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WAIS text search ( comp.infosystems.wais )

From [email protected] Sat Apr  4 03:11:54 1992 Xref: rpi news.announce.newgroups:1837 news.groups:39478 alt.wais:476 comp.databases:13999 bionet.general:2287 Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,alt.wais,comp.databases,bionet.general Path: rpi!bounce-back From: Edward Vielmetti <[email protected]> Subject: RFD:  comp.infosystems.wais Followup-To: news.groups Sender: [email protected] Nntp-Posting-Host: cs.rpi.edu Date: Fri, 21 Feb 1992 23:57:58 GMT Approved: [email protected] Lines: 23  This is a request for discussion of a new newsgroup,  comp.infosystems.wais, to discuss the Wide Area Information System ("WAIS"), a project from Thinking Machines.  There's current discussion going on in alt.wais, which has been reasonably good quality and fairly widespread interest.  Moving this discussion to a mainstream comp.* newsgroup should make it easier for people to figure out what it is about and to get access to the discussion.  WAIS is a client-server searching system based on the Z39.50 protocol.  There are about 150 WAIS servers on the Internet right now, providing full-text search access to newsgroup archives, standards documents, graphics, sound, and biologicial science data.  New servers are coming on line weekly.  There are WAIS clients for X Windows, NeXT, Macintosh, and MS Windows, and gateways from WAIS to other distributed information systems like World Wide Web and (hopefully soon) Gopher.  Discussion about the name should go to news.groups;  talk about content should stay in the existing alt.wais group.  Thanks to Jim Ault for prodding me into doing this.  From [email protected] Sat Apr  4 03:31:07 1992 Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,alt.wais,comp.theory.info-retrieval,comp.archives.admin,alt.gopher From: Edward Vielmetti <[email protected]> Subject: CFV:  comp.infosystems.wais Followup-To: poster Organization: UUNET Communications Services Date: Mon, 23 Mar 1992 17:36:25 GMT  Charter:  For discussion of WAIS, the Wide Area Information System, a networked full text retreival system developed by Thinking Machines and Apple, and which is currently being discussed in alt.wais.    WAIS uses the Z39.50 query protocol to do full text searches between clients and servers.  There are over 150 servers running on the Internet today, and with WAIS you can find everything from recipes to RFCs. It has proven to be particularly useful for providing access to large text archives like newsgroup and mailing list archives.  WAIS discussion is currently going on in the newsgroup "alt.wais" and the mailing lists "[email protected]" and "[email protected]".  The new newsgroup "comp.infosystems.wais" will replace alt.wais if it has been created.   More information about WAIS, including sources for the server and browser software, can be found in 	think.com:/wais/ for anonymous FTP.  WAIS servers can also be queried with "gopher"  (see alt.gopher), World Wide Web clients (see info.cern.ch:/pub/WWW/), Hyperbole (see alt.hypertext et al), and a number of other systems which build on top of these.    Voting:  Voting will run 30 days as per the usual routine.  All votes must be received by 22 April 1992, 23:59 GMT.  Yes votes should be sent to 	[email protected] No votes should be sent to 	[email protected] Summaries will be posted during the voting period as is customary.  All questions regarding the administration of the vote should go to me, [email protected] (Edward Vielmetti), and not to any of the discussion groups.  Any purely routine matters of vote administration get hashed out in news.groups.  Thanks.  --  Edward Vielmetti, vice president for research, MSEN Inc. [email protected]       MSEN Inc., 628 Brooks, Ann Arbor MI  48103 +1 313 741 1120 "Not to panic.  Networking will eventually get to Michigan.  Remember  the decades it took IBM to discover virtual memory."  