CURRENT_MEETING_REPORT_ Reported by Jill Foster/University of Newcastle upn Tyne and George Brett/MCNC-CNIDR Minutes of the Networked Information Retrieval Working Group (NIR) The Networked Information Retrieval Working Group was convened by Jill Foster and Jane Smith (substituting for George Brett). The Agenda was discussed and approved as presented. Updates of Other Projects Updates on other related projects were presented by Jane and Jill. Jane presented material on the Clearinghouse for Networked Information Discovery and Retrieval (CNIDR), funded by the National Science Foundation and directed by George Brett. Jill presented an update of the RARE ISUS NIR activities. Review of the Draft Status Report on NIR Tools and Groups (Version 3.0). The Draft was reviewed and discussed. The Draft has been submitted as an Internet-Draft, to eventually become an FYI document. Some formatting work remains to be done to qualify as an official draft, but essentially the document is now in draft status. Additional tools and groups were suggested and discussed, and some tools will be moved from the ``coming attractions'' appendix to the regular listings section. In particular, there was discussion about individually listing implementations of X.500 and Z39.50. Tim Berners-Lee will submit listings for X.500, and Jill suggested that someone from the ZIG submit listings for Z39.50. Additional groups suggested were: OCLC, USMARC, MARBI, LC, NLM and Paradise. The Group voted to omit listings in Appendix F, ``Other Interested Parties,'' but to provide a pointer to where such information might be obtained. Review of the Templates in Light of Experience in Completing Them. There was little discussion about this. It was suggested that perhaps, if and when more people become involved in completing the templates, more feedback will be forthcoming. Schedule Next Revision. The document as a whole will continue to be updated three times a year just prior to IETF meetings. CNIDR will split the document into logical pieces and make it available on-line both for retrieval and for more frequent updating. 1 Next Stage: ``Evaluation'' of the Various Tools. There was much discussion about the definition and depth of the ``evaluation'' portion of the report. Suggestions ranged from a simple checklist to a formal study of user interactions with the various programs. Volunteers were solicited to begin work on some of the basic elements of the evaluation portion. o Checklist of features and capability. o Glossary/definition of terms. - April Marine - Jim Fullton - Jill will solicit UK and European volunteers. It was suggested that after this Group makes a first pass a separate group should review the work. o Evaluation criteria There was a lot of discussion about how to establish evaluation criteria. Some of the consensus is shown below in the breakdown of tasks. o Document current, advanced, and innovative uses of the tools, giving 5-10 examples of each. Get information from tool developers and from mailing lists, newsgroups, etc. - April Marine (tentative) - Jane Smith - Lenore Jackson - Jill will solicit UK and European volunteers. o Evaluations, both from the information consumer and the information provider points of view, will be approached first on an anecdotal basis, then perhaps on formal studies should they become available. - Erik Jul - Jill Foster - Chris Weider All tasks listed above may be discussed on the mailing list and preliminary results will be compiled and issued as a *separate* Report. Identifying Other Tasks (need for documentation, training materials etc.) 2 It was noted that this task overlaps the Training Materials Group somewhat, but that compiling a bibliography of documentation and training materials specific to NIR would be valuable. CNIDR will be collecting such materials and will assist both in distribution and in compiling a bibliography. Such a document will also be considered a separate part of the Report. Update Goals and Milestones in the Light of Current Discussion. Jill will be making suggested changes to this part of the NIR Charter, pursuant to discussions with the IESG. It was noted that the current list is more like an Agenda, when what is basically required is a schedule for publications. Attendees Jules Aronson aronson@nlm.nih.gov Paul Barker p.barker@cs.ucl.ac.uk Robert Beer r-beer@onu.edu Tim Berners-Lee timbl@info.cern.ch John Boatright bryan_boatright@ksc.nasa.gov Fred Bohle fab@interlink.com Corinne Carroll ccarroll@bbn.com Jodi-Ann Chu jodi@uhunix.uhcc.hawaii.edu Henry Clark henryc@oar.net David Conklin conklin@jvnc.net Naomi Courter naomi@concert.net Brent Curtiss bcurtiss@magnuss.ocs.ohio-state.edu Thomas DeWitt tdewitt@osi.ncsl.nist.gov Jill Foster Jill.Foster@newcastle.ac.uk Steven Foster foster@cs.unr.edu Marcello Frutig frutig@rnp.impa.br Gwen Funchess funchess@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu Greg Gicale gicale@ohio.gov Robert Gutierrez gutierre@nsipo.nasa.gov Deborah Hamilton debbie@qsun.att.com Alisa Hata hata@cac.washington.edu Susan Horvath shorvath@merit.edu Lenore Jackson jackson@nsipo.arc.nasa.gov Thomas Johannsen Thomas.Johannsen@ebzaw1.et.tu-dresden.de Dale Johnson dsj@merit.edu Erik Jul jul@oclc.org Andrew Knutsen andrewk@sco.com John Kunze jak@violet.berkeley.edu Hock-Koon Lim lim@po.cwru.edu Samir Malak malaks@alice.uncg.edu Glenn Mansfield glenn@aic.co.jp Janet L. Marcisak jlm@ftp.com April Marine april@atlas.arc.nasa.gov Michael Mealling michael@fantasy.gatech.edu Keith Moore moore@cs.utk.edu Jim Naro jnaro@nic.near.net 3 Mark Needleman mhn@stubbs.ucop.edu Bruce Nelson bnelson@novell.com Clifford Neuman bcn@isi.edu Bill Norton wbn@merit.edu William Nowicki nowicki@legato.com Marsha Perrott mlp+@andrew.cmu.edu Mark Prior mrp@itd.adelaide.edu.au Steven Richardson sjr@merit.edu Francois Robitaille francois.robitaille@crim.ca Richard Rodgers rodgers@nlm.nih.gov Jennifer Sellers sellers@nsipo.nasa.gov Chris Shaw cshaw@banyan.com Sue Smith smiths.es.net Larry Snodgrass snodgrass@bitnic.educom.edu Craig Todd ctodd@desire.wright.edu Matt Tuttle snodgras@cren.net Hung Vu hungv@fonorola.com Chris Weider clw@merit.edu Les Wibberley lhw24@cas.org 4