Why a Global Information Locator?

Although the global information revolution continues to make ever more vast amounts of information available, not all of the information resources are made known in a common manner. Users have extreme difficulty just in trying to find relevant materials. A Global Information Locator would have immediate practical application in international areas such as Agenda 21, global change research, environmental monitoring, coordination of humanitarian assistance, and U.N. administration.

The Global Information Infrastructure is emerging at a revolutionary period in the history of information. Technological breakthroughs have expanded radically the possibilities for electronic access. In particular, peer computer networks, e.g., Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) and the Internet, allow for a decentralized approach to information dissemination. On such networks, many different information sources can be maintained separately yet any user can choose to view them as a whole. The U.S. Government Information Locator Service (GILS) uses a decentralized network approach based on international standards that may serve as the model for a Global Information Locator.

How could a Global Information Locator be established?

A Global Information Locator using GILS as a model is part of the project for Environment and Natural Resources Management adopted in February 1995 at the G-7 Ministerial Conference on the Information Society. The U.S. GILS initiative has several characteristics that are important for a Global Information Locator. Being decentralized and based on open standards, it fits the decentralized character of information dissemination globally. It encourages dissemination by a wide diversity of sources, both public and private, that serve the myriad public and governmental needs for information.

The open systems design assures that many different information systems can be separately developed yet be interoperable when implemented. Interoperability depends on a stable reference, known as an application profile, that is openly negotiated among implementors, documented, and made widely known. For the Global Information Locator, an International Standardized Profile could adapt the existing GILS Profile to establish common practices for identifying and describing information resources globally. The profile would state the functions and environments within which it applies, and would identify options and parameters of existing standards needed to achieve a Global Information Locator. As with the GILS Profile, the Global Information Locator profile would be compatible with the Internet as well as OSI-compliant networks, and would make use of open standards for information search and retrieval such as ISO 10162/10163.

The application profile for the Global Information Locator would not limit how information is maintained at the source nor how information is displayed to users. Alternative ways to organize and present networked information would continue to be encouraged, but participants in the Global Information Locator would support such alternatives in addition to supporting the profile.

Success of the Global Information Locator does not depend on massive government investments or sweeping international agreements. Rather, by adopting existing international information standards, it could build on the efforts of the responsible and talented people worldwide already working on information access issues. For example, software that supports direct access will be available for free from many sources worldwide and will also be embedded within commercial computer applications ranging from the very simple to those that dynamically interpret natural language, or filter search requests to sift huge amounts of information automatically.

Comments | Privacy Notice | URL:/flyer.html