Something somebody sent me...very 9P'ish ;) Somebody on the Cypherpunks
list the other day was asking about how to build anonymous search engines
and such. 9P being a perfect answer...with a little work.

> Let's finish building out the Net's directory
>   Whether we like it or not Google has become the Microsoft of search — in the sense that they now have a monopoly on the business. Who would even bother to compete at this point? Not even Microsoft.
>   It's a good thing that Google remains a caring steward of the Internet superstructure they provide for us all. But it's not good for all of us to have this much dependency on one company, no matter how nice that company is.
>   Although we regard it that way in a de facto sense, what Google does isn't Net infrastructure, which is stuff 1) Nobody owns, 2) Everybody can use, and 3) Anybody can improve. They only meet the second criterion.
>   So let's take some of the infrastructural burden off Google, and start thinking about the infrastructural ideals we've ignored while we've watched Google do such a good job in their absence.
>   The Net currently conceives its directory no deeper than the top DNS level. Everything to the right of that first / is a free-for-all. All of us have our own schemas, and most of the interesting ones change all the time. So do the contents at each directory level. What's in each directory should be knowable and searchable, if the author wants it to be — and not knowable or searchable if the author doesn't want it to be.
>   Think of the Net's complete directory as a dynamic public library that is deeply part of the Net's infrastructure.
>   I want a public card catalog that knows the schema of this site, and is informed (by me, automatically) when I post this item, and that reflects the new facts immediately and automatically. Then I want it to automatically notify search engines like Google, which can then go crawl and archive the contents for listing in their own privately owned but publicly exposed readers guides.
>   As for the licensing issues, I think this system needs to respect intentions expressed by authors through tools like those recommended by Creative Commons.
>   This all seems very do-able to me.
>   And now I want Craig, who has forgotten more about directory issues than I'll ever know, to come in and tell me how it will or won't work. (I've gotta draw him back into blogging somehow.)
>   The rest of you, too. What do you think?

http://doc.weblogs.com/2002/11/06#letsFinishBuildingOutTheNetsDirectory


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    We don't see things as they are,                      ravage@ssz.com
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