CALL FOR DISCUSSION: BIO-SRS/bionet.software.srs

[BIOSCI Administrator]

We have received a proposal below for a new newsgroup,

BIO-SRS/bionet.software.srs

Discussion on the following proposal will now be open through 18
January on BIOFORUM/bionet.general (*not* on BIONEWS/bionet.announce).
For those who are not on the BIOFORUM/bionet.general newsgroup
currently, either read bionet.general on USENET or contact one of the
following biosci addresses to sign up by e-mail:

Subscription Address                 Location
--------------------                 --------
biosci at daresbury.ac.uk               Europe, Africa, and Central Asia
biosci at net.bio.net                   Americas and the Pacific Rim

One warning, however: BIOFORUM/bionet.general is a "chatty" newsgroup
and many other items will be discussed there besides this newsgroup
proposal.  USENET news access is definitely better than e-mail if you
want to monitor only this discussion.

Discussion Guidelines
---------------------
Please do not post one-line messages saying things like "I am in favor
of such a newsgroup".  We will collect votes later.  The discussion
period is an opportunity for anyone to bring up reservations about the
proposed charter below and to propose modifications prior to the vote.
If the charter is perfect as is, then there is no need for anyone to
say anything!!!

The newsgroup discussion leader may submit a revised proposal in light
of the discussion, and the new charter would be included in the call
for votes which will go out on 19 January (Newsgroup Discussion
leaders - please note this deadline - if no revisions are received
before the deadline, the original charter will be voted on.).

Please be aware that only one vote is counted per e-mail address, so
it is necessary to have your own account in order to vote.  Multiple
votes from the same address are not accepted.  If you are interested
in the following newsgroup, but do not have an e-mail address of your
own, please obtain one from your computer center before the call for
votes is issued.

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Proposal to establish BIO-SRS/bionet.software.srs

Proposed USENET name:           bionet.software.srs

Proposed Mailing list name:     BIO-SRS

Proposed e-mail addresses:      bio-srs at net.bio.net
                                bio-srs at daresbury.ac.uk

Discussion Leaders:             Thure Etzold, EMBL Heidelberg
                                Reinhard Doelz, Biozentrum Basel

Purpose: 
         Provide support and discussion for maintainers and users of 
         SRS-based software packages. This includes servers based on
         WorldWideWeb as well as local installations and the defini-
         tion of new database connections into the SRS database net-
         work via suitable tools as provided with the software.

Charter: 
         Announce, and  inform  on, new  achievements on information
         servers running the Sequence Retrieval System (SRS) engine. 
         This affects predominantly data and services in the biology
         and/or related  areas   which  can  be accessed  via  elec-
         tronic  networked   information  retrieval software (WWW or 
         specific client  software).  Announcements  from the author 
         (Thure Etzold) or other developers,  proposals  and discus-
         sions of customers, maintainers and developers with respect
         to new strategies and tools, as  well user and maintainer 
         support shall inform and invite to participate.
 
Status:  
         unmoderated, not restricted. 

Exclusion: 
         General  issues  on accompanying software problems shall be 
         placed  in  bionet.software  or  suitable software-specific 
         newsgroups  in the comp hierarchy. Established WWW, GOPHER,
         or  other services not dealing  with  the SRS or associated 
         software shall be discussed in other  newsgroups.  Specific  
         items on the non-biology related technical side of the ser-
         ver software are not intended to be discussed in length but 
         will be mentioned publically in case of need. The newsgroup  
         shall  not be used for large papers and discussions, as the 
         posting of the link to a suitable document or archive server 
         will be sufficient. 
 
FAQ: 
         Periodic (e.g., quarterly)  postings of a FAQ are intended. 

Background:
         The   Sequence  Retrieval  System (SRS) as created by Thure
         Etzold has been made available on the VMS platform initial-
         ly but is now also  running  on  many  flavours of the UNIX 
         operating  system. Its main advantage is the ability to in-
         terlink databases of extremely  heterogenous  origin.  Cur-
         rently, more than 35 databases can be browsed on seven ser-
         vers accessible via the WWW  protocol (as an entry, try the
         URL http://www.embl-heidelberg.de/srs/status.html). Besides
         local command line access, future  developments include the 
         networked environment with special  clients as well as com-
         mandline interface retrieval tools via the HASSLE system as
         created by Reinhard Doelz. 
  

Reference point server URL: 
         http://www.embl-heidelberg.de/srs/srsc

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