NOREILLY@irlearn.bitnet ("Niall O'Reilly ", NOREILLY@IRLEARN.UCD.IE) (04/27/89)
Received today from Alain Auroux of the EARN Office.
Niall
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Enclosed is the EARN89 preliminary programme.
[ ... some text suppressed ... ]
Best regards,
Alain Auroux
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
EARN89
An International Conference on Technical Aspects
of Networking and User Support Services
with Emphasis on Applications in the Medical Field
EARN
EUROPEAN ACADEMIC & RESEARCH NETWORK
PRELIMINARY PROGRAM
May 29-31, 1989
CAPSIS BEACH HOTEL
HERAKLION, CRETE, GREECE
------------------------------------------------------------------
SPONSORING ORGANIZATIONS
------------------------
Support of EARN89 by the following organizations is
gratefully acknowledged:
- General Secretariat of Research and Technology, Greece
- Institute of Computer Science, FORTH, Greece
- IBM Hellas
- IBM Europe
- Digital Equipment International Europe
- Northern Telecom Europe Limited
-------------------------------------------------------------------
PROGRAM COMMITTEE
-----------------
Stelios Orphanoudakis (Chairman, Greece)
Alain Auroux (EARN Office, France)
Kurt Bauknecht (Switzerland)
Avi Cohen (Israel)
Peter Flynn (Ireland)
Frode Greisen (Denmark)
Dennis Jennings (Ireland)
Olivier Martin (CERN)
Hank Nussbacher (Israel)
Jean Nuyens (Belgium)
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
--------------------
Vassilis Dougalis (University of Crete)
Constantine Halatsis (University of Athens)
Christos Halkias (National Technical University of Athens)
Giwrgos Kyriakides (University of Crete)
Stelios Orphanoudakis (Foundation of Research and
Technology-Hellas)
Theodore Papatheodorou (University of Patras)
Manolis Protonotarios (National Technical University of Athens)
EARN STAFF, NATIONAL NODE, CRETE, GREECE
----------------------------------------
Rena Kalaitzaki (EARN89 Conference Secretary)
Hara Tomara (EARN Country Coordinator)
Pantelis Tzortzakis (EARN Country Coordinator)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
-------------------
May 25-26 EARN Technical Forum
and Network Operations Group Meetings
May 27 EARN Executive Committee Meeting
May 28 Registration 2.00 pm - 10.00 pm
Reception 7.00 pm - 9.00 pm
May 29 Registration 8.30 am - 6.30 pm
Tutorials 9.00 am - 12.00 am
Knossos/Museum 3.00 pm - 7.00 pm
Barbeque 9.00 pm
May 30 Plenary Session 8.30 pm - 1.00 pm
Session A.1 4.00 pm
Session B.1 4.00 pm
May 31 Session A.2 9.00 pm
Session B.2 9.00 pm
Session A.3 4.00 pm
Session B.3 4.00 pm
June 1-2 EARN Board of Directors Meeting
June 3 EARN Executive Committee Meeting
----------------------------------------------------------------
Conference & Program Information
----------------------------------
In recent years, Academic Networking has become a major
international activity whose goal is to establish effective
communication channels, which will bring closer together
individuals working in Academic and Research Institutions
around the world.
EARN89 is the 3rd International Conference of the European
Academic and Research Network. It provides a forum for the
exchange of information on the development and operation of
EARN and other academic and research networks, the
installation of network servers and other user support
tools, and the use of these networks and related facilities
by various groups in academic and research institutions.
This international conference will address primarily issues
related to the technical aspects of networking, user support
services and documentation, and networking applications. A
specific application area which will be emphasized is
Networking in Health Care and Picture Archiving and
Communication Systems (PACS). Medical applications of
networking are currently gaining substantial momentum and
will serve as the central theme of parallel sessions with
invited and submitted papers.
Half-day tutorials on Internetworking and Security Measures
for Academic Networks have been planned for the first day of
the conference. EARN89 will formally open in the morning of
the second day with a plenary session dedicated to a review
of current and future developments in the area of networking
in Europe and North America. The remaining one and a half
days of EARN89 will be devoted to invited and submitted
papers, which will be organized in two parallel sessions on
Technical Aspects of Networking and User Support Services.
