RARE TECHNICAL REPORT 1
User Support and Information Services in Europe
A Status Report
RARE Information Services and User Support Working Group
(formerly RARE WG3 USIS Subgroup)
Jill Foster (Editor)
NISP/Mailbase
University of Newcastle, UK
Florian Schnabel Jean-Marc Verbergt
ACONET, Austria BNAN, Belgium
Flemming Topsoe Petri Ojala
University of Copenhagen FUNET, Finland
DKnet, Denmark
Dominique Dumas Gerti Foest
EARN-France DFN, Germany
Yannis Corovesis Geza Turchanyi
ARIADNE, Greece HUNGARNET, Hungary
Marius Olafsson Peter Flynn
ISnet, Iceland HEANET, Ireland
Giovanni Turso Antoine Barthel
GARR, Italy RESTENA, Luxembourg
Maria Heijne Erik Huizer (RTC)
SURFnet, The Netherlands SURFnet, The Netherlands
Geir Pederson Fernando Pinto
UNINETT, Norway RCCN, Portugal
Borut Lavrenic Celestino Tomas
ARNES, Slovenia RedIRIS, Spain
Anders Gillner Thomas Lenggenhager
SUNET, Sweden SWITCH, Switzerland
Esra Delen Shirley Wood
TUVAKA, Turkey JANET, UK
Tim Berners-Lee Nadine Grange
CERN EARN
2nd Edition, October 1992
Copyright RARE 1992
All rights reserved
Parts of this report may be freely copied as long as the source is
acknowledged.
RARE Technical Reports are published by the
RARE Secretariat,
Singel 466-468
NL-1017 AW AMSTERDAM
FOREWORD
This is the first RARE Technical Report (RTR). The publication of
RARE Technical Reports is intended to enhance the visibility of work
done in the RARE community. RTRs will provide a channel for peer
review and approval by presenting the results of RARE's Working Groups
and Task Forces to a wider audience. RARE intends to publish a
selected number of RTR's each year.
Information on how to obtain RTRs and on the process for submitting
RTRs can be obtained by sending electronic mail to:
E-mail address RFC822: rtr-info@rare.nl
E-mail address X.400: C=NL; ADMD=400net; PRMD=surf; O=rare; S=rtr-info;
RARE has a Technical Committee which supervises the execution of
technical activities by Working Groups and Task Forces. The
production of an RTR may be requested or solicited by the RARE
Technical Committee, but in general any material of interest to a wide
audience might be considered suitable for inclusion in an RTR. The
RTC acts as editorial committee: it will either review submitted
documents itself or may appoint a small group of expert reviewers to
do the review on its behalf.
RARE
RARE (Reseaux Associes pour la Recherche Europeenne) is the
Association of European Networking Organizations and their users.
RARE's aim is to overcome national boundaries in research networking
by creating a standardized computer communications infrastructure for
the European research community. At this point in time RARE has 41
members, most of which are national networking organizations providing
networking services to their national research and education
community.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The former RARE Working Group 3 (Subgroup USIS) wishes to thank all
bodies that provided both direct and indirect financial support to
enable the group to meet and work together. In particular we would
like to thank the CEC and the COSINE countries who gave substantial
support to RARE during the COSINE Programme.
INTRODUCTION
The advent of computer networks has allowed researchers to find,
exchange and share information with colleagues all over Europe and the
rest of the world. These networks can revolutionise the way in which
individual researchers work and provide for collaboration of
geographically dispersed groups. There is a veritable gold mine of
information available - but who can you turn to for help and guidance
through the apparent jungle of networks? This report aims to provide
some initial guidance and some answers to the questions:
"Who should I ask?"
"Where can I find the "signposts" to this information?"
The information you will find in this document ranges from details on
the availability of a helpdesk to a description of the various
information services available on the network.
SUMMARY
RARE WG3 USIS (User Support and Information Services Subgroup) was a
group of representatives from most of the European networks in the
RARE Association. Each of these networking organizations in turn
provides, to a varying degree, user support and information services
for its own users - its customers. The USIS group has met every three
to four months over the past few years to discuss all aspects of user
support and, in particular, the need for a European Information
Service and support for European special subject groups. Two projects
in this area have been funded under the COSINE programme (Cooperation
for Open Systems Interconnection Networking in Europe):
CONCISE - the (pilot) European Information Service
(COSINE Sub Project P2.2)
and
Pilot Activities to Support International User Groups
(COSINE Sub Project P3)
Each country has in turn invested (or plans to invest) effort into
both areas on a national level. RARE WG3 USIS has provided a
successful forum for sharing ideas between the national network
representatives, which has resulted in some healthy competition in
providing a good level of support to network users via:
- on-line information services
- newsletters
- training sessions and workshops
- support for national special subject groups.
