Re: Z39.50 on the web (and in print)

At 01:57 AM 2/24/2002 +0100, Sebastian Hammer wrote:
 >[...] we're in a situation where the business case for individual
 >resources to expose themselves to a directory is typically quite
 >weak [...] it appears that the drive to register resources lie
 >with other folks -- national agencies, companies, etc. Would they
 >use something like UDDI? It isn't clear what, at the current level
 >of technology, this would buy them -- at least not before the tools
 >became a lot more available and friendly (mature?).

I agree that UDDI demonstrates that there actually is a high
tolerance for complex solutions when that complexity is on a
level with the perceived complexity of the problem. But, my
suggestion is not to establish a Z39.50 server register existing
only as a set of UDDI entries. Rather, the suggestion is that a
Z39.50 server register be *interoperable* with UDDI.

I think it's safe to say that any register of Z39.50 servers
with more than a couple hundred entries will be searchable
with Z39.50. Given that there is a UDDI/GILS Gateway available
(e.g., Matthew's prototype or its successors), it costs nothing
extra for the register of Z39.50 server to be exposed to UDDI
clients as well as to Z39.50 clients. (It would be useful if
the register records align well with the GILS schema, but
the record model is really a separate discussion.)

With two-way UDDI/GILS interoperability, not only does a UDDI
client gain access to the register of Z39.50 servers, but the
Z39.50 client gains access to the full set of all businesses
and services registered via UDDI. This is a wonderful way to
re-use data across registers, especially as virtually all of
the Z39.50 servers will offer as least one other Web service
anyway--the usual "Web page" browser interface.

I'd also note an additional nuance of interest to folks here:
The Z39.50 client can offer a more powerful search interface
into the UDDI register than what is available with a usual
UDDI client. IMHO, the huge UDDI public register is actually
a great place to show the strengths of Z39.50 search.



Eliot Christian echristi@usgs.gov  1-703-648-7245 FAX 1-703-648-7112
US Geological Survey, 802 National Center, Reston VA 20192

Received on Sunday, 24 February 2002 06:23:53 UTC