Specific topics to be covered include the following:
- Message Handling Systems
- Existing Networks and ISDN
- Network Servers
- Data Security
- Network Monitoring and Management
- Access to Databases/Libraries
- Medical Applications / PACS
- Sociological Aspects of Computer Mediated
Conferencing
A book of extended abstracts will be distributed to all
participants at the conference.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
MONDAY, MAY 29, 1989
TUTORIALS
(9.00 - 12.00 AM)
I. INTERNETWORKING
Lawrence H. Landweber, University of Wisconsin, USA
This tutorial addresses issues arising from the
interconnection of (possibly heterogeneous) computer
communication networks and protocol architectures.
Of principal concern are the protocols which provide for
translation and routing between such networks. Case studies
of existing protocol architectures and a commercial gateway
product are used to illustrate the concepts.
Lawrence H. Landweber is Chairman of the Computer Sciences
Department at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA. He
received his Ph.D. in Computer Science in 1967 from Purdue
University. He was one of the founders of CSNET. His
research interests include high speed networking, protocol
design and implementation and the interconnection of
heterogeneous network/protocol architectures.
II.SECURITY MEASURES FOR ACADEMIC NETWORKS
Stanley Kurzban, IBM, Thornwood, New York, USA
This tutorial addresses issues of system penetration and
data security in academic networks. The relative importance
of various security threats facing academic networks today
will be considered and possible security measures will be
discussed.
Stanley Kurzban is a Senior Instructor with IBM's Systems
Research Education Center, Thornwood, New York, USA.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
12.00 pm Lunch Break
-------------------------------------------------------------------
3.00 pm Tour of the Palace of Knossos and the Archaelogical
Museum in Heraklion
-------------------------------------------------------------------
9.00 pm BARBEQUE
-------------------------------------------------------------------
TUESDAY, MAY 30, 1989
8.30 am PLENARY SESSION
Welcome Remarks
Official Opening of EARN89
EARN's Role on the Networking Scene - Now and in
the Future
Frode Greisen (President, EARN)
Danish Computing Center for Research and Education
EARN OSI Migration
Dennis Jennings, University College, Dublin, Ireland
Aspects of Scientific Networking in Europe
K. Ullmann, RARE, Amsterdam
10.30 am Coffee Break
11.00 am PLENARY SESSION (cont'd)
From X.25 to ISDN - The Changing Data
Communications Scene
Louis Pouzin, CNET-PAA, France
EUNET
Daniel Karrenberg (EUUG EUNET Executive)
CWI, Netherlands
North American Networks
Lawrence H. Landweber
University of Wisconsin, USA
HEPnet in Europe
R. Blokzijl, NIKHEF, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Medical Doctors' and Researchers' Attitudes as
Users of EARN: the Example of CLAN
(Cancer Liaison and Action Network)
Jean-Claude Salomon, CNRS, France
------------------------------------------------------------------
1.00 pm Lunch Break
------------------------------------------------------------------
4.00 pm SESSION A.1: EXISTING NETWORKS
Computer Conferencing in Global Networks and
IBM's View of Future Computer Conferencing
(Invited Paper)
Jack Williford
IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, USA
High Speed European Academic Network
(Invited Paper)
Herb Budd, IBM Europe, Paris, France
5.00 pm Coffee Break
5.30 pm SESSION A.1 (cont'd)
National Plan for the COSINE Implementation
Phase - Greece (Invited Paper)
C. Halatsis and A. Arvillias
NRCPS "Democritos", Aghia Paraskevi, Greece
NORDUNET and the NORDUnet Overview
Mats Brunell, Swedish Institute of Computer Science
Einar Loevdal, University of Oslo, Norway
------------------------------------------------------------------
4.00 pm SESSION B.1: NETWORK SERVERS / USER INTERFACES
User Development: a Challenge to Systems Design
(Invited Paper)
J. Kirakowski and M. Corbett
University College, Cork, Ireland
LifeSci - A Tool for Computer Supported Cooperative
Work (Invited Paper)
Aminadav Zakai, The Rappaport Family Institute
Technion-Israel Institute of Technology
5.00 pm Coffee Break
5.30 pm SESSION B.1 (cont'd)
The Trickle Servers
Turgut Kalfaoglu
Ege University, Turkey
A Rule-Based Electronic Mail Filter
