User talk:Edward Zimmermann

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Isearch
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For information on how to contribute to Wikipedia when you have conflict of interest, please see Business' FAQ. For more details about what constitutes a conflict of interest, please see Conflict of Interest. ''I'm presuming you're the same Edward Zimmerman mentioned here. You might have a conflict regarding this article.'' Zim Zala Bim  talk  23:17, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

BELOW is a dup of what I wrote on your talk page--- not sure where it belongs..

Isearch
Hi,.. Yes I'm the same Edward Zimmermann that worked on a number of projects from WAIS, freeWAIS, Isite/Isearch, Z39.50/ISO2390/SRW, GILS/ASF, WWW (I wrote the first MAIL2HTML program, see the W3C history at their site), wxWindows, wxPython, SWIG etc. etc. forward and back even the early days of the ARPAnet (I did the first distributed computing model back in the early 1970s), I started one of the first commercial Internet services companies in Germany... etc etc. etc. Conflict of interest when I write? I have different hats. I've also written as a journalist (mainly for fun but the list has included magazines and first league newspapers like "Business Computing", "Frankurter Allgemeine Zeitung", "Handlesblatt", "Computerwoche", "Fokus" and many others) on a series of topics that I've been "close to". Being close puts me into a better seat to view events and report on them and not on propaganda or hear-say. I like to view things as part of a bigger picture and I'm crazy enough to seek the truth. Is/was Isearch significant? I think so NOT just because it carries some of my code genes but it carries some of my genes because I considered it significant. I left the public "open source" side back in the 1990s. During that time 100s of U.S. Federal and State organizations deployed the technology. Among the Federal Geospatial Clearinghouse there are still nearly 400 servers running the public code: see http://clearinghouse3.fgdc.gov/ That work is support by Archie Warnock. Do I know him. I've not talked to him for many years and the last time I saw him was nearly 10 years ago at a European Science Foundation Workshop (covering Isearch applied to Astrophysics) in Northern Ireland but I do, of course, know him.. Back to Isearch.. 100s of articles were written about or mentioning Isearch in not just the popular computer press but also academic literature. I'd like to fill out the Isearch page.. do an Isite page and also fill out the WAIS page (which is very weak and horribly biased against anything non-Web and not realizing that WAIS was Z39.50 over TCP/IP and is currently the standard protocol of nearly all library information systems).. etc. These all all tied in GILS (Government Information Locator Service which was mandated for all U.S. Federal Agencies up until 2005) which was based on Z39.50, inspired by WAIS and used Isite/Isearch as reference platform.. Its a small world.. I think I must know everyone in that one..

Edward Zimmermann (talk) 01:35, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

I'm committed to being "neutral". I see no conflict of interest. Did I mention that Netscape Open Directory too was based on Isearch--- it started off as NewHoo... that's another interesting story..... Just checked the Wikipedia entry: "The ODPSearch software is a derivative version of Isearch and is open source, licensed under the Mozilla Public License." So another link.. More to do.. Is is OK? Or should I dump the project?

Edward Zimmermann (talk) 01:47, 18 November 2007 (UTC)