Re: All agreed, but what's out there now?

Adam Farquhar <axf@HPP.Stanford.EDU>
Date: Fri, 9 Jun 1995 12:47:31 -0700 (PDT)
From: Adam Farquhar <axf@HPP.Stanford.EDU>
Reply-To: Adam Farquhar <axf@HPP.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: Re: All agreed, but what's out there now?
To: Fritz Lehmann <fritz@rodin.wustl.edu>
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Fritz,

>  
>       That source is problematic because it requires the use
>  of certain specific World-Wide-Web browsers.  It fails under 
>  Lynx.  Also it apparently has no FTP access (correct?).  I suggest
>  making the the current version of the ontologies available at both
>  sites, or else making the newer site generic-HTML compliant and 
>  giving an FTP alternative.

We have had several hundred people try out the web-accessible 
ontology browser and editor.  From the feedback that we have received
most of them are quite happy with it, and find it considerably more
usable than either a stand-alone hypertext version or the ontolingua
source code.

The ontology browser and editor works comfortably with relatively
up-to-date versions of Mosaic, Netscape Navigator, and also LYNX.
I encourage you to try it with your LYNX.

We do not currently provide ftp access to the ontologies that users
build up with the editor.  This is largely due to security and privacy
issues.  Users of the editor can write ontologies that are stored on
the server.  They can control read/write on a per-individual or per-group
basis.  Ftp does not easily support the same granularity of control without
creating full Unix system accounts for each user.  We currently support
email distribution of Ontolingua source and hypertext versions of the
ontologies accessible though the editor.  If there is a strong demand for
ftp access to the publically readable versions of the ontologies, then
we can try to devote some resources to making that happen.

Regards,

Adam.



-----------------------------
Dr. Adam Farquhar
Stanford University          URL: http://ksl-web.stanford.edu/people/axf
Knowledge Systems Laboratory Email:  Adam_Farquhar@ksl.stanford.edu
701 Welch Road, Bldg. C      Office: 415-723-9770
Palo Alto, CA 94304          Fax:    415-725-5850