M.F. Wyle
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH)
Zurich, Switzerland
Information Servers for the National Science
Foundation Network: The GRASP System
James C. Sweeton, The Merit Computer Network
The University of Michigan, USA
------------------------------------------------------------------
WEDNESDAY, MAY 31, 1989
9.00 am SESSION A.2: MEDICAL APPLICATIONS I
High Speed Medical Applications (Invited Paper)
Rudolf Schosser and Konrad Messmer
University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, FRG
Use of PACS Networks: Time Related Special
Management
R. Mattheus, R. Luypaert, M. Osteaux, and
Y. Temmerman
PRIMIS, VUB, Brussels, Belgium
10.00 am Coffee Break
10:30 am SESSION A.2 (cont'd)
Potential Uses of X.400 in a University
Hospital Information System
Essia Rammah and Alain Rouge
Hopital Cantonal Universitaire de Geneve
Geneve, Switzerland
Data Modelling for Networking in Health Care
Applications: Medical Information and the
Object Oriented Paradigm
Andrew Eliasz, University College London, and
Barbara Kostrewski, City University London, UK
------------------------------------------------------------------
9.00 am SESSION B.2: NETWORK MONITORING, MANAGEMENT,
AND SECURITY
Reliable Networking in an Unreliable Environment
(Invited Paper)
Erol Gelenbe
Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Informatique, France
The NETSTAR Network Management System
Marc A. Hamilton, TRW Defense Systems Group
Redondo Beach, California, USA
10.00 am Coffee Break
10.30 am SESSION B.2 (cont'd)
Secure Automated Document Delivery System
Bill Tuck and Tom Casey
University College, London, UK
Personal CRC / Checksum Utilization Over Randomly
Chosen Generator Polynomials for Viral Activity
Detection: A Proposal
Eren Saban and Ahmet Koltuksuz
Ege University, Izmir, Turkey
------------------------------------------------------------------
12.00 pm Lunch Break
------------------------------------------------------------------
4.00 pm SESSION A.3: MEDICAL APPLICATIONS II
Practical Aspects of Using E-Mail in a Clinical
Department
Yoav Horn, Assaf Harofeh Medical Center, Israel
Networking in a Biomedical Research Setting:
Some Experiences and Prospective Applications
in Basic Science and Epidemiology
V. Guardabasso, G. Angeli, and A. Nicolucci
Instituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri
S. Maria Imbaro, Italy
5.00 pm Coffee Break
5.30 pm SESSION A.3 (cont'd)
Using EARN in Transplant Medicine for Multi-Center
Collaborative Studies
Eric Keppel and M. Wilk
IBM Germany, Heidelberg, FRG
EARN Applied to Cystic Fibrosis Research: Specific
and General Aspects of Networking by Naive Users
Michel Jorda, U.C.R.I
Hopital - Maternite de l' Arbresle, France
-----------------------------------------------------------------
4.00 pm SESSION B.3: ACCESS TO DATABASES / LIBRARIES
An Experimental Service for Dissemination of
Information for Academia: Early Results and
Perspectives (Invited Paper)
Stefano Trumpy, CNUCE Institute of CNR, Italy
ONNES: Organized Network for News about European
Superconductivity
Dominique Dumas and Nadine Grange
EARN - France, CNUSC, Montpellier, France
The PLUTO International Network Project
Rhys Gwyn, Manchester Polytechnic, UK
Norman Longworth, IBM International Education
Centre, La Hulpe, Belgium
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
GENERAL INFORMATION
-------------------
Who Should Participate:
----------------------
EARN89 will be of particular interest to all users of EARN,
those who are responsible for the development, installation,
and maintenance of Academic and Research Networks, those who
install and maintain network servers and other user support
tools, and other users of computer network and related
facilities. As application of networking in the medical
field will be emphasized, this conference will also be of
interest to all those who are engaged in research and
development in the areas of Hospital Information Systems,
picture archiving and communication systems, and computer
intergrated health care systems in general. All members of
the above groups are invited to share their knowledge and
experiences with other participants at this conference.
All those who plan to attend EARN89 are asked to return the
attached hotel and conference Registration Forms to the
address provided or preferably by E-Mail* as soon as
possible.