Randy Bush  From [email protected] Sun Apr 19 21:38:16 1992 Xref: uunet news.announce.newgroups:2201 news.groups:48457 alt.wais:614 comp.databases:16689 bionet.general:3184 Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,alt.wais,comp.databases,bionet.general Path: uunet!uunet!bounce-back From: Edward Vielmetti <[email protected]> Subject: VOTE ACK:  comp.infosystems.wais Message-ID: <[email protected]> Followup-To: post Sender: [email protected] (David C Lawrence) Organization: UUNET Communications Services Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1992 16:25:15 GMT Approved: [email protected] Lines: 256  This is an acknowlegement of votes received for comp.infosystems.wais, a newsgroup to discuss the WAIS Wide Area Information System and other Z39.50 query systems.  Real discussion is going on right now in alt.wais, if you want to join in.   --Ed  -- Edward Vielmetti, vice president for research, MSEN Inc. [email protected]       MSEN Inc., 628 Brooks, Ann Arbor MI  48103 +1 313 741 1120    "Boolean RPN Searches Rule -- NOT!"  Simon Spero, _Wayne's WAIS_ -- "(Arnold Bloemer)" <[email protected]> "Gregory R. Weiss" <[email protected]> "Jim Carroll" <[email protected]> "Jonathan I. Kamens" <[email protected]> "Joseph R. Massi" <[email protected]> "Michael Grice" <[email protected]> "Peter Marshall CCS UWO" <[email protected]> "Spencer W. Thomas" <[email protected]> "Steven J. Dovich" <[email protected]> "Stewart M. Clamen" <[email protected]> "a.e.mossberg" <[email protected]> "t. linn" <[email protected]> (Don Wells)[email protected] (John Purlia)[email protected] <[email protected]> (Eli Messinger) <[email protected]> Alessandro Berni <[email protected]> Anders Ardo <[email protected]> Andreas Bjorklind <[email protected]> Andreas Haug <[email protected]> Andrew Draskoy <[email protected]> Andy Malis <[email protected]> Andy Rutter <[email protected]> Anthony Baxter <[email protected]> Axel Belinfante <[email protected]> Barry Prescott <[email protected]> Bernfried Neukaeter [email protected]> Brendan Kehoe <[email protected]> Brewster Kahle <[email protected]> [email protected] Chris TerMaat <[email protected]> Dan Grim <[email protected]> [email protected] (Dan Pritchett) Danny Schwendener <[email protected]> Danny Thomas <[email protected]> David Bremner <[email protected]> David Datta <[email protected]> David Gurr <[email protected]> David Sewell <[email protected]> Dennis Shiao <[email protected]> Dick Dramstad <[email protected]> [email protected] Eamonn <[email protected]> Ed Anselmo <[email protected]> Eelco van Asperen <[email protected]> Frank Dunn <[email protected]> Fred Heutte <[email protected]> Fred Jaggi <[email protected]> GONTER%[email protected] (Gerhard Gonter) Gary Capell <[email protected]> George Michaelson <[email protected]> Gess Shankar [email protected]> Greg Isett <[email protected]> Harald Nordgard-Hansen <[email protected]> Harry Morris <[email protected]> [email protected] [email protected] Ian Donaldson <[email protected]> Icarus Sparry <[email protected]> [email protected] James Ault <[email protected]> Jay Elvove <[email protected]> Jeff Graves <[email protected]> Jeff Wasilko <[email protected]> Joachim Schrod <[email protected]> Jody Worthen <[email protected]> Joe Hanus/Microbial Germplasm Database <[email protected]> John G Dobnick <[email protected]> John Noerenberg <[email protected]> John Plate <[email protected]> John Stanley <[email protected]> Jonathan Kochmer <[email protected]> Jonny Goldman <[email protected]> Jyrki Kuoppala <[email protected]> [email protected] Kai 'Kaizzu' Kein{nen <[email protected]> Keith Decker <[email protected]> L L Campbell <[email protected]> Larry Masinter <[email protected]> Lars-Gunnar Olsson <[email protected]> Lou Rosenfeld <[email protected]> Luc Ottavj <[email protected]> [email protected] (Martin Kooij) Marianne Boudot <[email protected]> Marilyn Martin <[email protected]> [email protected] Markus Stumpf <[email protected]> Mathias Koerber <[email protected]> Matt Heffron <[email protected]> Matthew Lewis <[email protected]> Maurice Rich <[email protected]> Michael Gauges <[email protected]> Michael Henry <[email protected]> Michelangelo Grigni <[email protected]> Mike Newman <[email protected]> Mike Walker <[email protected]> Mowgli Assor <[email protected]> Paul Jones <[email protected]> Paul Shields <[email protected]> [email protected] Petri Ojala <[email protected]> Prof. Dr. Norbert Fuhr <[email protected]> Richard Elling <[email protected]> Richard