The Early Days

The original SunSITE was created in response to a Request For Proposals (RFP) from Sun Microsystems Computer Corporation to establish an anonymous ftp archive on the Internet. At the time the RFP was issued, the Development Group at the Office of Information Technology was exploring available networked information technology as a means of unifying campuswide information services. In response to the RFP, UNC made a proposal not only to provide anonymous ftp services, but also to enhance these services through the application of emerging information technologies such as Wide Area Information Server (WAIS) and Gopher to simplify locating and retrieving information contained in the archive. UNC was subsequently selected to partner with Sun in creating the original SunSITE. From this modest beginning, the SunSITE program has grown to include over seventy SunSITEs located around the globe and continues to contribute to the phenomenal growth and diversity of information services on the Internet.

SunSITE went on-line in May, 1992 on a Sun SPARCstation 2 with 32 megabytes of memory and approximately four gigabytes of disk storage. The initial objective chosen as a success indicator was to achieve an access rate of ten thousand file transfers per month by January, 1993. However, SunSITE quickly became a popular destination on the Internet and by early October, 1992 was transferring over five thousand files a week.

During the early days of SunSITE, the OIT Development Group at UNC-CH focused their efforts on integrating and expanding the use of evolving networked information technologies to simplify access and on building the content of the SunSITE collection.

SunSITE staff carefully tracked networked information retrieval technology and was actively involved in developing tools that expanded the capabilities of early access protocols such as WAIS. Documents and textual information on SunSITE were typically WAIS-indexed to permit full-text searching, and WAIS formats were expanded to support easy location and retrieval of non-textual documents such as spreadsheets and maps.

To build the information content of SunSITE, staff members created locally-managed information resources and began to reach out to others with valuable information resources who lacked the means of storing and distributing this information.

One of the earliest collections made available on SunSITE was material related to the 1992 Presidential Election Campaigns. SunSITE staff contacted the campaign committees of all presidential candidates and offered to collect, organize, and electronically distribute any information the committees were willing to make available to SunSITE. The Clinton Campaign responded enthusiastically and contributed much of their material for distribution on SunSITE. Once Clinton was elected, the White House press office continued to share information with SunSITE for public distribution, including full text of presidential press conferences, statements, town meeting transcripts, and even documents like the federal budget. When important documents like the National Health Security Plan were issued, the White House press office would often send an advance copy to be fully text-indexed under WAIS and organized for Gopher access via SunSITE. When the printed document was officially released, the electronic document would be put online and often, once the initial printing was distributed, SunSITE was the only means for obtaining timely access to these documents.

Outreach to other information providers has also helped to build the SunSITE information archives. SunSITE staff began to discover others with valuable information resources who lacked either the technical knowledge or the computer resources needed to prepare and distribute their information electronically. SunSITE began a policy of outreach, offering technical consulting services and access to SunSITE resources to assist these fledgling or disenfranchised electronic publishers. Some of the earliest collections added to the SunSITE archives through outreach are the extensive sustainable agriculture archives maintained by a Chatham County, NC farmer; the first daily cartoon on the Internet, Dr. FUN, which has since gone on to syndication; EXPO (still Tim Berners-Lee's favorite site), a collection of Chinese Music; and OTIS, a collection of Internet collaborative art.

Throughout this period, SunSITE expanded both its collections and the use of networked information distribution and retrieval protocols. Local collection development efforts were further enhanced in December of 1993 when CISCO Systems, Inc. joined with the SunSITE Project to sponsor the development of educational materials for Internet distribution. The resulting CISCO Cearch archive is an extensive catalog of educational resources that are freely available to schools and educators worldwide.

SunSITE added World Wide Web services in early 1992 and soon thereafter added a dedicated T1 communications link (1.5 Mbits/sec.) to handle network traffic from SunSITE to off-campus locations.

In October of 1994, the UNC-CH campus radio station, WXYC, began simulcasting its off-air signal and became the first worldwide 24-hour radio broadcaster on the Internet. Not only does SunSITE assist in distributing the WXYC signal across the Internet, but interested parties can access SunSITE to retrieve the software tools they need to listen to WXYC or gather information on the legal issues surrounding Internet simulcast.

In addition to the SunSITE efforts at UNC-CH, Sun continued to expand the SunSITE Program by establishing SunSITEs around the world. By strategically placing SunSITEs and encouraging SunSITEs to share and replicate heavily-accessed collections, Sun is helping to establish a worldwide electronic publishing service.

Where we are today

Today, there are more than seventy SunSITEs located around the globe. The first of these was established at Imperial College in London, England, and today there are SunSITEs on almost every continent.

UNC's SunSITE became UNC's MetaLab in Novemeber,1998 due to changes in Sun Microsystems' educational model. There was no ill-will on the part of either party, simply a change in ideals that caused the need for a friendly separation.

UNC MetaLab services are provided on a four-processor UltraEnterprise 4000 with a gigabyte of memory and over 160 gigabytes of disk storage. The resources available on MetaLab today range from free applications and operating systems software, to graphics and art, to fiction, poetry and literature and music, to religion and politics and cultural studies. We also offer streaming audio and video through our 1000 stream RealServer, with optional streaming MPEG support from Bitcasting.com. We have continued our outreach efforts and have formalized our criteria for adding materials in our Collection Policy. UNC MetaLab currently averages about 1.5 million information requests a day and holds over 160 gigabytes of information and software for free distribution via the Internet.

Today, MetaLab staff members are involved in such varying projects as metadata research, streaming audio and video, and server administration.

Back Home