For additional information For general information on
on the conference EARN89, the European Academic and
send e-mail to: Research Network (EARN),
send e-mail to:
(EARN:) EARN89 @ GREARN (EARN:) GREGURY @ FRMOP11
or write to:
or write to:
EARN89
c/o Ms. Rena Kalaitzaki EARN Office
Dept. of Computer Science c/o Ms. Cathy Gregury
University of Crete 45, rue des Saints-Peres
714 09 Heraklion, Crete 75006 Paris, FRANCE
GREECE
Tel: 33-1-40150539
Tel: 30-81-239779 ext 163 Tlx: 670602 F CITIUM
Tlx: 262728 MPUC GR Fax: 33-1-42963497
Fax: 30-81--239735
*It is strongly recommended that e-mail be used for all
correspondence, including return of the attached form and
the submission of abstracts. Regular mail should be used
only when e-mail is not available.
Place and Travel
----------------
EARN89 will be held at the Capsis Beach Hotel, Heraklion
Crete Greece from May 29-31, 1989. The Hotel is located on
the peninsula of Agia Pelagia about 20 km. from the city of
Heraklion. Crete is connected with the mainland of Greece by
several flights a day. Olympic Airways flies to Heraklion
according to the following timetable:
Flight number Departure Arrival
from Athens at Heraklion
OA 500 05.45 06.30
OA 502 07.10 07.45
OA 506 16.10 16.50
OA 510 17.20 18.10
OA 512 19.00 19.50
OA 518 22.10 23.00
There are numerous charter flights directly to Heraklion
from most major European airports. For those looking for
direct scheduled flights, please note that Lufthansa is
flying from Frakfurt, W. Germany, every Saturday and Sunday
at 12.25.
Heraklion is also connected with the mainland (Piraeus port
in Athens) by two ferries every night, departing from
Piraeus at 18.30 and 19.00 and arriving at Heraklion at
07.00 the following morning.
The conference will provide continuous bus transportation on
Sunday, May 28 to and from the airport. Facilities for car
rental and taxi service are available at the airport.
(Ride by taxi 20-30 min, at about 2000 drs per hire).
HOTEL Reservations
-----------------
The organizers will guarantee reservations at the Capsis
Beach Hotel for all participants who return the attached
hotel Registration Form or send an e-mail request before May
15, 1989. Since the Conference is held during the peak of
the tourist season in Greece, participants are requested to
preregister through the conference secretary as early as
possible.
Please note that payment for accomodations will be made
directly to the Hotel in cash, travellers cheques, or credit
cards during check out. Accomodation at Capsis Beach Hotel
for all participants and their spouse has been negosiated at
the special rate of
Bed & Breakfast Half Board
Single room 9.000 11.000
Double room 5.800 7.800
All prices are per person per night in drachmas and include
all taxes. Participants staying at the Hotel beyond the
conference period will benefit from the same reduced rate
prices.
Conference Registration
-----------------------
All participants are strongly requested to return the
special registration form or send e-mail to the conference
secretary as soon as possible.
The registration fee of US$ 170.00 for participants and US$
35.00 for accompanying persons includes airport pick-up
(only for Sunday May 28th ), a welcome reception coffee
breaks, a half day tour to the palace of Knosson and the
archeological Museum a barbeque with folklor dancing, and a
book of abstracts to be distributed at the conference. In
addition to the above, the fee for each accompanying person
will include a special accompanying person program.
The registration fees should be paid by a bankers cheque (no
personal cheques will be accepted) or by bank transfer to
G. Kiriakidis
national Bank of Greece
Branch 205 Heraklion
Crete, Greece
acc. no. 205/ 622204-8
Late resistration will be available at the Conference
Registration Desk at no additional charge.
Conference Office
-----------------
The Registration and Information area at the Conference site
will be open from 8.30 am until 6.30 pm every day. On
Sunday, May 28th, the Registration Desk will be open from
2.00 pm until 10.00 pm.
E-Mail Facility
--------------
Several terminals will be available for the use of EARN89
participants in a dedicated room which will be open each day
from 9.00-12.00 in the morning and 3.00-6.00 in the
afternoon.
Climate
-------
In May the weather is pleasant and we suggest summer
clothing only.
The Hotel also provides facilities for all sea-water sports,
5 tennis courts, volley ball, sauna etc. Participants should
bring their own equipment if they wish to participate in
these activities.
