Information for BIO-WWW/bionet.software.www

USENET name:           bionet.software.www  (MODERATED)

Mailing list name:     BIO-WWW

E-mail address:        bio-www@net.bio.net

Moderator:             EBI
                       (contact: Peter Sterk)
                       sterk@ebi.ac.uk


Purpose: 
         Announce, and  inform  on, new  achievements on information
         servers, archives and resources  which  offer  data  and/or 
         services in the biology/medicine/related  area which can be
         accessed  via  electronic  networked  information retrieval 
         software. Proposals and discussions of  these  with respect
         to new strategies and tools, as  well as links to contribu-
         tions  dealing  with  issues of  performance and quality of
         networked information in Biology shall inform and invite to 
         participate. 
 
Status:
         moderated, but not restricted, address see above. 

         Achievements  are  exposed  on a WWW server simultaneously. 
         The intention of moderation is to (a) ensure quality, resp.  
         relevance of postings and (b) compose a common format which
         is intended to server as URL derpository where appropriate.

Charter:
         New Servers  and Services offered on the Internet which can 
         be accessed using the  World  Wide Web and tools associated 
         to the  browser, or similar tools which have a similar ver-
         satility,  shall  get a non-WWW, non-information tool forum 
         which bridges the gap between  application  and informatics
         issues  without  the need to install or use the protocol in 
         question.New and established servers shall have a medium to 
         announce improvements and new achievements to the community
         on NEWS and eMail transports.The Newsgroup 'jewels' will be  
         made available  on a WWW server as well, and  include links 
         to other documents,  which are located at the poster's site 
         in order to overcome the  maintenance  issue. Sites running
         GOPHER,  WAIS,  FTP  or other servers covered by the possi-
         bility to be accessed via electronic networks using public-
         ly  available 'clients' or 'browsers'  servers are  invited  
         to  supplement  their information.
 
Exclusion: 
         General  issues  on accompanying software problems shall be 
         placed  in  bionet.software  or  suitable software-specific 
         newsgroups  in the comp hierarchy. Established WWW, GOPHER,
         or  other  meta- indices shall  not  be  competed. Specific  
         items on the non-biology related technical side of the ser-
         ver software are not intended to be discussed.The newsgroup  
         shall  not be used for large papers and discussions, as the 
         posting of the link to the own server would be sufficient. 
 
FAQ: 
         Periodic (e.g., quarterly)  postings of a 'biological' net-
         worked information FAQ is  intended. This  shall  summarize  
         the  discussion  and  reconfirm  announced  links  (quality 
         control).