_Current_Cites_ Volume 4, no. 7 July 1993 Information Systems Instruction & Support The Library University of California, Berkeley Edited by David F. W. Robison ISSN: 1060-2356 Contributors: Teri Rinne, Vivienne Roumani-Denn, Lisa Rowlison, Mark Takaro, Roy Tennant ______________________________________________________________________ Hyper- and Multimedia Tierney, John. "In Multimedia Storm, Text Thrives" The New York Times 142(49,383) (July 5, 1993). The written word (and even paper!) are here to stay, at least for a while. Noting the parallels between multimedia and television while addressing the prominence of text in electronic forms, the new journals NewMedia and Wired are profiled as representative of the future of text. Tools such as the briefly described reading tablet for electronic works may ease the transition of text to future media. - MT Information Transfer Kennedy, Bev. "Comparing Menu Systems for End-Users: After Dark, Knowledge Index, and FirstSearch" ONLINE 17(4) (July 1993):52-58. An informative comparison of BRS After Dark, Dialog Knowledge Index, and OCLC FirstSearch, including comparisons of costs, type of databases, time available, search features, and display options. Kennedy includes a "User-Friendly Checklist" comparing menu designs, response time, command language. - VR O'Leary, Mick. "Dialog and Data-Star Look To Online's Future" ONLINE 17(4) (July 1993):14-19. O'Leary describes the history and customer reactions of Dialog's purchase of Data-Star, and looks at the future development and challenges facing Dialog. - VR Tenopir, Carol. "When Is the Same Database Not the Same?: Database Differences Among Systems" ONLINE 17(4) (July 1993):20- 27. Tenopir examines differences among the major databases produced by the major database vendors and provides a table comparing database updates, date ranges covered in the databases, price per hour. She also reports on the treatment of field subdivisions content, and support features in the various databases. - VR Networks and Networking "ANS CO+RE's Security Services to Incorporate RSA Public Key Cryptography" HPC Select News 2(27) (July 9, 1993) [article available by sending an e-mail message to more@hpcwire.ans.net with the number 738 in the subject]. ANS announces the release of RSA public key cryptography for Internet users scheduled for later this year. This implementation of the RSA encryption scheme will be compatible with the full suite of TCP/IP applications: Telnet, FTP, SMTP (e-mail), X windows, and NNTP, and includes digital signature data authentication. - DR Carson, Sylvia MacKinnon and Dace I. Freivalds. "Z39.50 and LIAS: Penn State's Experience" Information Technology and Libraries 12(2) (June 1993):230-237. Carson and Freivalds describe their experience developing and deploying a Z39.50 client/server pair for their local online catalog system. The client has allowed them to successfully connect to a number of remote databases across the US, and the server allows remote users to access the Penn State system. One of the interesting things the authors noted is the Z39.50 paradox: when Z39.50 is successful, users don't know it is there and can't understand what the excitement is about. The users wonder why it took the developers two years to make their catalog look the same! - DR "Clinton Administration Aims for Open Information Policy" posted on Clinton-News-Distribution@campaign92.org (June 28, 1993) and reposted on GOVDOC-L@PSUVM.BITNET on July 1, 1993. [URL=ftp://nis.nsf.net/omb/omb.a130.rev2; also available via e- mail by sending a message to nis-info@nis.nsf.net with no subject, and with send omb.a130.rev2 as the first line of the body of the message.] This press release announces the latest revisions to OMB Circular A-130, which is titled "Management of Federal Information Resources". These much anticipated revisions state that, among other things, federal agencies must treat electronic documents in the same fashion that they treat print documents, must not place restrictions on secondary user of government data, nor charge users more than the cost of dissemination of that data. The circular also requires that agencies develop indexes, directories, and other tools to assist users in locating such information. - DR Cooke, Kevin and Dan Lehrer. "The Internet: The Whole World is Talking" The Nation 257(2)(July 12, 1993):60-66. Cooke and Lehrer provide an excellent overview of the Internet in a way that will help mainstream readers understand its power. They cover how the Internet has already affected world events (i.e. Tiananmen Square), the current size and growth of the net, current legislation about the net, and privacy on the net. The strength of this article is that it provides a broad overview of network issues in lay terms without losing the important details. - DR DeLoughry, Thomas J. "Compromise Reached on Legislation Leading to National Information Network" The Chronicle of Higher Education 39(42) (June 23, 1993):A15, A17. Unlike the usual compromises on the Hill, this one seems to make everyone happy. A bill, known as