Bank and Post Office
--------------------
The Hotel provides postal facilities and banking services.
Full Banking facilities can be found in Heraklion from 07.30
to 13.30 Monday to Friday.
Visa Requirement
----------------
Non EEC participants are advised to consult their Foreign
Office on probable visa requirement to enter Greece.
Hotel Contact
-------------
For further inquiries concerning hotel facilities,
participants may contact directly the Capsis Beach Hotel at
Agia Pelagia at:
Tel: +30-81-811212 Tlx: 262204 CAPS GR
811234 262550 CAPS GR
811256 262526 CAPS GR
811278
811290
or by FAX : +30-81-811076
Accompanying Persons Program
----------------------------
Registered accompanying persons are welcome to join in all
the social activities scheduled for the participants.
In addition, they are invited to participate in the
following activities:
- Guided tour of town and Historical Museum
Tuesday 9.30 am to 1.00 pm
- Guided visit to Fodele village and the old part of the town
of Rethymnon.
Wednesday 9.30 am to 2.00 pm
Optional Excursions
-------------------
For those who wish to take advantage of their stay on the
island and tour around or join a cruise to a nearby island,
INTER AVIAIR, the official travel agency for EARN89 will be
operating a desk during the Conference to assist them with
all the arrangements. Any travel inquiries by the
participants should also be addressed to:
INTER AVIAIR
35, KORNAROU str,
Heraklion 712 01
Crete
tel: +30-81- 286865 - 226997 - 221459
fax: 289346
tlx: 262396 INEV GR
----------------------------------------------------------------------
EARN89 May 29-31, 1989
HOTEL REGISTRATION FORM
(to be mailed by May 15th, 1989)
Name....................................................
Address.................................................
........................................................
e-mail:........................phone....................
Please make reservations at the Capsis Beach Hotel
for.......nights, from..........to............1989.
Bed and Breakfast Half Board
[ ] Single Room 9,000* 11,000
[ ] Double Room 5,800 7,800
Name(s) of accompanying person(s).......................
*per person per night in drachmas
----------------------------------------------------------------------
EARN89 May 29-31, 1989
CONFERENCE REGISTRATION FORM
Return by AIRMAIL to: Registration Fees (US$)
EARN89 Participants 170.00
Ms. Rena Kalaitzakis Accomp. Persons 35.00
Dept. of Computer Science
University of Crete
714 09 Heraklion, Crete
GREECE
Name....................................................
Title.....................Affiliation...................
Address.................................................
........................................................
e-mail:......................phone......................
Name(s) of accompanying person(s).......................
Form of payment: [ ] Bank Transfer [ ] Bankers Cheque
Cheques should be made payable to:
Dr. G. Kiriakidis, Treasurer EARN89
Bank transfers to: G. Kiriakidis
National Bank of Greece, Branch 205
Heraklion, Crete, Greece
Account No. 205/622204-8
----------------------------------------------------------------------NOREILLY@irlearn.bitnet ("Niall O'Reilly ", NOREILLY@IRLEARN.UCD.IE) (06/19/89)
Jill Foster's <Jill.Foster@NEWCASTLE.AC.UK> account of EARN 89 ...
Niall
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
EARN 89 - a Trip Report
=======================
The following is a personal view of EARN 89. These notes are correct
to the best of my knowledge, but there may well be points I have
misunderstood.
EARN 89 was held in May in Aghia Pelaghia in Crete, Greece; both the
programme and location promised once again to be extremely
interesting. One of the highlights of the conference was a trip to
Knossos, followed by a Greek barbeque. EARN 88 in Turkey had a bias
towards towards User Support and Applications, and EARN 89 continued
this theme with special emphasis on applications in the Medical field.
The programme consisted of parallel sessions on Medical Applications
and on Networking (including network servers, databases etc.). Some
participants I talked to were disappointed in the programme and felt
that there was not enough technical content. My interests lie in
networking (wide area and local area), Information Services and use of
networks by Medics. I therefore found it extremely difficult to
choose which parallel session to go to as they all promised to be
interesting.
The proceedings of the whole conference were made available
beforehand. This was much appreciated, and helped in deciding between
parallel sessions. The programme stretched from 8:30am to 7pm each
day with a respectably long gap in the middle to allow mad dogs and
englishmen to enjoy the mid-day sun and the beach.
