Wide Area Information Server

Wide Area Information Server

Wide Area Information Servers or WAIS is a client–server text searching system that uses the ANSI Standard Z39.50 Information Retrieval Service Definition and Protocol Specifications for Library Applications" (Z39.50:1988) to search index databases on remote computers. It was developed in the late 1980s as a project of Thinking Machines, Apple Computer, Dow Jones, and KPMG Peat Marwick.

WAIS did not adhere to either the standard or its OSI framework (adopting instead TCP/IP) but created a unique protocol inspired by Z39.50:1988.

Read more about Wide Area Information Server:  History, Directory of Servers, People, WAIS and Gopher

Famous quotes containing the words wide, area and/or information:

    “[In early adolescence] she becomes acutely aware of herself as a being perceived by others, judged by others, though she herself is the harshest judge, quick to list her physical flaws, quick to undervalue and under-rate herself not only in terms of physical appearance but across a wide range of talents, capacities and even social status, whereas boys of the same age will cite their abilities, their talents and their social status pretty accurately.”
    —Terri Apter (20th century)

    “Prosperous farmers mean more employment, more prosperity for the workers and the business men of ... every industrial area in the whole country.”
    —Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)

    “I am the very pattern of a modern Major-Gineral,
    I’ve information vegetable, animal, and mineral;
    I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical,
    From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical;”
    —Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (1836–1911)