I maintain the sci.econ.research FAQ. An html copy can be found at
<http://econwpa.wustl.edu/EconFAQ/EconFAQ.html>. Currently it lists
more than 400 resources, and it will soon (if not already) outgrow
the formats I use: html and ASCII. In short, as more an more items
are in it, information is getting harder and harder to find. It is
not terribly unlike putting a library card catalog in a book -- such
a form to such information is clearly less than optimal.
Thus, I'd like to move to some sort of database where users can
query for information. While I don't know the terms, something like
an on-line card catalog is what I have in mind, where one can search
under different parameters: author, title, subject, etc. In my case
the different parameters would be the type of topic, what sort of data
they offer, etc. Some of my mirros offer the capability of searching
the FAQ; while really appreciated, this is not ideal -- I might not
have used the term they are looking for, and there is no way of leading
the user to information through keywords. In on-line library card catalog
terms, it is like only having an option to search all fields and not
being able to search by author, subject, or title individually.
Plus, I could use the database for easier maintenance of the info --
could have a field of when I last updated the info on a given resource,
pull out the URLs for easy checking of changes there, pull out URLs,
title, and a short description and make a Yahoo like directory, etc.
I've looked around some, and all the solutions look to involve
substantial start-up costs. For instance, there are at least two web
interfaces to mini SQL <http://Hughes.com.au/product/msql/>, (SQL looks
to be a reasonable way to save the info). Yet, I'd have to learn SQL
(looks fairly easy) and a web interface (more work). I've also looked
at Microsoft solutions, and they seem to have the same learning curve
(and $ too). I'd suspect the Netscape has a solution as well. Yet, I
really favor freely available tools. Plus, and perhaps more importantly,
there are concepts I need to learn to avoid making mistakes.
Thus, does anybody have thoughts on how to do this?
Bill
--
.---. Bill Goffe bgoffe@whale.st.usm.edu
( | Dept. of Econ. and International Business office: (601) 266-4484
)__*| University of Southern Mississippi fax: (601) 266-4920
(_| Southern Station, Box 5072
Hattiesburg, MS 39406-5072
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