Re: The future of meta-indices/libraries?

burchard@geom.umn.edu
Tue, 15 Mar 1994 21:56:04 --100


bjoerns@stud.cs.uit.no (Bjoern Stabell) writes:
> The problem is, these meta-libraries require much work
> to be kept up-to-date (and so, they usually aren't very
> up-to-date at all) and there are so many of them;
> resulting in most meta-libraries keeping a list of other
> meta-libraries.

Actually, I'm very impressed with the CUI W3 Catalog. Rather than
merely listing other meta-libraries and indices, the CUI catalog
intelligently incorporates the contents of selected low-noise lists
(including ALIWEB). I consistently get informative and relevant
responses from CUI.

To some extent, I think it's good to have a variety of approaches,
especially when places like CUI can provide a single interface to
combine the strengths of the various systems. But I agree that we
should standardize on some system by which servers can provide
meta-information, and I'd say we already have a winner with ALIWEB.

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Paul Burchard <burchard@geom.umn.edu>
``I'm still learning how to count backwards from infinity...''
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