directory using the keyword "religion,"  and you would
be referred to three WAIS databases:  the Book of Mormon, the Qur'an,
and the Bible.


Gopher -----

     Gopher began as the University of Minnesota's version of PennInfo,
a menu-driven campus-wide information system (CWIS).  Gopher's
simplicity as a distributed, client/server CWIS led to its rapid
adoption by other institutions, some of which developed new client or
server software for desktop or host computers and contributed them to
the Gopher software archive (accessible via anonymous FTP, naturally).
Soon thereafter, Minnesota offered to provide a menu of all Gopher
servers that any other Gopher could access.  The result was what
networkers have been talking about for years:  an interoperating set of
information systems linking several hundred organizations around the
world, all with a common user interface!

     The next step in Gopher's evolution was addition of gateways to
FTP, Telnet (the Internet standard remote terminal protocol), Archie,
WAIS, and WWW.  Gopher was thus transformed from an integrated set of
CWIS programs into the most successful Internet navigation tool.  But
success became problematic:  As the worldwide menu structure grew,
locating information became increasingly tedious.  Something like Archie
was needed to help researchers locate information quickly in this new,
ever expanding "Gopherspace."


Veronica -------

     In November, 1992 a search tool, Veronica, was contributed to
Gopher by a team from University of Nevada at Reno.  The original
Veronica ("Very Easy, Rodent-Oriented, Net-wide Index to Computerized
Archives," a comic acronym if ever there was one) provides a search
through all menus using a single keyword.  The result is a dynamically
created menu of all Gopher resources that contain the keyword in their
menus.  Now, a second Veronica search tool has appeared--an indexed WAIS
database extended to allow Boolean searches of menu documents.  Although
both searches are limited to words in menus (as opposed to the full text
of documents), the combination of Veronica and Gopher results in a
powerful capability to search for and retrieve information from all over
the Internet, with the location of the information effectively
irrelevant.


World-wide Web (WWW) -------------------

     WWW was developed as a hypertext system at the Center for Nuclear
Energy Research (CERN) in Geneva.  It allows links with and between WWW
documents and, like Gopher, provides access to other Internet resources
and navigation tools.  Although much admired by many in the Internet
community for the elegance of its design, WWW has not proliferated as
has Gopher, in part because WWW services are more complex to create and
maintain, and in part because security restrictions at CERN restricted
Internet access.


Access to Gopher at Penn -----------------------

     From the PennNet annex: prompt, issue the command  telnet gopher
and you will be presented with a main menu including local and remote
gopher servers, the Gopher-PennInfo gateway (that is, PennInfo menus and
documents accessible via the Gopher user interface), as well as Archie,
Veronica, WAIS, and WWW.  Alternatively, use the "worldwide" command
from within PennInfo.  It should be noted that these navigation tools
currently qualify for only "best effort" support from Data
Communications and Computing Services (DCCS); no formal training, local
documentation, or CRC help is planned.  DCCS seeks feedback about the
use of these tools; send comments to Al D'Souza, Director of Program
Managemet, at 898-2429 or via e-mail to dsouza@pobox.upenn.edu.

     To obtain Gopher client (or server) software, FTP to ftp.upenn.edu
or boombox.micro.umn.edu. Log in as "anonymous," use "guest" as your
password, and change your directory to pub/gopher.  Gopher clients may
be set to "point to" the server at Minnesota; you are encouraged to
reset your client to point to gopher.upenn.edu.

     To obtain Archie, WAIS, or WWW client software for an
IP/ethernetconnected computer, simply use Veronica and Gopher.
(Alternatively, search PennInfo by the keyword "navigation" to determine
FTP archive addresses, and then use FTP.)   From a WWW client, point to
http://www-penninfo.upenn.edu: 1962/ for access to PennInfo.


Home again ---------

     The joint development effort, client/server paradigm, and no-cost
distribution of these navigation tools is characteristic of the
Internet.  Consider:

*    In 1991 Penn "imported" software developed at MIT for TechInfo,
     made minor modifications, and introduced PennInfo.

*    A few months ago, MIT, in turn, installed the Gopher gateway to
     TechInfo, developed by Linda Murphy of DCCS.