In May 1992, RARE Working Group 3 USIS Subgroup became the RARE
Information Services and User Support Working Group. The ISUS WG is
to play a major part in the restructured RARE technical programme.
As networked services and user support initiatives are continually
being improved, added to and updated, this report shows a "snapshot"
of these activities at the time of writing. The intention is to
produce a printed update of this report annually. The electronic
version will be updated at least twice a year. (See the section on
"On-line version" for details on how to retrieve the electronic
version).
Not all associated countries and networks are mentioned in this status
report. Representatives from those countries and networks not
mentioned are welcome to submit the relevant information for inclusion
in the next report. See the section on "Updating Information".
In the current document you will find information on the following
networks: [The information will be found under the separate menu
entries for National (and regional) networks and European/Institution
networks ]
National networks:
Austria ACONET
Beligum BNAN
Denmark DKnet
Finland FUNET
France EARN-France
Germany DFN
Greece ARIADNE
Hungary HUNGARNET
Iceland ISnet
Ireland HEANET
Italy GARR
Luxembourg RESTENA
The Netherlands SURFnet
Norway UNINETT
Portugal RCCN
Slovenia ARNES
Spain RedIRIS
Sweden SUNET
Switzerland SWITCH
Turkey TUVAKA
United Kingdom JANET
Regional networks:
NORDUnet The Nordic Countries
European networks/institutes:
CERN Europe
CONCISE
EARN Europe
EUnet Europe
Mailbase UK
RIPE
HOW THE INFORMATION WAS COLLECTED
RARE ISUS WG collected information on networks, user support and
information servers using two templates:
- the status template, included in Appendix A;
- the extended template, included in Appendix B.
The information contained in this RARE Technical Report was gathered
over "the network" from the representatives of the contributing
networks, who completed the status template. (See next section)
ON-LINE VERSION
Electronic versions of this document and related documents are
available from various sources:
- Mailbase (E-mail, ftp and interactive access) see Appendix C.
- this status report
- the empty status template
- other RARE WG3 USIS reports and RARE ISUS WG reports.
- SWITCHinfo server (FTP and E-mail) see Appendix D.
- detailed description of various services (extended templates)
- the empty extended template.
- CONCISE server (E-mail, FTAM and interactive access) see Appendix E.
- this status report
- detailed description of various services.
- RARE Document Server (FTP)
- this status report
- other RARE ISUS WG reports.
When this activity was initiated the CONCISE European Information
Service was still at the planning stage. Since it became operational,
the templates and other information were made available centrally on
CONCISE.
UPDATING INFORMATION
Updates on, and additions to, the information contained in this report
are welcomed by the authors. Send updates using the status template
from the mailbase server (See Appendix C) to:
Jill Foster
E-mail address RFC822
Jill.Foster@newcastle.ac.uk
E-mail address X.400
C=gb; ADMD= ; PRMD=uk.ac; O=newcastle; S=Foster; G=Jill;
More extensive information would also be appreciated. Please retrieve
the extended template from the SWITCHinfo server (See Appendix D).
Since at this stage, the future funding of CONCISE beyond the end of
the COSINE programme is unsure, please send the completed template to:
BOTH
Thomas Lenggenhager, SWITCH
E-mail address RFC822
lenggenhager@switch.ch
E-mail address X.400
C=CH; ADMD=arCom; PRMD=SWITCH; O=SWITCH; S=Lenggenhager;
AND
CONCISE HELP DESK
E-mail address RFC822
helpdesk@concise.Level-7.co.uk
E-mail address RFC822
C=GB; ADMD= ; PRMD=Level-7 Ltd; O=CONCISE; S=HELPDESK;
ADDRESSES
The members of ISUS WG can be reached by E-mail through the list
WG-ISUS:
E-Mail Address RFC822
WG-ISUS@rare.nl
E-Mail address X.400
C=nl; ADMD=400net; PRMD=surf; O=rare; S=wg-isus;
For further information on the ISUS group contact Jill Foster:
Postal address
Computing Service
The University
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU
UK
Telephone number +44 91 222 8250
Fax number +44 91 222 8232
E-mail address RFC8222
Jill.Foster@newcastle.ac.uk
E-mail address X.400
C=gb; ADMD= ; PRMD=uk.ac; O=newcastle; S=Foster; G=Jill;
For further information on RARE contact:
RARE Secretariat
Singel 466-468
NL-1017 AW AMSTERDAM
Telephone number +31 20 639 1131
Fax number +31 20 639 3289
E-mail address RFC8222
raresec@rare.nl
E-mail address X.400
C=nl; ADMD=400net; PRMD=surf; O=rare; S=raresec;
# 31.10.93 Malcolm Hamilton