Library and academic interest in "push" technology?

[Nick Arnett]

At 11:52 AM 4/3/97 -0800, Mark McFarland wrote:

>I think there is probably a place somewhere in an academic setting for
>the kind of service that a user could subscribe to that would send
>automatic notice of information objects that are germaine to specific
>research (very narrow, _Jrnl of the Left Nostril_ kinds of subjects)
>that would not generate much traffic - but in which particular users
>would have a strong interest.  

Verity's Agent Server does just that.  It can store a few hundred thousand
profiles of interest and will notify people via a Web page, e-mail, fax,
etc., when there's something new that matches their interests.  This is the
product behind Knight-Ridder's NewsHound and many other commercial agent
services.  I mention this not to advertise, but to extend the possibility of
supporting some library research with it.  One question would be the sources
of information to monitor.  We can accomodate newswires, Usenet, our Web
spider and any kind of document we index (which includes most every kind of
document).

Verity has a research licensing program, in which we provide the software
and support at no charge to educational and other researchers.  If anyone on
the list is seriously interested in implementing such a system in a library
setting, I would strongly consider it.

Nick

---------------------------------------
Verity Inc. -- Connecting People with Information

Product Manager, Categorization and Visualization
408-542-2164; fax 408-541-1600; home office 408-733-7613
http://www.verity.com/

Verity Inc.
894 Ross Drive
Sunnyvale, CA 94089