Sikorski <[email protected]> Ross Paterson <[email protected]> Rupert G. Goldie <[email protected]> [email protected] (Stan van de Burgt) Scott Draves <[email protected]> Scott Draves <[email protected]> Scott Erickson <[email protected]> Scott J. Kramer <[email protected]> (()) Sheryl Rose <[email protected]> Shmuel Browns <[email protected]> Sridhar Venkataraman <[email protected]> Stefan Esser <[email protected]> Steve Cisler <[email protected]> Steve Feldon <[email protected]> Steve Hanson <[email protected]> Steve Petersen <[email protected]> Ted Zateslo <[email protected]> [email protected] Tom Limoncelli <[email protected]> [email protected] Uwe Geuder <[email protected]> Vicki Hutchison <[email protected]> Victor Scott Gregg <[email protected]> [email protected] [email protected] (Allan E Johannesen) [email protected] (Jean-Marc Alliot) [email protected] (Jeff Beckley) [email protected] (David Blackman) [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] (Brian Smithson) [email protected] (Bryan Thompson) [email protected] [email protected] (richard) [email protected] (Curt Canada) [email protected] (Chris Buckley) [email protected] (Jeff Kellem) [email protected] (Ed Costello) [email protected] [email protected] (Carl Witty) [email protected] (David Lamb) [email protected] (Dave Sisson) [email protected] (David Hoekman) [email protected] (Jim Davis) [email protected] [email protected] (Dave Joyce) [email protected] (Fred Douglis) [email protected] (David Friedlander) [email protected] (Drew Burton) [email protected] [email protected] (Edward Bertsch) [email protected] (James P. Goltz) [email protected] (Gary O'Connell) [email protected] (Paul Holbrook) [email protected] (Edward J. Huff) [email protected] (Janne Himanka) [email protected] (Jeff Gehlhaar) [email protected] (Jurgen Botz) [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] (John Ladwig) [email protected] (James L. Beug) [email protected] (Jerry M. Carlin) [email protected] (Joe Smith) [email protected] (John Franks) [email protected] (John Heidemann) [email protected] (Jordan Hayes) [email protected] (Jeff Suttor) [email protected] (Joseph R. Justice) [email protected] (Wolfram Kahl) [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] (Ken Fasman) [email protected] (Klaus-Peter Kossakowski) [email protected] (Laird Popkin) [email protected] (Dick Lane) [email protected] [email protected] (Lloyd Taylor) [email protected] (Larry W. Virden, x2487) [email protected] (Don Sawtelle) [email protected] (resident.alien) [email protected] (Mark Erikson) [email protected] (Michael C. Berch) [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] (Ted Morris) [email protected] (Malcolm Pradhan) [email protected] (David Muir Sharnoff) [email protected] [email protected] (Norbert Broeker) [email protected] (Bill Owens) [email protected] [email protected] (Peter Deutsch) [email protected] (Bob Peterson) phil sutherland <[email protected]> [email protected] [email protected] (Pierre Uszynski) [email protected] (Peter Murray) [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] (Scott E. Preece) [email protected] (Robert Gregory) [email protected] (Richard H. Miller) [email protected] (Rob Pawsner) [email protected] (Roger Holst) [email protected] (Bob Weiner) [email protected] (Rod Whitby) [email protected] (John Greene) [email protected] (John C. Schultz) [email protected] (Mark Zimmermann) [email protected] (Sharan Kalwani) [email protected] (Simon Leinen) [email protected] (Simon Michael) [email protected] [email protected] (Sven Seelemann) steff%[email protected] (Stefan Momma) [email protected] (David Steffen) [email protected] (Chris Tanner) [email protected] [email protected] (Ted M. Young) tero t mononen <[email protected]> [email protected] [email protected] (Stephen C. Trier) [email protected] (Bob Snyder) [email protected] (T. Scott) [email protected] (Theodore W. Leung) [email protected] (Peter Van Epp) [email protected] (VLADIMIR SLAMECKA) [email protected] [email protected] (Will Estes) widener!anagld.analytics.com!rcsmith (Ray Smith) widener!isasun-1.edm.isac.ca!ken widener!pnet51.orb.mn.org!ceg widener!uunet.UU.NET!leahi!bachesta (Jim Bachesta) widener!uunet.UU.NET!polari!january (Jamie Pehling) [email protected] [email protected] (Willem Jan Withagen) [email protected] (The Wolfe of the Den) [email protected]  From [email protected] Tue Apr 28 12:12:41 1992 Xref: uunet news.announce.newgroups:2278 news.groups:49946 alt.wais:688 alt.gopher:420 comp.databases:16972 comp.text:9342 comp.theory.info-retrieval:96 Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,alt.wais,alt.gopher,comp.databases,comp.text,comp.theory.info-retrieval Path: uunet!bounce-back From: Edward Vielmetti <[email protected]> Subject: RESULT:  comp.infosystems.wais passes 291: 4 Message-ID: <[email protected]> Followup-To: news.groups Sender: [email protected] (David C Lawrence) Organization: MSEN Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1992 15:41:15 GMT Approved: [email protected] Lines: 316  Here's the results for the comp.infosystems.wais newsgroup, which passed by a healthy margin.    WAIS is a distributed full-text search system based on the Z39.50 protocol.  There are on the order of 200 public servers scattered around the world which provide a straightforward way to search through mailing list and newsgroup archives, network directories and catalogs, poetry, weather, back issues of the Communications of the ACM, and a variety of other stuff.    Discussion will migrate from alt.wais to the new group once it's created.  Thanks to all who voted.  --Ed  No votes (4):  Harald Nordgard-Hansen <[email protected]> Rodney Chen <[email protected]> [email protected] (Dave Joyce) [email protected]  Yes votes (291):  "(Arnold Bloemer)" <[email protected]> "Aaron Dickey, still alive" <[email protected]> "Gregory R. Weiss" <[email protected]> "Jim Carroll" <[email protected]> "John Clement, EDUCOM K-12 Networking Project" <[email protected]> "Jonathan I. Kamens" <[email protected]> "Joseph R. Massi" <[email protected]> "Mark Colvson" <[email protected]> "Mark P. McCahill" <[email protected]> "Michael Grice" <[email protected]> "Peter Marshall CCS UWO" <[email protected]> "Peter Scott/Manager,Small Systems/U Sask Lib/5920" <[email protected]> "Scott Finet, CSU Law Library" <[email protected]> "Spencer W. Thomas" <[email protected]> "Steven J. Dovich" <[email protected]> "Stewart M. Clamen" <[email protected]> "a.e.mossberg" <[email protected]> "t. linn" <[email protected]> (Don Wells)[email protected] (John Purlia)[email protected] <[email protected]> (Eli Messinger) <[email protected]> Alessandro Berni <[email protected]> Anders Ardo <[email protected]> Andreas Bjorklind <[email protected]> Andreas Haug <[email protected]> Andrew Draskoy <[email protected]> Andy Malis <[email protected]> Andy Rutter <[email protected]> Anthony Baxter <[email protected]> Axel Belinfante <[email protected]> [email protected] Barry Prescott <[email protected]> Bernfried Neukaeter [email protected]> Billy Barron - VAX/UNIX Systems Manager <[email protected]> Brendan Kehoe <[email protected]> Brewster Kahle <[email protected]> [email protected] Chris TerMaat <[email protected]> Dan Grim <[email protected]> [email protected] (Dan Pritchett) Danny Schwendener <[email protected]> Danny Thomas <[email protected]> David Bremner <[email protected]> David Datta <[email protected]> David Gurr <[email protected]> David Sewell <[email protected]> David Williams <[email protected]> Dennis Shiao <[email protected]> Dick Dramstad <[email protected]> [email protected] Eamonn <[email protected]> Ed Anselmo <[email protected]> Eelco van Asperen <[email protected]> Frank Dunn <[email protected]> Fred Heutte <[email protected]> Fred Jaggi <[email protected]> GONTER%[email protected] (Gerhard Gonter) Gary Capell <[email protected]> George Michaelson <[email protected]> George Rickerson <[email protected]> Gess Shankar [email protected]> Greg Isett <[email protected]> Harry Morris <[email protected]> [email protected] [email protected] Ian Donaldson <[email protected]> Icarus Sparry <[email protected]> [email protected] JOANNA <[email protected]> James Ault <[email protected]> Jan Nicolai Langfeldt <[email protected]> Jay Elvove <[email protected]> Jeff Graves <[email protected]> Jeff Wasilko <[email protected]> Jess Anderson <[email protected]> Joachim Schrod <[email protected]> Jody Worthen <[email protected]> Joe