The World Wide Web - Information Infrastructure for the Internet

• Integrated networking ties together important Internet protocols
• Supports standard, flexible document formats
• Free software available for Unix, Windows, DOS, Macintosh
• Contrast with competition - Gopher, Lotus Notes

Integrated networking ties together important Internet protocols

• WWW client software (like Mosaic) can directly access information via the relevant Internet protocols: FTP, NNTP (netnews), WAIS, Gopher, and a new one: HTTP
• HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol), is designed for lightweight one-way or two-way multi-media connections.
• Interactive "Common Gateway Interface" to other protocols and services: SQL databases, finger, x.500, whois, archie, hytelnet, texinfo, Sun Calendar Manager....

Supports standard, flexible document formats

• Uses same Data Type Registry as MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) for document type definitions, allowing for common infrastructure.
• Core document type is HTML (HyperText Markup Language)
• HTML is an SGML document type. SGML = Standard Generalized Markup Language, the future of documentation formats
• HTML provides for headings, lists, preformatted text, special characters.
• HTML provides for inline images.
• HTML provides hypertext links to other documents via any of the protocols above.
• HTML can describe on-line forms which can be filled out and submitted by the user.
• Other document types supported via MIME, e.g. text/plain, image/gif, audio/basic, video/mpeg, application/postscript, application/msword, etc.
• Many filters available to convert from existing formats to HTML

Free software available for Unix, Windows, DOS, Macintosh

• Clients
  • Mosaic GUI runs on Unix, Windows, Macintosh - National Center for Supercomputing Applications
  • Lynx runs on VT100 terminals et.al. from Unix or DOS. Good for dial-up or telnet use, and for use in shell scripts.
  • Several others - Cello (Windows), tkWWW (Unix), ...
• Servers - several available for Unix (httpd, plexus, GN), Mac, Windows
• Authoring tools still evolving. Next software. Gnuemacs modes. BBedit add-on for Mac, Filters from Microsoft Word (via RTF)
• Firewalls complicate access to the Internet - two kinds of solutions available: caching servers and clients that understand the firewall

Competition?

• Gopher
  • Lots of servers with good information (all available from WWW)
  • Less standards-based, less flexible (menus and documents vs hypertext)
  • WWW clients now more popular than gopher clients (guess)
  • WWW servers soon more popular than gopher servers?
• Lotus Notes - Bet your information networking on a single supplier.

Examples

• HTTP:
  • World Wide Web FAQ
  • Boulder Community Network
  • Novell technical support database - 10,000 docs on-line
• Gopher: CU-LINE (University of Colorado)
• FTP: ftp://ftp.csn.org/pub/
• NNTP: nntp:comp.infosystems.announce.
• WAIS: Index to all Frequently Asked Question responses posted to Usenet
• Gateway example: WWW-SQL gateway to NCSA's Sybase helpdesk database

How do I learn more?

• Use the Web via telnet connection to lynx browser for World Wide Web at U Kansas: ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu, Login: www
• Then get your own local WWW client (avoid freeloading)
• Local access from libraries, kiosks (Boulder Community Network: Madeline Gonazlez <madeline@spot.colorado.edu> 492-8176)

The "live" hypertext version of this outline is available at http://bcn.boulder.co.us/~neal/wwwTalk.html