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.

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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.)


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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            [email protected]
Paul Barker              [email protected]
Robert Beer              [email protected]
Tim Berners-Lee          [email protected]
John Boatright           [email protected]
Fred Bohle               [email protected]
Corinne Carroll          [email protected]
Jodi-Ann Chu             [email protected]
Henry Clark              [email protected]
David Conklin            [email protected]
Naomi Courter            [email protected]
Brent Curtiss            [email protected]
Thomas DeWitt            [email protected]
Jill Foster              [email protected]
Steven Foster            [email protected]
Marcello Frutig          [email protected]
Gwen Funchess            [email protected]
Greg Gicale              [email protected]
Robert Gutierrez         [email protected]
Deborah Hamilton         [email protected]
Alisa Hata               [email protected]
Susan Horvath            [email protected]
Lenore Jackson           [email protected]
Thomas Johannsen         [email protected]
Dale Johnson             [email protected]
Erik Jul                 [email protected]
Andrew Knutsen           [email protected]
John Kunze               [email protected]
Hock-Koon Lim            [email protected]
Samir Malak              [email protected]
Glenn Mansfield          [email protected]
Janet L. Marcisak        [email protected]
April Marine             [email protected]
Michael Mealling         [email protected]
Keith Moore              [email protected]
Jim Naro                 [email protected]


                                  3





Mark Needleman           [email protected]
Bruce Nelson             [email protected]
Clifford Neuman          [email protected]
Bill Norton              [email protected]
William Nowicki          [email protected]
Marsha Perrott           [email protected]
Mark Prior               [email protected]
Steven Richardson        [email protected]
Francois Robitaille      [email protected]
Richard Rodgers          [email protected]
Jennifer Sellers         [email protected]
Chris Shaw               [email protected]
Sue Smith                smiths.es.net
Larry Snodgrass          [email protected]
Craig Todd               [email protected]
Matt Tuttle              [email protected]
Hung Vu                  [email protected]
Chris Weider             [email protected]
Les Wibberley            [email protected]



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