Internetworking
---------------
The first day consisted of tutorials. Larry Landweber of Wisconsin
gave a detailed session (four to five hours) on Internetworking. He
concentrated on routers and bridges. One of the things that concerns
me and many others is the different migration paths to OSI that are
being taken by North America and Europe (US-> TP4 (Transport Service
Class 4) and Europe -> TP0 (Transport Service Class 0)). I waited
eagerly for the bit on bridging at the Transport Level. Unfortunately
by the time Larry reached the Transport Layer, the session time had
been overrun. He said that no-one in their right minds would consider
bridging at the Transport layer. He didn't really expand upon this
statement, but did say that a student of his had written a Transport
Level gateway and had found various problems in trying to relay at
this level. I wasn't alone in finding this statement a little
radical, but after 5 hours and a coffeeless coffee break I hadn't the
heart to prolong the session. (I did leave my email address for the
report on the student project.)
Larry made available a complete set of his tutorial slides, which was
very useful.
Strictly speaking relays at the Transport Level are against the ISO
Model, but there is currently some input from working parties on the
need to change the model in this respect. At the RARE (Association
for Academic and Research Networking in Europe) European Networkshop
in Trieste at the beginning of May, Transport Level bridging was being
put forward as the solution to the US v Europe Migration problems. In
fact Christian Huitema of Inria (France) has been instrumental in
producing a TP0 to TP4 gateway.
EARN President's Report
-----------------------
Frode Greisen (the current President of EARN) gave a status report.
EARN now serves 22 countries and has 700 nodes and 70,000 users. It
encompasses machines from 30 different manufacturers, and 12 different
operating systems.
New connections during 1989 will include Algeria, Cyprus, Morocco and
Tunisia.
OSI Migration
-------------
Frode Greisen gave an overview and Dennis Jennings gave a more
detailed account of the plans for EARN to migrate to using OSI.
The Migration is proceeding both top down and bottom up.
Top down: Applications will be introduced as they become available:
X.400, X.500, FTAM.
Bottom up: X.25 Infrastructure is being put in place. Digital,
Nothern Telecom and IBM have each donated equipment for this
international X.25 infrastructure. The idea is to to run EARN
protocols over ISO Session Layer over X.25. There is currently an
experimental backbone network between Geneva, London, Amsterdam and
Montpellier. The interworking between the various so called G-boxes
(DEC) and E-boxes (IBM) is being tested. There should be an
operational backbone by early July '89.
Mention was made of IXI, the International X.25 Infrastructure
proposed by RARE and COSINE (Cooperation for OSI Networking in
Europe). The EARN BOD are curently investigating whether EARN could
use this backbone.
Aspects of Scientific Networking in Europe
------------------------------------------
Klaus Ullmann of DFN (German Research Network) and the President of
RARE stressed the need for our currently fragmented European research
community to present a united front to external bodies such as the
PTTs and the funding bodies. He maintained that the various networks
were all striving towards similar goals, and urged that the larger
network organisations ask their technical people to cooperate.
Having just attended the RARE conference, I was very aware that the
same themes and questions were appearing at EARN 89 as had appeared at
the RARE networkshop:
OSI Migration and the problems that might be caused by the
different migration stategies of Europe and North America.
The need for enhanced user support and support for special
interest groups.
The need for publicity to make more researchers aware of the
possible uses of the network to enhance their research.
The need for cooperation between Europe and North American
networking people, both at the technical level and at the user
support level.
The problems, particularly in Europe, of dealing with the various
PTTs.
From X.25 to ISDN
-----------------
Louis Pouzin gave an entertaining talk on the "Changing Data
Communications Scene". He described the highly successful Teletel
service in France. This has proved to be extremely popular in the
private sector, but professional use has been slow to get started.
The French PTT gave each phone subscriber a free Minitel (videotex)
terminal with which to access the service (in conjunction with their
phone).
He also described MDNS (Managed data Network Service). This was the
original name proposed for IXI (the European X.25 Infrastrucure) but
has been adopted by the European Company formed by the various PTTs.
One of the problems in the past with European communication has been
that there was no overall management. If there was a fault with an
international connection, it was difficult to determine which PTT was
responsible.