the Boucher bill (for Rep. Rick Boucher), unanimously passed the House Science Subcommittee and if made law, would take the US on the next step to creating a National Information Infrastructure. One of the reasons the bill passed the subcommittee is that it relies on previously authorized funds, not new ones. In the long run, the bill puts most networking activity in private hands and reduces the federal role to certain subsidies, test-bed projects, and the national supercomputing centers. In the shorter term, the bill provides that the government will not force the research and education users of the NSFNet to use private network service providers unless they are of satisfactory availability - including being affordable. Included with DeLoughry's discussion of the bill is a sidebar listing the provisions of the bill which include a directive to apply $110 million to develop library applications. - DR DeLoughry, Thomas J. "Software Designed to Offer Internet Users Easy Access to Documents and Graphics" The Chronicle of Higher Education 39(44) (July 7, 1993):A23. DeLoughry provides a brief description of the much heralded Mosaic interface. Currently only available in an X-Windows version (but slated for release for Macintosh and MS Windows in the Fall), Mosaic starts with a graphical World-Wide Web browser, and then adds other Internet services like Gopher and file transfer (FTP), all in a seamless interface. In its more developed form, Mosaic is intended to not only assist users in accessing information, but also in managing the information they gather as well as create. Not to be outdone, Mosaic is engineered and distributed freely by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). - DR Edwards, Morris. "Leaders Vie for Positions in Mobile Computing" Communications News 30(7) (July 1993):39. Major communications companies like AT&T, MCI, GTE, and the regional Bell operating companies are preparing for the rapid increase in wireless computing. Part of the increase will be spurred by the appearance of personal communications service (PCS) devices like Apple's Newton and the auctioning of bandwidth by the Federal Communications Commission. The PCS network will operate on a smaller, but just-as-ubiquitous, scale as the cellular network does now (i.e. using smaller cells). There are also a number of plans to employ satellite transceivers, including Motorola's Iridium project which will provide world-wide satellite coverage. Fasten your seat belts and unplug the computer! - DR Kapor, Mitchell. "Where is the Digital Highway Really Heading?: The Case for a Jeffersonian Information Policy" Wired 1(3) (July/August 1993):53-59, 94. Kapor argues that with technologies like ISDN (integrated services digital network) and ADSL (asynchronous digital subscriber loop - see Negroponte below), and the cable and telephone companies poised, the question is no longer who will be your network service provider, but rather who will control what information comes in and goes out of your network connection. Kapor believes that the cable and telephone companies can use the pay-per-view Hollywood movies to fund the availability of two-way high-bandwidth network service to the home. The bandwidth is already widely available in the form of a hybrid network of fiber optic cable, coaxial cable, and copper wire. What's left is to be sure that the network is switched so that data can be sent to specific places (and both to and from the home), lifeline access that is cheap enough for people with a low income, and standards that allow for interoperability on a mass scale. - DR Love, James P. "Information Policy for the Clinton/Gore Administration: A Viewpoint" Government Publications Review 20 (1993):245-249. Love, Director of the Taxpayer Assets Project, describes the legacy of the Reagan/Bush years that has allowed government agencies to charge market-based prices for government information. In many cases, Love charges, this has left citizens in the research community out in the cold. Love proposes that the Clinton/Gore administration and Congress set information policy for the electronic media the way it has for the printed media. This would mean that government agencies would not only be forced to provide access to information produced by the agency, but provide it at the cost of dissemination, not market value (see the revisions of OMB Circular A-130, above). - DR Negroponte, Nicholas. "Debunking Bandwidth: From Shop Talk to Small Talk" Wired 1(3) (July/August 1993):112. Negroponte points out that the problem is not getting enough bandwidth into the home, but using what we already have. As an example, ISDN could provide video on demand by distributing part of the signal on a CD-ROM. On the other hand, ADSL (asynchronous digital subscriber loop) allows a compressed video signal to be sent over copper wire. Negroponte asks: "Which would you prefer: 500 channels from which you can choose one, or one channel that can be switched to any source on the network?" - DR "New Coalition Formed to Advance Public Interest Positions on Telecommunications