Gopher, Mosaic, and UCAR by Robert Henson, UCAR Outreach Program UCAR and NCAR Gopher servers already offer a wide range of information to Internet users, and now Mosaic is making the resources of the various UCAR and NCAR programs even more accessible, and in a greater variety of forms. With blinding speed, rules are being rewritten on how data, software, and documents are transferred within the research community. Gopher and Mosaic have seen extensive development in less than three years and now sit alongside FTP (File Transfer Protocol) as accepted means of information exchange across the world. Both are available for a variety of systems, including UNIX, IBM PCs, and Macintosh. GOPHER FTP, long the primary tool for data and information exchange on the Internet, requires users to know which machine holds files of interest and whether or not a password is needed (and, if so, the password itself). Also, many users logging onto and browsing through a single FTP directory can swamp a server. Gopher, with its hierarchical list of menus, is expressly designed for efficient on-line searching. Each time you ask for a narrower search, your machine retrieves a menu or file, but connects to a remote machine only long enough to obtain that new information. Since you are not tying up the remote machine while you browse, many more people can access that remote server. Mosaic is a true interactive interface to the Internet. It allows users to access not only Gopher and FTP servers but multimedia information, including formatted text, color images, videos, and sound on World- Wide Web (WWW) servers. It provides point-and-click access to other Internet tools, such as Archie (for searching for the location of files) and Finger (for finding people on the Internet). It has brought the power of the ÒWebÓ to everyoneÕs desktop. Instead of the hierarchical menus of Gopher, Web ÒdocumentsÓ contain hypermedia links. Any item (word, phrase, image, and so on) can be linked by the documentÕs creator to another item. Thus, users may click on a photo to find out more about that person, highlight the name of an institution to get a full description of it, or click on the title of a software package to receive a copy of it. Mosaic has been developed and refined over the past two years at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications in ChampaignÐUrbana, Illinois; it is part of the WWW project of the European Center for Nuclear Research, Geneva, Switzerland. UCAR AND NCAR GOPHER SERVERS The NCAR Scientific Computing Division (SCD) operates the NCAR/UCAR Gopher. It is listed on Gopher menus under both NCAR and UCAR and can be directly accessed at the address gopher.ucar.edu. On this server is a wide range of material. A folder/directory labeled ÒNCAR/UCAR News and InformationÓ includes the contents of recent issues of Staff Notes (NCARÕs weekly newsletter) and the UCAR Newsletter. Also included is an alphabetic file of commonly used acronyms in the atmospheric and related sciences; a three-week calendar of seminars and meetings in the Boulder, Colorado, area; a listing of NCAR Technical Notes; current job listings; and reports from the UCAR Office of Government Affairs. Other folders on the NCAR/UCAR server include --an e-mail and telephone directory of UCAR staff --documentation on the NCAR Graphics package --catalogs for NCAR and Colorado Front Range library systems --weather information. Pointers on the server lead to other Gopher servers, including those of UCAR programs, NCAR divisions, the University of Colorado, the National Science FoundationÕs four supercomputing centers, and the entire range of Gopher servers worldwide. The ÒSCD Publications and DocumentsÓ menu (under ÒNCAR/UCAR GophersÓ) leads to text from all of the divisionÕs user documents, as well as other background information on using SCDÕs Cray supercomputers, mass storage system, and networking. Unidata, which helps universities acquire and use weather data, has an extensive Gopher server (gopher.unidata.ucar.edu). ÒIt took only one demonstration of the Gopher software to convince us that this was an ideal tool for supporting our sites. We immediately created a Gopher server, and the first item we published was our database of support e-mail,Ó says Sally Bates, a member of UnidataÕs user support branch. The Unidata server now includes a directory of users at over 100 sites, committee information, electronic mailing lists, educational outreach information, and other resources. ÒOur users are especially pleased with the ability to find answers to their questions by querying our e- mail database,Ó Bates comments, Òand it has reduced our support load as a result.Ó MOSAIC In addition, SCD has established its own Web server, providing all of UCAR with access to Internet information resources via Mosaic. There is general information about each program, computational resources, and other user-related topics as well as overview material on NCAR and UCAR and specific information on NCAR divisions. There is even a collection of links to access Colorado weather reports, ski conditions, national weather maps, and satellite imagesÑall over the Internet. ÒSCD is committed to using the Web server as a principal means of communicating with our constituents,Ó says Gregory McArthur, SCDÕs Mosaic administrator. ÒWe believe this hypermedia interface will usher in the enhanced use of the Internet as part of the evolution and development of the evolving National Information Infrastructure.Ó The Uniform Resource Locator for the Òhome pageÓ is http//http.ucar.edu. New services are being added daily. To get started on Gopher and Mosaic, check with your system administrator for your computer system to get the required software. For further information on the NCAR/UCAR Gopher server and its use, send e-mail to gopher.ucar.edu. Many of the Gopher directories contain README files with instructions on how to contact the person who maintains that information. For information on Mosaic, contact McArthur (phone: 303-497-1813; Internet: gregmc@ncar.ucar.edu). RELEVANT UCAR AND NCAR PUBLICATIONS Burrowing into On-Line Information: Gopher and Other Internet Services. Sally Bates, Unidata (Proceedings of the Third Symposium on Education, American Meteorological Society, pp. J21ÐJ29, 23Ð28 January 1994). It is also available from Unidata (phone: 303-497-8644; Internet: sbates@unidata.ucar.edu) and on the unidata.ucar.edu Gopher in the ÒUnidata-Related PublicationsÓ directory. SCD Computing News, February/March 1994. This special issue discusses Internet information-retrieval tools. Available via WWW and Mosaic at the following URL: http://www.ucar.edu/docs/SCD- Newsletter/directory or via Gopher on the NCAR/SCD Gopher server: gopher.ucar.edu. Also available via Mosaic on the Web server. Print copies are available from Janie Young (SCD User Services, phone: 303-497-1288; Internet: janie@ncar.ucar.edu). Portions of this article have been adapted from other works by Sally Bates and Michael Wright of Unidata, and James Petruzzelli, SCD.