| (November 16, 2000, updated April 26, 2001 and early 2002)Average load time: 7 seconds----------------In response to criticism that this Manifesto should be on gopher://itself, my reply is that free WWWeb access is abundant whileGopherspace is almost extinct, and that we need to first convert theWWWeb World and not live in our ivory-tower cloister alone -- so the word should be broadcast thru as many protocols as possible, first... ----------------the gopher:// manifesto=======================Gopher is an infoserver which can deliver text, graphics, audio, and multimedia to clients. Keeping documents "link clean", making linking a function of the server info-tree and not in the doc, layout is kept to its most frugal minimum, and is standard across all docs. No graphic design means its the ideal navigable interface, a hypertext Eden. It gives simplified usage for sight-impaired users, same contents for wired/wiredless, and requires no capital investments in layout and "design". Gopher is real -- and it was fully functional in 1992, even without advertisements!But once the Internet became commercialized, this ideal hypertextinterface was forgotten, and the gopher dream was scrapped.The dirty little secret is that today, the most popular browsers can recognize any URL -- even gopher://! (Netscape is working to stop this.) (UPDATE: could be a result of "severely overworked programmers": Netscape's gopher is back and getting better all the time!) And mathematical formulae seem to indicate that the speed benefits ofputting the entire non-commercial WWW back on gopher could increaseaccess speeds by over 10,000%!Is it time for a new Renaissance on the Internet, to bring back thepromise of the early years??gopher://, aka The Bring Back Gopher Campaign, is a grass-rootsmovement to make this happen.What we need:- Modern Gopher servers (eventual goal is for an Apache Gopher server)- Old gopher clients recompiled for modern clients, and distributed with them by default (Apple support)(http://athene.dnsalias.org/gopher) New: Mozilla support! (http://www.mozilla.org)- Investigate the "plugin possibility": the last Gopher server was ported to FreeBSD; developer says a release of the VR Gopher source code (still proprietary!) could give Gopher a future as a plugin... - A gopher-browser capable of receiving gopher-streams for audio and video- Campaign focal point with mailing-list: now live, see gopher://gopher.browser.org/ or also http://gopher.browser.org/- Gopher-compatible multimedia streams for television stationsWe can do it!Campaign links and info-----------------------gopher://gopher.browser.org/http://gopher.browser.org/gopher://gopher.heatdeath.org/New Gopher Developer's Mailing List:put "subscribe" in subject and mail gopher-request@complete.orghttp://www.complete.org/mailinglists/archives/(archives here)Point of Gopher Campaign discussion:http://www.deja.com/=dnc/[ST_rn=ps]/threadmsg_ct.xp?AN=696020200.1Alternates:news:comp.infosystems.gopherhttp://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/11/22/1811243&mode=threadThe King of All Gopher Sites:gopher://gopher.floodgap.com(WAS gopher://gopher.ptloma.edu/Prime example of the corporatization of educational institutions!)Institution that invented it keeping flame alive (Univ of Minnesota):gopher://gopher.tc.umn.edu/(Some hope's left?)First gopher weblog-resource page: gopher://gopher.metafilter.com/(need to push for gopher.weblogs.com)Gopher newsgroups:news:comp.infosystems.gopher (general)news:alt.internet.services (point of contact)news:alt.folklore.computers (knowledgebase)news:soc.culture.internet (history)news:soc.culture.usenet (talk)news:alt.internet.provider (demand support at isp level)news:soc.culture.www (competitive)news:netscape.public.general (enemy)Gophersearch:Veronica-2 gopher://gopher.ptloma.edu:70/1/v2Jughead gopher.utah.eduGopher chatroom:odili.net/chat/ New projects & software-----------------------GNOME graphic gopher!http://www.hobbiton.org/~pflipp/software/gnopher.en.htmlhttp://www.hobbiton.org/~pflipp/software/gnopher-screenshot.pngHot new gopher client (Python package!):http://opop.nols.com/proggie/forg-latest.tar.gzUMN gopher/gopherd, GPL Debian!:http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/gopher.htmlhttp://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/gopherd.htmlGopherd mirror (1997):http://www.rocklinux.org/people/ripclaw/software/gopherWWWeb to gopher gateway cgi! http://www.heatdeath.org:8003/webgopher/tree.jsp (javascript)Modern gopher hackers:http://athene.owl.de/gopherA code community:gopher://moo.ca New working client in dbXML:http://www.dbxmlgroup.com/Overview of clients and servers:http://www.yale.edu/pclt/WINWORLD/GOPHER.HTMPersonal Gopher:http://tangible.media.mit.edu/~ullmer/papers/pgopher/node3.htmlGopherculture & history-----------------------Gopher knowledge (examples):gopher://quux.org/ multi-gig text treaasure-trove!http://gopher.cuis.edu:70/0gopher_root2%3a[stumpers-l]stumpers-l.1995-03gopher://gopher.ag.ohio-state.edu:70/11/newsletters/byghttp://www.io.com/internet/yanoff/inet.services.htmlGopher jewels (early infotree structure):http://www.galaxy.com/GJ/http://riceinfo.rice.edu/armadillo/Mlist/archivejun94/msg00080.htmlhttp://www.uccs.edu/gopher/jewels.htmlhttp://scout18.cs.wisc.edu/NH/95-05/95-05-08/0014.html (end-of-era)Gopher spec:http://andrew2.andrew.cmu.edu/rfc/rfc1689.html A Brief History of Gopher:http://www.thebee.com/bweb/iinfo15.htmGopher icons:http://www.mat.dtu.dk/icons/gopher/ (UNIX xbm format)http://www.uvm.edu/icon/Gopher/http://www5.biostr.washington.edu/icons/Gopher/http://websoft.ics.uci.edu/Icons/roadkill.gif (404?)http://www.science.uva.nl/~mes/icons/icon.roadkill.gifThe move against gopher -----------------------Who killed it? (Post-WWW secret history):http://www.ics.uci.edu/~rohit/IEEE-L7-http-gopher.htmlWWW-revisionism:http://foldoc.doc.ic.ac.uk/foldoc/foldoc.cgi?GopherspaceMSU kills its servers:http://www.statenews.com/editionssummer97/070397/campus.htmlResult of overzealous server purging:http://courses.wc.cc.va.us/wcb/schools/WCC/ist/shavens/7/forums/forum3/messages/2.htmlWriting on the wall:Netscape Inc. trying to kill gopher (circa November, 2000)http://www.deja.com/=dnc/[ST_rn=ps]/getdoc.xp?AN=693812882Anecdotes, stories, fun-----------------------Uplifting gopher story:Connor Sexton writes, "I remember when I was 9 (im 14 now) I was usingGopher with my dad on my old 486. I remember how cool it was to knowthat this information was out there on another computer, beingaccessed by other people.. There was a wealth of information sooverwhelming I didnt know what to do with it. As a young child, I washighly fascinated by Space, and I asked my dad to type in 'How to beand Astronaut' and I got an essay with that topic. I was SO happy, Iwas amazed at what was happening. Today, I use the internet andwitness the horrible commercialization of a wonderful place. The farreaching hands of capatalism leave no stone unturned. I am willing tohelp you pull this together in any way I can. I would love to see thereinstatement of Goper."More Gopher thoughts:Lawrence Rhodes writes, "'Point your Gopher to...' I remember gettingexcited when almost anything followed these words. It was a sign ofprogress. Or of the impending state of information connectedness weall now experience. Now it seems so quaint. I miss it so not for theunderpinning technology (which may or may not have been superior) butfor the feeling that the world of information technology, indeed theworld itself, was advancing rapidly enough to allow the common manaccess to the world's great storehouses of data. Of couse, inretrospect, I suppose if I had thought about the common man'sinfatigable hunger for porn and nonstop commerce and the myriad otherforms of bad taste, I would have seen the dangers of the banal. IndeedGopher represented a simpler, more naive time."Sober warning:Kris Kennaway writes, "... since there are apparently still peopleusing gopherd, someone really should fix the remote buffer overflowsin the server which were reported a while back on bugtraq (search onwww.securityfocus.com for the details). An updated version wasreleased after the first one was found, but then there were morereported and no new version was released. ... it's kind of disturbingto think that almost all of what remains of the old gopher network isprobably vulnerable to a remote root exploit."Co-author of Internet Gopher protocol speaks:Bob Alberti writes (partial letter), "When in the dawn of the ThirdMillennium people, misguided or simply ignorant, are still using'anonymous' FTP for file servers; and as cell phone developersreinvent the wheel by whittling HTML down to more compact protocolsrather than building upon what exists; then it is clear that greaterunderstanding and awareness of the Gopher and Gopher+ protocol issorely needed. "FTP is a 1960's-era solution designed to communicate between'dumb' terminals and mainframes. Having written the FTP-to-Gophergateway, I can attest that the FTP protocol is incredibly primitiveand vulnerable to abuse. And the conventional overloading of the protocol for 'anonymous' FTP service is an example of speed and patchwork overcoming design limitations. FTP is notoriously insecure, requiring in many cases bidirectional firewall holes for support, and communicating in cleartext. FTP can be used to damage its own server, and FTP cannot serve forms, and only serves banners with clumsy patchwork. "Gopher servers can share filesystems quickly and easily.Gopher allows for 'cap' files to modify the appearance of thedirectories being served. It allows for cgi-style scripts, formsubmission, and multiple languages. And Gopher easily overlaysexisting FTP service directories, providing freedom of choice. Gopher+ was a bridge spanning the 1200-baud world of itsexistence with the 56K future only a few years ahead. When a severecommunications bottleneck exists between the server and the client,then the quick, clean and efficient Gopher+ protocol provides afeasible solution. "But Gopher+ will benefit from greater exposure: ignorance ofthe Gopher protocol does not serve the greater Internet community: aswith any powerful tool, Gopher service can pose a securityvulnerability, especially when inexpertly implemented. And in orderto provide commercial services, Gopher servers with greater encryptionand security features must be developed. "Wireless communications developers would be well-advised tolook at this venerable Internet protocol when seeking ways tocommunicate with wireless and handheld devices such as PDAs and cellphones. The Gopher+ protocol could be a quick, efficient,standardized open-source solution to the problem of handheld clients."REQUEST:URLs for any CGI Gopher to Web gateways, for the gopher:// impaired?Send your gopher stories! Just Gopher It! http://www.scn.org/~bkarger/gopher-manifestoby Bjorn Kargerbkarger@scn.org |
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