MDNS will provide an X.25 service from the 21 European carriers. The
idea is to provide 'one-stop shopping' and centralised network
supervision.
Other Networks
--------------
There were various talks on other networks:
EUNET: Daniel Karrenberg
North American Networks: Larry Landweber
HEPNET: R.Blokzijl
Medical Doctors' and Researchers' Attitudes as Users of EARN
------------------------------------------------------------
Jean-Claude Salomon discussed some of the problems he had encountered
in trying to set up a mailing list for those involved in cancer
research. The list (CLAN - Cancer Liaison and Action Network) had
seen little activity: many people signing on and subsequently signing
off without participating. He felt that one of the main factors which
inhibited the sharing of information and results was the importance
researchers attached to the number of papers they published.
Parallel Sessions
-----------------
The rest of the conference consisted of parallel sessions on:
A1: Existing Networks
B1: Network Servers/User Interfaces
A2&3: Medical Applications (I and II)
B2: Network Monitoring, Management and Security
B3: Access to Databases/Libraries.
Below are brief reports on some of the sessions I attended (swapping
between parallel sessions).
A1: GROUPTALK - Jack Williford of IBM talked about the IBM product
GroupTalk, which provides the user with a local interface to
Conferencing Systems, Bulletin Boards and other related
applications.
B1: LIFESCI - A tool for Computer Supported Cooperative Work. Ami
Zakai of Technion described LIFESCI which supports real-time
conferencing, bulletin boards, electronic journals, application
servers etc for those in the Life Sciences. It is based on the
LISTSERV and Relay functions of EARN but has an enhanced user
interface to allow users to enter 'english-like' commands. This
is the sort of initiative that should be encouraged on our
networks, as they become true academic and research networks,
used by researchers from all disciplines. Our new users will not
put up with the type of interface to servers that networkers and
computer scientists tolerate. They will just not bother to use
them.
TRICKLE SERVER - Turgut Kalfaoglu described this server which was
developed as a result of the need (identified at EARN 88) for a
public domain software server on EARN. There are now 7 Trickle
Servers in Europe which provide a caching service for files
retrieved from the public domain software servers in the States.
A file is only retrieved from the servers in the US if it is not
cached on one of the Trickle servers in Europe.
MAIL FILTER - Mitch Wyle (ETH Zurich) described a rule based Mail
Filter that he had developed. This Mail Filter performed
user-defined actions on electronic mail messages according to
user-defined rules. The Filter sat between the Message Transfer
Agent and the User Agent and preprocessed the mail before it was
placed into the user's mailbox. This preprocessing happened
automatically without requiring action from the user.
GRASP INFORMATION SERVER - Jim Sweeton (NSFNET/Merit). Jim
described GRASP (GRASP = GRAND + SPIRES) which provides computer
facilitated discussion, file server functions etc. GRASP
combines a front-end query resolver with a database management
system as the back-end search and report facility. The services
are available interactively, by FTP and via mail based queries.
The Information Services are primarily to support the NSF
associated network operations and information centres, but also
support the end users on the Mid-level networks attached to the
NSFNET backbone. The file server and distribution-list support
is very like that of LISTSERV. In the medium term they are
working on a local user interface program which will run under
MS/DOS or on the Mac and which will communicate directly with the
server.
Long term goals were to establish a distributed information
system in cooperation with the other network information centres.
There should be standards for information storage and retrieval
across networks. Apparently there is an RFC on Information
Services which is due out in the near future. There is a Network
Information Service Infrastructure Working Group in the US. This
is a subgroup of IETF User Services Working Group . They will be
producing a white paper on recommendations for NIC
interoperability. The US NICs (Network Information Centres)
involved so far are: BITNIC, SRI-NIC, CSNET, Merit/NSFnet, NNSC.
I'm a member of a subgroup of RARE Working Group 3 (User Support)
which is concerned with Information Services. I've asked Jim to
keep me in touch with the activities of the IETF subgroup.
A2: TRAINS - Eric Keppel described the project which uses EARN to
transfer information associated with kidney and heart
transplants. A database is kept of patients requiring
transplants. Detailed information on factors affecting rejection
of transplanted organs are kept. There are very few donor organs
and a very long waiting list for them. It is essential to be
able to optimise the matching of a patient to an organ so as to
mimimise the risk of rejection. This needs to be performed very
quickly of course, and EARN has been used very successfully in
this field. The main problem encountered (which was echoed by
others talking on medical applications) was the fact that EARN
access is often not possible at many of the clinical centres.