*    Penn's recommended communications software for IP-connected
     Macintoshes is NCSA Telnet, developed and distributed by the
     University of Illinois' National Center for Supercomputing
     Applications.

*    Fetch, an elegant Macintosh implementation of FTP developed at
     Dartmouth, is now supported here.

*    Eudora, a Mac-based electronic mail program from the University
     of Illinois, is being used in several offices at Penn.

     Also characteristic of the Internet are a strong international
flavor, creative programmers ("hackers" in the best sense), droll humor,
and a growing number of enthusiastic and productive scholars navigating
the net--without leaving their desks.


JUDY SMITH is a Technical Writer for ISC Communications Group.  DANIEL
UPDEGROVE, Associate Vice Provost for Information Systems and Computing,

is Executive Director of the Office of Data Communications and Computing

services.  Their e-mail addresses are smith@pobox.upenn.edu and

updegrove@dccs.upenn.edu, respectively.



***********************************************************************

Sidebar 1:

Internet Hunt ------------

     Below is a sampling of questions from the December and January
Internet Hunts.  This monthly treasure hunt was created by Rick Gates,
Director of Library Automation at the University of California at Santa
Barbara.   For more information use the keywords "internet hunt" to
search PennInfo or Veronica.


*     What is the atomic weight of boron?

*     I'm trying to find a new book on the Internet by an author named
Krol.  Are there any local bookstores that might carry this?  I live in
Albuquerque, New Mexico.

*     Early last month, U.S. president-elect Bill Clinton proposed a new
technology policy.  Where can I find the text of this proposed policy?

*     I'm going to be in Denver, Colorado on the nights of Jan 22-25.
Will the Denver Nuggets basketball team be playing at home on any of
those nights?

*     What was the total amount of sales in liquor stores in the United
States in September of this year?  Was this more than last year?

*     I'm volunteering some time for a local hiking association.  I'd
like to know if anything's been written on the development of trails for
the handicapped?

*     I'm going to London next February.  Is there a place that I can
ask about some of the different pubs that might help take the chill
away?

*     Where is the ACM's SIGGRAPH '93 Conference being held next August?

*     How does one say "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year" in Czech?

*     Is the Toyota Motor Corporation connected to the Internet?

*     I read in an electronic journal somewhere that a conference was
held in Padova, Italy on models of musical signals.  I wrote down the
name of a contact, "Giovanni De Poli."  Can you find his e-mail address
for me?

*     What is the primary religion in Somalia?

*     I understand that the Net is being put to use distributing
information and pictures of missing children.  Where can I find out
more, and where can I find the pictures?

*     Where can I find tables listing the nutritive values of different
foods?

*     What is the text of the 1st Amendment to the Constitution of the
United States?


***********************************************************************

Sidebar 2:


Further Reading --------------

     Any one of the following books on the Internet is recommended for
further reading:

*     Kehoe, Brendan P. (1993)  Zen and the Art of the Internet: A
Beginner's Guide to the Internet, (second edition). Prentice Hall,
Englewood Cliffs, NJ.  ($22.00)  The first edition is also available via
FTP at ftp.upenn.edu in the directory pub/DCCS.

*      Krol, Ed. (1992)  The Whole Internet User's Guide and Catalog.
O'Reilly & Assoc., Inc. Sebastopol, CA.  ($24.95)

*     LaQuey, Tracy, and Jeanne C. Ryer. (1992)  The Internet Companion:
A Beginner's Guide to Global Networking.  Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA.
($10.95)

*     Tennant, Roy; John Ober; and Anne G. Lipon. (1993) "Crossing the
Internet Threshold: an instructional handbook.  Library Solutions Press.
($45.00)

     Also note that PennInfo contains detailed information about these
navigation tools--see the "Internet Navigation" topic in the "Computing"
menu or use a keyword search to find information.


***********************************************************************

Penn Printout is published six times yearly by the Office of Information
Systems and Computing, University of Pennsylvania.  Articles may be
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(Penn Printout, University of Pennsylvania) are acknowledged.  Please
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To request a printed copy of Penn Printout, call 215-898-1786 or send
email with your name and mailing address to PRINTOUT@A1.RELAY.UPENN.EDU.

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