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Internet Tools Summary: Notes Toward a Taxonomy
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by John December (decemj@rpi.edu); 11 Mar 94

Copyright (c) 1994 John December.  You may use this document for any 
personal or educational purpose. For-profit distribution requires my 
permission.  Provided ``as is'' without expressed or implied warranty.

This is a file about categorizing tools in the Internet Tools Summary at 
  Anonymous ftp Host: ftp.rpi.edu; 
  File: pub/communications/internet-tools.readme

THIS IS A DRAFT: I'm still working on this file.  
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There are many ways to look at Internet Tools.   One can categorize
them in terms of their function, use, channel characteristics, or 
other criterion.

Foster (1993) gives the following categorization of NIR tools:
	1. Information Sharing (email, ftp)
	2. Interactive Information Delivery Services (Gopher, World 
	   Wide Web)
	3. Indexing Services (archie, Veronica, online library catalogs)
	4. Text-based Indexing Services (WAIS)

I think about Internet Tools in several different ways. 
One way is categorize them in terms of use, extending Foster's list
to other tools and categories:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
FUNCTIONAL (Primary Use) Breakdown
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* NETWORK INFORMATION RETRIEVAL (NIR) 

  o Utilities
    Finger  Netfind  Nslookup  Ping  White Pages  WHOIS  X.500

  o Tools
    Archie  Astra  Essence  Fsp  Ftp  Jughead  Knowbot 
    Maltshop  Netserv  Soft Pages  Telnet  Veronica

  o Systems
    Alex  Gopher  Moo Gopher  Prospero  WAIS  WWW

  o Interfaces
    Biomix  Cello  Compass  Emacs World Wide Web Browser
    HyperG  Hytelnet  Mosaic for X/DOS/Mac  Lynx

* COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION 

  o Interpersonal
    Email  Talk

  o Group
    Listproc  LISTSERV  Majordomo  Moo  MUD  Procmail

  o Mass
    Interactive Webbing (IW) Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
    Internet Talk Radio (ITR) Mbone  Usenet

(My distinction between Group and Mass above is a closed-group
versus open-group distinction as well as primary/cultural use.)
Most problematic is my placement of MUD within Group and ITR 
within Mass.   MUD involves cultural artifacts (objects) that
are not possible within IRC--which is often used for broadcast,
large-group purposes (e.g., L.A. Earthquake, Russian Coup).


I would make a 2D chart as:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHANNEL CHARACTERISTIC Breakdown (time v. Sender:Receiver group size)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
		1:1		1:M		M:M
synchronous	talk		Mbone		MU*
		message				IRC/Chats/*

asynchronous	email 		Usenet(moderated) Usenet
				LISTSERV(moderated) LISTSERV
				WWW		Interactive Webbing
				ITR
				most NIR(ftp,
				fsp, gopher,
				WAIS, etc).
------------------------------------------------------------------------


Another approach is to consider their essential information exchange 
function.  Using the following system of notation:

   NOUNS                  
      A Application/software
      C Client
      F File(s)              
      H Host/computer        
      I Interface            
      G Graphical User Interface
      L List                 
      M Message(s)           
      R Receiver             
      S Server               
      U User/sender          
   
   VERBS
      := has read access only
      == has read and write access 
      :: interacts with user interface (synchronous)
      (()) sound in interface 
       * video interface 
      <- copys (over network) from 
      <-> copys (over network) to and from 
      <+ linked from 
      <= created by
      [] contains
      () consists of 
   
   CONJUNCTIONS
      ;  and 
   
      NOUN PHRASES                            
      S[F] Server containing file(s)          
      M(L) Message consisting of a List       
      S[U] Server containing users(s) = other users using this server
      H[U] Host containing users(s) = other users logged into this host
   
   NOTATION EXAMPLES:
      File Transfer Protocol:  U == F <= C <- H[F]; U => F -> C -> H[F]
      Narration:        The user gets read/write access to a copy of a 
                        file that was copied over the network to a client
                        from a host containing that file.  The user 
	                can create a file, and use a client to copy it
	                over the network to a host.
   
      Electronic mail:  R == M <- H[M <= U]
      Narration:        The Receiver gets read/write access to a copy of 
                        the Message that was copied over the network from
                        an (originating) Host on which resides the original
                        Message created by the User (Sender). 

We might assign each tool with a set of symbols:

   TOOL         ACTION NOTATION
   Alex         U := F <- S[F]
   Archie       U := M(L) <= C <- S[F]
   Astra        U == M2 <- S[F] <- M1 <= U
   Biomix       U :: G 
   Cello        U :: G 
   Compass     
   Essence     
   Finger       U := M <- F <= H[R]
   Ftp          U == F <= C <- H[F]; U => F -> C -> H[F]
   Fsp          U == F <= C <- H[F]; U => F -> C -> H[F]
   Gopher       U :: I(L <- C <= S[F]); U := M <- S[F]
   Hyper-G      U ::*(()) G(L <= C <- S[F]..S[F])
   Hytelnet     U :: I(L <= C <- S[F]); DOS: U :: I(L)
   Jughead     
   Knowbot      U :: I(L <-<= S[F..F])
   Lynx 
   Maltshop
   Moo Gopher     
   Mosaic       U ::*(()) G(L <= S[F]..S[F]); U := M <- S[F]; U :: I(L <= S[F])
   Netfind      U :: I(L <= S[F])
   Netserv      U == M2 <- S[F] <- M1 <= U
   Nslookup     U := M <= H
   Ping         U := M <= H
   Prospero     U := F <+ S[F]
   Soft Pages 
   Telnet       U :: I(L <= C <- H[A]) 
   Veronica     U :: I(L <= C <- S[F]); U := M <- S[F]
   WAIS         U :: I(L <= C <- S[F]); U := M <- S[F]
   WHOIS        U := M <= S[F]
   WWW          U :: I(L <= C <- S[F]); U := M <- S[F]
   X.500        U :: I(L <= S[F])
   Email        R == M <- H[M <= U]
   IW           U ::== G(M <= C <-> S[F])
   IRC          U :: I(M <= C <-> S[R..R])
   ITR          U ::(()) M <- H[S]
   Majordomo
   Listproc
   LISTSERV     U == M2 <- S[F] <- M1 <= U
   Mbone        U ::*(()) M <-> H[S]
   Moo 
   MUD          U :: I(M <= C <-> S[R..R])
   Talk         U :: I(M <-> H[R])
   USENET       U := I(M <- S[F] <- .. <- S[F])



(to be continued)

WORKS CITED:

Foster, Jill. (1993).  A Status Report on Network Information Retrieval:
   Tools and Groups.  Uniform Resource Locator 
   ftp://mailbase.ac.uk/pub/lists/nir/files/nir.status.report.

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