SOLID

Tired of dialing "5-1000" and waiting for the Harvard operator? If you have a network connection in your room (or just happen to be near a network terminal), you have easy access to SOLID, the Student Online Information Directory.

SOLID is part of an ongoing project to make student information more accessible to the community at large. The concept is skin to a "virtual phonebook" more comprehensive and up-to-date than its paper-based cousin.

Such phonebooks already exist throughout the Internet. The granddaddy of these is the InterNIC Directory and Database Services. InterNIC is the "network information center" that contains records on all Internet networks throughout the United States.

The InterNIC maintains "WHOIS" (for "who is...") servers that contain directory information, primarily of military and other government personnel but also of a growing number of non-government employees who apply directly to the InterNIC for inclusion.

More than 100 institutions throughout the United States, including one unsavory group in New Haven, participate in the "X.500 pilot project." This project is an attempt to standardize upon one online directory format that can be accessed by "X.500 clients." It is sponsored boy the InterNIC, and you can sample its fruits by telnetting to ds.internic.net and logging in as "X.500."

A more powerful service offered by the InterNIC is "netfind." Netfind will search the user databases of computers anywhere on the Internet. For example, netfind would allow anyone looking for a particular student at Harvard to conduct an exhaustive search through all of our Internet-connected computers.

The search could even encompass the student.harvard.edu machines that is, undergraduates' personal computers. Only "finger" databases (which most undergrads don't have) are perused, however, so students need not fear that netfind will pry further into their systems. To try netfind yourself, telnet to ds.inter.net and log in as "netfind."

So with all this power, why SOLID? The Student Online Information Directory is Harvard's internal "white pages," accessible only by members of the Harvard community (outsiders can extract only limited data from the directory). The database software is from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champagne, and has been loaded with personal information about every student at a level of detail much greater than "finger" searchers can provide.

To use SOLID, go into "gopher" and select the Telephone and Mail Directory. Here you can enter specific keywords--first names, last names, and department names, for example--and get back, details on all students, faculty, and offices that match the criteria.

An even faster way to get to SOLID is to launch the "ph" from any application from your network-connected personal computer or type "ph" from any terminal at the "fas%" prompt. The "ph" programs presents a stark-looking command line. If you're using "ph" from a personal computer, simply type a person's first and/or last name and hit to get their contact information. If you're using "ph" from the "fas%" prompt, the person's name must be prefaced by the word "query" followed by a space.

There are more powerful ways to use "ph" too (finding all the christines in Kirkland House, for example): The program has extensive online help for those interested in advanced features.

SOLID is an ongoing project (last year, only e-mail addresses were available), and the addition of phone and address information is only an incremental change.

Plan for 1995 include distribution over the World Wide Web in that the directory may be presented in a graphical hypertext environment. Such a system would allow for students ID pictures to be displayed alongside their personal data.

Students ID pictures, ehi One need only look in a typical House facebook to realize why we had better keep this sort of within the University only.

Eugene Koh '96-'97 writes about computers for the Crimson. He is Staff Manager, Media Services, at America Online.

There are more powerful ways to use "ph" too (finding all the christines in Kirkland House, for example): The program has extensive online help for those interested in advanced features.

SOLID is an ongoing project (last year, only e-mail addresses were available), and the addition of phone and address information is only an incremental change.

Plan for 1995 include distribution over the World Wide Web in that the directory may be presented in a graphical hypertext environment. Such a system would allow for students ID pictures to be displayed alongside their personal data.

Students ID pictures, ehi One need only look in a typical House facebook to realize why we had better keep this sort of within the University only.

Eugene Koh '96-'97 writes about computers for the Crimson. He is Staff Manager, Media Services, at America Online.