Hanus/Microbial Germplasm Database <[email protected]> John Danner <[email protected]> John DiMarco <[email protected]> John G Dobnick <[email protected]> John Hasley<[email protected]> John Noerenberg <[email protected]> John Plate <[email protected]> John Stanley <[email protected]> Jonathan Kochmer <[email protected]> Jonny Goldman <[email protected]> Juergen Christoffel <[email protected]> Jyrki Kuoppala <[email protected]> [email protected] Kai 'Kaizzu' Kein{nen <[email protected]> Keith Decker <[email protected]> L L Campbell <[email protected]> Larry Masinter <[email protected]> Lars-Gunnar Olsson <[email protected]> Lasse Hiller|e Petersen <[email protected]> Lou Rosenfeld <[email protected]> Luc Ottavj <[email protected]> [email protected] (Martin Kooij) Marianne Boudot <[email protected]> Marilyn Martin <[email protected]> [email protected] Markus Stumpf <[email protected]> Mathias Koerber <[email protected]> Matt Heffron <[email protected]> Matthew Farwell <[email protected]> Matthew Freedman {IS} <[email protected]> Matthew Lewis <[email protected]> Maurice Rich <[email protected]> Michael Gauges <[email protected]> Michael Henry <[email protected]> Michelangelo Grigni <[email protected]> Mike Newman <[email protected]> Mike Walker <[email protected]> Mowgli Assor <[email protected]> [email protected] Paul Jones <[email protected]> Paul Shields <[email protected]> [email protected] Petri Ojala <[email protected]> Prof. Dr. Norbert Fuhr <[email protected]> Reg Quinton <[email protected]> Richard Elling <[email protected]> Richard Sikorski <[email protected]> Robin Valere laa-slc-bsa <[email protected]> Ross Paterson <[email protected]> Rupert G. Goldie <[email protected]> [email protected] (Stan van de Burgt) [email protected] Scott Draves <[email protected]> Scott Erickson <[email protected]> Scott J. Kramer <[email protected]> (()) Sheryl Rose <[email protected]> Shmuel Browns <[email protected]> Sridhar Venkataraman <[email protected]> Stefan Esser <[email protected]> Sterling IMD <[email protected]> Steve Cisler <[email protected]> Steve Feldon <[email protected]> Steve Hanson <[email protected]> Steve Petersen <[email protected]> Ted Zateslo <[email protected]> [email protected] Thomas Richter <[email protected]> [email protected] Tom Limoncelli <[email protected]> [email protected] Toni Emerson <[email protected]> Uwe Geuder <[email protected]> Vicki Hutchison <[email protected]> Victor Scott Gregg <[email protected]> [email protected] [email protected] (Allan E Johannesen) [email protected] (Jean-Marc Alliot) [email protected] (Jeff Beckley) [email protected] (David Blackman) [email protected] [email protected] boorstein%[email protected] (Joan Boorstein) [email protected] (Brian Smithson) [email protected] (Bryan Thompson) [email protected] [email protected] (richard) [email protected] (Curt Canada) [email protected] (Chris Buckley) [email protected] (Jeff Kellem) [email protected] (Ed Costello) [email protected] [email protected] (Carl Witty) [email protected] (David Lamb) [email protected] (Dave Sisson) [email protected] (David Hoekman) [email protected] (Jim Davis) [email protected] [email protected] (Arjan de Vet) [email protected] [email protected] (Fred Douglis) [email protected] (David Friedlander) [email protected] (Drew Burton) [email protected] [email protected] (Edward Bertsch) [email protected] (fides lawton) [email protected] (James P. Goltz) [email protected] (Gary O'Connell) [email protected] (Gratien D'haese) gordon linoff <[email protected]> [email protected] (Gary Stewart) [email protected] (Eiji Hirai) [email protected] (Paul Holbrook) [email protected] (Edward J. Huff) [email protected] (Janne Himanka) [email protected] (Jeff Gehlhaar) [email protected] (Jurgen Botz) [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] (John Ladwig) [email protected] (James L. Beug) [email protected] (Jerry M. Carlin) [email protected] (Joe Smith) [email protected] (John Franks) [email protected] (John Heidemann) [email protected] (Jordan Hayes) [email protected] [email protected] (Jeff Suttor) [email protected] (Joseph R. Justice) [email protected] (Wolfram Kahl) [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] (Ken Fasman) [email