MARISTELLA AGOSTI, MICHELINE BEAULIEU, CYRIL CLEVERDON, HANS‐PETER FREI, NORBERT FUHR, DAVID HARPER, PETER INGWERSEN, MICHAEL KEEN, RAINER KUHLEN, STEPHEN ROBERTSON, ALAN SMEATON, KAREN SPARCK JONES, KEITH VAN RUSBERGEN and PETER WILLETT
Sir, We write to record our debt, and that of our colleagues, to one of the founding fathers of information retrieval, Gerard (Gerry) Salton, who died on 28th August 1995 in…
Abstract
Sir, We write to record our debt, and that of our colleagues, to one of the founding fathers of information retrieval, Gerard (Gerry) Salton, who died on 28th August 1995 in Ithaca, ny at the age of 68. Information retrieval was established as a new academic discipline by a small number of pioneers, Gerry among them, who recognised the need for, and the research challenges presented by, the automated indexing, storage and retrieval of text documents. He brought academic rigour and scholarship to establishing the foundations of this discipline, and we acknowledge his influential contributions to the theory, experimental methods, and practice of information retrieval.
This paper draws attention to the value of a new generation of information servers as a tool for human communication. Section I introduces the notion that the Internet is…
Abstract
This paper draws attention to the value of a new generation of information servers as a tool for human communication. Section I introduces the notion that the Internet is heralding a new era in communications, where peoples of different age and background are able to communicate with each other without barriers of distance or time. Section 2 examines the client‐server architecture which, together with the advent of graphic user interfaces, made possible a new generation of distributed, platform‐independent information servers. Four of the new generation servers are discussed in the remaining sections, namely Archie, gopher, WAIS and the World Wide Web, as well as video‐conferencing with CU‐seeMe.
Adapting to change is never easy, particularly when everything is moving so fast that one has less and less time to devote to thinking about the transition process. We are all…
Abstract
Adapting to change is never easy, particularly when everything is moving so fast that one has less and less time to devote to thinking about the transition process. We are all rather like white water canoeists: carried on rapid waters in a small and fragile boat — in danger of being either sunk or left on the bank — and, with head over paddle, unable to see very far ahead. The change always seems to be external and it is difficult to answer such questions as what change and for what purpose and even if we knew the answers it is unclear to what extent we are capable of affecting the outcomes. What might be helpful is to examine some of the undercurrents that are propelling us forward, affecting our work and our perceptions of our professional role.