Editor's Note: Minutes received 11/21/92 CURRENT_MEETING_REPORT_ Reported by Joan Gargano/UCDavis Minutes of the Whois and Network Information Lookup Service Working Group (WNILS) Introduction and Overview Joan Gargano spoke briefly about the impetus for starting the working group and development of the Whois++ application. This was followed by presentations by the developers. Architecture of Whois++ Peter Deutsch presented an overview of the Whois++ architecture. Peter described the prototype system, the currently supported query syntax and areas for improvement. Centroids Chris Weider provided an overview of the mechanism used to build a distributed directory service called ``centroids''. Simon Spero continued with a discussion of the underlying theory of centroids which has been used by other groups studying information retrieval issues. Sample Server Jim Fullton presented a brief overview of the Whois++ server developed at CNIDR. Jim describe his system which was built using standard Unix utilities. Response times of 15 seconds to query a database of 30,000 records was reported, however Jim felt significant improvements could be achieved with software designed and coded to optimize the system. Servers for testing are available at CNIDR and UC Davis. It is anticipated about 10 new servers will be in place within a couple of weeks. Questions The floor was opened for questions and general discussion of the protocol. Future The Whois++ developers solicited input about desired features. The following work was recommended. o A feature to allow servers to pass information about servers that poll them to optimize searching. 1 o A description of printer output format. o There needs to be a clearinghouse for templates. It was recommended this be performed by CNIDR. o Privacy and security features. o A method for handling replication of services. o Further discussion about usernames and attributes. o A method for using synonyms with queries. o A method to abort searches and continue searches. o Provide the ability to store and pass images. o A way to limit the attributes returned by a search. o A method for tagging attributes. Attendees Jules Aronson aronson@nlm.nih.gov Anthony Ballardie A.Ballardie@cs.ucl.ac.uk Steve Bucey sabucey@ns.pacbell.com Peter DiCamillo Peter_DiCamillo@brown.edu Letha Dugas 4371362@mcimail.com Cliff Frost cliff@cmsa.berkeley.edu Jim Fullton jim_fullton@unc.edu Joan Gargano jcgargano@ucdavis.edu Masayoshi Gohara mg@sinet.ad.jp Deborah Hamilton debbie@qsun.att.com Alisa Hata hata@cac.washington.edu Russ Hobby rdhobby@ucdavis.edu Jim Knowles jknowles@binky.arc.nasa.gov John Kunze jak@violet.berkeley.edu Edward Levinson levinson@pica.army.mil Clifford Lynch calur@uccmvsa.ucop.edu Mitra mitra@pandora.sf.ca.us Charlotte Mooers mooers@nnsc.nsf.net Clifford Neuman bcn@isi.edu Pete Percival percival@indiana.edu Karen Petraska-Veum karen@nsisrv.gsfc.nasa.gov Sheri Repucci smr@merit.edu Joyce K. Reynolds jkrey@isi.edu Richard Rodgers rodgers@nlm.nih.gov Patricia Smith psmith@merit.edu Larry Snodgrass snodgras@bitnic.educom.edu Janet Vratny janet@apple.com Yung-Chao Yu yy@qsun.att.com William Yurcik yurcik@dftnic.gsfc.nasa.gov 2