webber@brandx.rutgers.edu (Webber) (01/13/88)
In article <10305@shemp.UCLA.EDU>, wales@CS.UCLA.EDU writes: > ... > Who was it that proposed this idea? Did anything ever come of it (per- > haps a research project, since of course USENET was never reorganized in > this way)? The mentioning of keyword organization of the net inevitably brings a flame fest from people who think that keywords are unworkable. Hence, this topic is no longer discussed on the net (see Net Etiquette message). However, the reorganization did go forward and is now complete. All usenet messages are now organized by the actual words appearing in the messages. The old-style newsgroup structure has been left in place so that people who want to restrict the flow of usenet information won't notice that they now make absolutely no difference (witness the massive posting of encrypted cat poems in comp.binaries.mac). Unfortunately, the software for analyzing and manipulating the message data base cannot be distributed because it does not exist. Instead, every user developes and maintains a customized interface to the net flow (hence net readers who cannot program have been bypassed by this revolution). Interesting heuristics for news analysis are distributed on alt.news.hack. This is a full participation news group. Only users who post interesting messages there recieve interesting messages in return. Currently, awk and yacc/lex have been the most commonly used analysis platforms, although ICON and REXX have definite followings (it was not necessary to break up alt.news.hack to please this different constituencies because their software is able to easily locate the messages relevant to them). Best of luck. --- BOB (webber@athos.rutgers.edu ; rutgers!athos.rutgers.edu!webber) The future already exists, but only those who can see it are in it. ----- Sue Doughnim, 1988