protected] (Klaus-Peter Kossakowski) [email protected] (Laird Popkin) [email protected] (Larry Nathanson) [email protected] (Dick Lane) [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] (Lloyd Taylor) [email protected] (Larry W. Virden, x2487) [email protected] (Don Sawtelle) [email protected] (resident.alien) [email protected] (Mark Erikson) [email protected] (Michael C. Berch) [email protected] (me91m46) [email protected] [email protected] (Mac Horn) [email protected] (Matthew Dustin Morgan) [email protected] (Ted Morris) [email protected] (Malcolm Pradhan) [email protected] (David Muir Sharnoff) [email protected] [email protected] (Norbert Broeker) [email protected] (Bill Owens) [email protected] [email protected] (Peter Deutsch) [email protected] (Bob Peterson) phil sutherland <[email protected]> [email protected] [email protected] (Pierre Uszynski) [email protected] (Patrick Logan) [email protected] (Peter Murray) [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] (Scott E. Preece) [email protected] (Steve Ray) [email protected] (Ravinder Bhumbla) [email protected] (Robert Gregory) [email protected] (Richard H. Miller) [email protected] (Robert J. Davis) [email protected] (Rob Pawsner) [email protected] (Roger Holst) [email protected] (Bob Weiner) [email protected] (Rod Whitby) [email protected] (Richard W. Kuchan) [email protected] (John Greene) [email protected] (Joost Schraag) [email protected] (John C. Schultz) [email protected] (Mark Zimmermann) [email protected] (Sharan Kalwani) [email protected] (Simon Leinen) [email protected] (Simon Michael) [email protected] [email protected] (Mark Smith) [email protected] (Sven Seelemann) steff%[email protected] (Stefan Momma) [email protected] (David Steffen) [email protected] (Chris Tanner) [email protected] [email protected] (Ted M. Young) tero t mononen <[email protected]> [email protected] [email protected] (Tom Albrecht) [email protected] (Stephen C. Trier) [email protected] (Bob Snyder) [email protected] (T. Scott) [email protected] (Theodore W. Leung) [email protected] (Joe Accardi) [email protected] (Peter Van Epp) [email protected] (VLADIMIR SLAMECKA) [email protected] [email protected] (Will Estes) widener!anagld.analytics.com!rcsmith (Ray Smith) widener!isasun-1.edm.isac.ca!ken widener!pnet51.orb.mn.org!ceg widener!uunet.UU.NET!leahi!bachesta (Jim Bachesta) widener!uunet.UU.NET!polari!january (Jamie Pehling) [email protected] (Glee Willis) [email protected] [email protected] (Willem Jan Withagen) [email protected] (Garrett Wollman) [email protected] (The Wolfe of the Den) [email protected]  From [email protected] Tue Sep 12 10:45:18 1995 Xref: rpi news.announce.newgroups:1837 news.groups:39478 alt.wais:476 comp.databases:13999 bionet.general:2287 Newsgroups: news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,alt.wais,comp.databases,bionet.general Path: rpi!bounce-back From: Edward Vielmetti <[email protected]> Subject: RFD:  comp.infosystems.wais Followup-To: news.groups Sender: [email protected] Nntp-Posting-Host: cs.rpi.edu Date: Fri, 21 Feb 1992 23:57:58 GMT Approved: [email protected] Lines: 23 Status: RO X-Status:   This is a request for discussion of a new newsgroup,  comp.infosystems.wais, to discuss the Wide Area Information System ("WAIS"), a project from Thinking Machines.  There's current discussion going on in alt.wais, which has been reasonably good quality and fairly widespread interest.  Moving this discussion to a mainstream comp.* newsgroup should make it easier for people to figure out what it is about and to get access to the discussion.  WAIS is a client-server searching system based on the Z39.50 protocol.  There are about 150 WAIS servers on the Internet right now, providing full-text search access to newsgroup archives, standards documents, graphics, sound, and biologicial science data.  New servers are coming on line weekly.  There are WAIS clients for X Windows, NeXT, Macintosh, and MS Windows, and gateways from WAIS to other distributed information systems like World Wide Web and (hopefully soon) Gopher.  Discussion about the name should go to news.groups;  talk about content should stay in the existing alt.wais group.  Thanks to Jim Ault for prodding me into doing this.