There are a number of repositories of software and data of interest
to biologists available via network access. A few (like bionet.bio.net)
have a lot of stuff, some (like the one I run) have just a few things. None
(that I know of) has absolutely everything. I think it would be A Good
Thing if there was a comprehensive list of such archive sites.
So, what I'm proposing is that everybody who runs an archive site
send me a description of their archive. I'll leave it pretty much up to you
to decide what format that description should be, but for starters I think
it should include some indication of what's in the archive, how to access
it, and who to contact for more information. Be as detailed or cursory as
you feel appropriate. I'll gather all these descriptions into one file and
mail it back to everybody who submitted something to me.
The idea is that we should all then include the resulting "who's who
in biological software archives" listing file in our own archives. That way
if somebody looks in one archive but doesn't find what they need, at least
they can find a pointer to other places they might try browsing; all they
need to know to get started is how to access any one of the archive sites in
the directory. Participation is, of course, strictly voluntary, and the
idea is based on the (hopefully correct!) assumption that the various
archive sites are all willing to cooperate, rather than compete, with each
other.
I'm trying to reach as many sites as possible, not just those on the
Internet. I would appreciate it if you would bring this note to the
attention of anybody who you think might be interested but might not have
seen it.
--
Roy Smith, Public Health Research Institute
455 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016
roy at alanine.phri.nyu.edu -OR- {att,cmcl2,rutgers,hombre}!phri!roy
"Arcane? Did you say arcane? It wouldn't be Unix if it wasn't arcane!"
