Burmanet readers: would a burmanet

[strider@xxxxxxxxxxx]

Received: (from strider) by igc4.igc.apc.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id QAA06541; Mon, 6 May 1996 16:53:08 -0700 (PDT)
Date: Mon, 6 May 1996 16:53:08 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Burmanet readers: would a burmanet database be of any use?

Dear BurmaNet readers,

  The BurmaNet mailer is at Peacenet in the United States 
(igc.apc.org).  The entire archive of BurmaNet postings, going back to 
January 1994 is stored on Peacenet's computer (3000+ messages/40MB of 
data).
  People with email accounts have access to all the back postings in
chronological order.  For everyone else (which probably includes you),
the mail shows up in your box and you can do with it what you will. 

   I've checked with the technical support people at Peacenet about 
whether the archive of material can be made searcheable(sp?) via the 
Internet.  Their answer is yes (see below).  The catch is that it costs 
money to set up the service.

  What I need to know is whether you all would use the database enough 
to make it worth doing.  Searches would be free to you all.  BurmaNet 
or a donor would have to pay $200-300 for the programming.

   If you think you would use this thing, please let me know.  
Non-responses will be considered a no.  If you would like access to a 
searchable database, do you have a preference for an interface (WWW, 
email, telnet)?

   Take care,

       Strider


**********
Forwarded note from technical support:

Thanks for your note back.  We can probably do this, but we'd have to 
spec out the time it would take and how exactly you want this offered.  I 
am adding Anthony Whitworth to the loop of this note.  He knows databases 
well, and is an IGC staff person up in Alaska.  This would probably take 
us a couple of hours, and at $100 per hour, you might run up $200 to $300 
in fees to make this happen.  Do you have a clear sense that there 
actually is a need/market for this sort of thing?

What we would do is take the contents of REG.BURMA and on a set schedule 
we would dump it into a WAIS index that would be searchable to PeaceNet 
users.

Anthony, what do you think?

--Michael

On Fri, 26 Apr 1996 strider@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> No I didn't.  I am extremely happy that you can help.  I want to make 
> it possible for IGC users to search the entire archives of the 
> reg.burma newsgroup because it is the largest single source of material 
> on Burma anywhere.
> 
> Previously, I got help from someone in the SF office who zipped the 
> archive of reg.burma and mailed it to me but unfortunately, disk 6 
> of the series was defective so nothing came of that.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
>     Doug
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>  > From mstein  Fri Apr 26 13:41:15 1996
>  > Date: Fri, 26 Apr 1996 13:41:13 -0700 (PDT)
>  > From: Michael Stein <mstein@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>  > X-Sender: mstein@igc2
>  > To: strider@xxxxxxxxxxx
>  > Subject: Re: Question about a database
>  >
>  > Dear Douglas,
>  >
>  > Did you ever get an answer to your question from someone at IGC?  If not, 
>  > I will help you.
>  >
>  > --Michael
>  >
>  > _________________________________________________________________________
>  > Michael Stein       Voice: 415/561-6100 x110        Email: mstein@xxxxxxx
>  > Director of Special Projects                       Info: igc-info@xxxxxxx 
>  > Institute for Global Communications               WWW: http://www.igc.org
>  > IGC Networks:      PeaceNet * EcoNet * ConflictNet * LaborNet * WomensNet
>  > _________________________________________________________________________
>  >
>  > Date: Thu, 4 Apr 1996 11:07:55 -0800 (PST)
>  > From: strider@xxxxxxxxxxx
>  > To: support@xxxxxxxxxxx
>  > Subject: Question about a database.
>  >
>  > Hello again,
>  >
>  >  My question is whether it is possible to put the contents of the 
>  > reg.burma newsgroup into a form that is database accessible to Peacenet 
>  > users.  Will this work?  How would it be done?
>  >
>  >  Thanks much,
>  >
>  >     Douglas  Steele
>  >      moderator, Reg.burma
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>