Infrastructure" posted on tap-info@ uunet.UU.NET (July 13, 1993) [available from the following servers: ftp: ftp.cpsr.org; gopher: gopher.cpsr.org; wais: wais.cpsr.org]. The Taxpayer Assets Project reports on the July 8th meeting of a number of people hoping to create a new organization focused on public interest issues of the National Information Infrastructure (NII). The new group is tentatively called the Telecommunications Policy Roundtable and includes Jeff Chester, from the Center for Media Education (CME), Marc Rotenberg, from Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR), and Prue Adler, from the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), Carol Henderson from the American Library Association (ALA), Richard Civille from the Center for Civic Networking (CCN), and members of several other groups. The Roundtable adopted six principles (and hope to receive comment on them): the NII must include a public and civic sector, there must be universal access, privacy must be protected, the NII must be an open and accessible system, the NII must be a diverse and competitive marketplace, and noncommercial programs and services must be preserved. - DR Raisch, Robert. "Registrar -- Resource Registration Service" posted on uri@bunyip.com, com-priv@psi.com, and www- talk@nxoc01.cern.ch (July 7, 1993). Raisch has posted this discussion of a proposed Uniform Resource Name/Locator (URN/L) registration server. In short, the Registrar accepts a URN (a network analog to an ISBN) and returns a URL along with other pertinent information for each instance of the object such as type, size, encoding, who has access, and payment method and cost. While all of the pieces are not quite complete, there is a test version of the server running that users may try. - DR Sulzer, Jack. "What Now? Is There Life After Access?: The Government Printing Office Electronic Information Access Enhancement Act and Its Implications" The Dupont Circle Reporter 9 (June 22, 1993) [posted on GOVDOC-L@PSUVM.BITNET as well as on MAPS-L, AND LAW-LIB]. Sulzer provides an analysis of the recently signed GPO Access Bill (see above). While there are varying opinions about the effectiveness of the law, Sulzer points to the indisputable lack of funding the law provides for implementation. With the costs of implementation estimated to be up to $10 million per year, it is not clear how the already- strapped GPO will come up with the money. - DR Wilson, David L. "Clinton Signs Bill on Electronic Access to Government Data" The Chronicle of Higher Education 39(42) (June 23, 1993):A15, A16. Wilson describes the GPO Access bill that was signed into law by President Clinton. The law requires the Government Printing Office (GPO) to maintain an electronic directory of federal electronic information, make the Congressional Record and the Federal Register available electronically within one year, and maintain a storage facility for federal electronic information. What the bill does not do is require government agencies to provide all their electronic data to the GPO for publication nor provide any new funding for electronic services. - DR General Rotenberg, Marc. "CPSR Workplace Privacy Testimony" posted on CPSR@GWUVM.BITNET (July 2, 1993) [available from the following servers: ftp: ftp.cpsr.org; gopher: gopher.cpsr.org; wais: wais.cpsr.org]. Rotenberg testified before the House Subcommittee on Labor-Management Relations, Committee on Education and Labor in support of H.R. 1900, the Privacy for Consumers and Workers Act. Arguing that workplace privacy is of increasing concern in an increasingly electronic office, and representing the Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR), he says, "It is our belief that computer systems and information policies that are designed so as to value employees will lead to a more productive work environment and ultimately more successful companies and organizations." CPSR recommends that the electronic monitoring of workers be kept to a minimum, and that all such monitoring be known to the employees being monitored. - DR Forthcoming McClure, Charles R., et al. "Toward a Virtual Library: Internet and the National Research and Education Network" The Bowker Annual (1993):25-45. McClure and his colleagues provide background information on the Internet itself and the NREN program, how libraries use the Internet today, and key issues that face libraries in this period of transition to a ubiquitous network. This last section is the most interesting, as it outlines the barriers to network use faced by academic, special, public, and school libraries. As is expected, the barriers differ by library type. - DR ------------------------------------------------------------------- Current Cites 4(7) (July 1993) ISSN: 1060-2356 Copyright (C) 1993 by the Library, University of California, Berkeley. All rights reserved. All product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. Mention of a product in this publication does not necessarily imply endorsement of the product. 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