Subject: Re: CCL:Chemistry WWW Sites and comprehensive Lists

From: Herbert Homeier (t4720) <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 7 Feb 95 16:00:09 +0100

Dear CCLers,

> X-Url: http://rchs1.chemie.uni-regensburg.de/~maillist/data/0056.html 
> CCL:Chemistry WWW Sites and comprehensive
> Lists
> 
> Steven Bachrach ([email-masked])
> Fri, 27 Jan 95 08:26:53 -0600 
> 

Sorry for taking up this thread relatively late.

> The discussions of chemistry WWW sites, while perhaps not traditionally 
> a part of computational chemistry, is in my opinion a legitimate topic 
> for discussion on this list. This list truly reaches the most computer and 
> network savy subsection of the chemistry community. We are the pioneers of 
> the web for the chemical community, and decisions we make now will likely 
> set the precedent and the practice for years to come.  
> 
> I strongly object to people trying to limit the discussions on this list.

So do I. This discussion belongs to this list. It is good that it
focuses now on WWW sites in general, and not so much on departamental
home pages as such.  

The  latter are mainly important as the primary interface to the
Internet for the local users. Also, they provide the possibility to
advertise a little on the net what is done locally. These places
usually also provide gateways to local directory services (x.500,
whois,...) and other local servers.

I think a WWW site in general is an information provider. Also many
departamental WWW servers do belong to this category. But there are
also many non-university places of interests for chemists as evidenced
in listings of external links as for instance

<A HREF="http://rchs1.uni-regensburg.de/external.html">Local list</A>
<A HREF="gopher://rchs1.uni-regensburg.de/11/.andere_gopher">via Theoretical Chemistry Gopher</A>
<A HREF="http://www.uni-regensburg.de/gopher/Fakultaeten/Fakultaet_Chemie/andere_gopher">via Chemistry at Uni Regensburg Gopher</A>

or the Virtual Library.

There, one can find hyperlinks to such diverse resources as the Global
Instructional Chemistry project, conference listings for chemists,
X-ray WWW server, Protein Data Banks and the World Factbook.

> One solution to a directory of WWW sites is to establish an automated 
> (form-based) registration procedure, following the model at the NCSA home site.
> If there is interest in establishing this service, perhaps Max Kopelevich, and
> Henry Rzepa, and myself and other interested parties can set this up at a
> mutually agreed upon site.

This is a good idea, and I would like to particate.

However, such a form-based interface has to be designed carefully in
order to give some sort of quality control of the WWW sites. In a
sense, some sort of selection according to quality is ensured by the
model which is used now, namely that some webmaster maintains a list of
WWW sites which he thinks are valuable (in fact, most users on machines
running a WWW server can do that, too:  Use a directory public_html in
your home directory. Data there can be accessed via WWW using the "URL"
http://machinename.domain.somewhere/~username/data.xyz).

In the long run, the refereeing process known from journals could be
applied, mutatis mutandis, to lists of WWW sites as well. The sites
could be refereed, and each list itselve, too.

The criteria, however, are rather difficult to find: Number of
accesses, nice interface with lots of graphics (not my main interest),
useful local data, useful links, searchable indices, reasonable access
times via the net (this would be a sort of geographical sorting
according to continent/country like 'oh, no, that WWW course can not be
recommended, because it is so sloow due to graphical data transfer
across the atlantic'), or ...?

But  one should keep in mind that not only the links are important.
They have to point to real data, useful ones. In chemistry, more of the
following data might be helpful:

- preprint servers and electronic journals
- data on materials (Is there any server providing free-access,
  searchable data bases of experimental and/or theoretical results on
  transition metals, for instance) ?
- software indices (where to find programs on a given topic)
- educational material (school, university, industry(!, for instance
  handbooks))
- easy-to-use tools for information providers (perl-script programming is
  not exactly, what is needed, for instance).
- data bases for graphical images of molecules (to be viewed and/or
  embedded in manuscripts)
- Form-based builletin boards where information can be entered freely for
  databases as conference listings, software products, ...
  (corresponding news groups would not be that useful due to their
  transient nature)
- ...

This list is obviously incomplete. But it means that developing of such
data bases, tools and interfaces should become part of the research
activities. besides the "usual" ones. Diploma and PhD theses on data
bases and web tools are too rare, and I fear that many people would not
regard such work as proper research. But it is highly important work in
my opinion.

Best regards

Herbert Homeier

--------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Herbert H. H. Homeier
Institut fuer Physikalische und Theoretische Chemie
Universitaet Regensburg
D-93040 Regensburg, Germany
Phone: +49-941-943 4720                FAX  : +49-941-943 2305
email: [email-masked]
<A HREF="http://rchs1.uni-regensburg.de/%7Ec5008/">HOMEPAGE</A>
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