NAIVE USERS VIEW OF NETWORKING - Michel Jorda. Cystic Fibrosis
Researchers in France have set up a mailing list on EARN
(MUCO-FR@FRMOP11) and also connect via the French Transpac to
FRSUN12 on EARN using Videotex terminals provided by the French
PTT. Michel described their experiences and made several
suggestions for improvement.
1. Keywords should be assigned to email distribution lists. It
is not easy to tell the topic for discussion on a list from
the list name. The command LIST GLOBAL gives a list of all
email lists on all LISTSERVs - but without keyword searching
capability it is extremely time consuming for a user to find
those lists in which he might be interested.
2. EARN documentation should be written without reference to
specific operating systems, terminals etc. to avoid
confusing users.
3. Automatic addition of a list subscriber to a User Directory,
using the keywords of the list as the "interest" keywords
for the user. This would be with the user's permission of
course.
I pointed out that many of the suggestions Michel was making
(better support for special interest groups, better user guides,
the need for user friendly interfaces, keywords on distribution
lists to allow sorting according to topic, etc.) had been brought
up at EARN 88. The problem was not that these issues were not
felt to be important, but that there was no mechanism for making
progress on them, as EARN is a collaborative network. (But see
note on Closing Session.)
A3: NETWORKING IN BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH - V. Guardabasso. The
problems of using the network encountered by special interest
groups with little expertise in networking or computing was
described. The same themes came up again: the need for better
user interfaces, the need for access to networks via the public
data networks to enable small clinics to connect
cost-effectively, etc.
Jean-Claude Salomon, who was chairing this session, reiterated
the problems of drawing researchers into using networks and the
facilities they provide for group communication. I pointed out
that we (but again who!) need to go out and "spread the word".
We need to start giving demonstrations at Medical (and other)
conferences of the facilities available to researchers, with
examples of how EARN (and other networks) are already being used
by some groups to enhance the quality of their international
collaborative research.
B3: ASTRA - Stefano Trumpy. ASTRA is a joint project between IBM and
CNR (Italian national research council). There was a
presentation on ASTRA at EARN 88. Since then ASTRA has grown in
functionality and scope and is running a production service. The
main database STAR is a database of all the joint IBM-CNR
research projects. Information is held about institutions,
researchers, publications, software, courses etc. ASTRA stands
for "Application Software and Technology Reports for Academia".
It provides a distribution service for public domain software and
project reports related to teaching and research activities.
EARN users of ASTRA can get a local ASTRA user interface package.
This enables the user to search several different geographically
separated databases (via ASTRA) using one set of search commands.
There are 20 databases currently accessible via ASTRA (mainly
Italian ones) and future plans include access to ISAAC dbase in
Washington, Soft-Info dbase (Univ Bridgeport), WISC-WARE (Univ.
Wisconsin) and the NISS Software Catalogue (UK).
Final Session
-------------
The closing session was devoted to a panel discussion. During this it
was announced that the EARN Technical Group were to suggest to the
EARN Board that there should be an EARN Information and User Support
Group. Hopefully this will be agreed and can be realised without a
significant increase in the EARN budget. Personally, I would very
much like to see this group form contacts with the other groups
working in the area of Information Services: European RARE WG3
subgroup1 (information services and pilot European Information
Service) and the subgroup of the US IETF Working Group on User
Support.
EARN 89 was generally very well organised and seemed to run smoothly.
A couple of sessions were cancelled (one on Network Management) or
rearranged, but I guess that was out of the hands of the organisers.
The time-tabling of the sessions left plenty of time for talking to
others in related fields, which is one of the main advantages of such
conferences. I had some very interesting discussions with various
people involved with information services: from EARN, NSFnet, SURFnet,
HEANET, ASTRA, LIFESCI etc. We all welcome the increasing
co-operation between user support staff on the various networks.
Jill Foster
6th June 1989
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Jill Foster Tel: +44 91 222 8250
Computing Laboratory Telex: 53654
University of Newcastle upon Tyne Fax: +44 91 261 1182
UK Email: Jill.Foster@Newcastle.ac.uk