NCSA Web Update

NCSA HTTPd Server
Software Released
The Software Development Group released the latest version of the NCSA HTTPd server software in November 1995. Version 1.5 of the popular Web server software was a major rewrite of the code and includes multiple directory indexes, enhanced access control, internal image map support, Kerberos authentication, and virtual host support (for either multiple servers or a single server with multiple IP addresses). The documentation is also updated.

Setup is now even easier with the new "OneStep Downloader" page that walks a webmaster through the seven basic directives needed to configure a server for a site. Additional customization of the server daemon can take place after the initial set-up.

NCSA makes PC Magazine's
Top 100 List
NCSA was named as a top 100 Web site by PC Magazine in December 1995. NCSA was named in the Internet Resources category. The online blurb about the center's Web server calls NCSA a "veteran site [that] has always been a hub for Internet resources." www.ncsa.uiuc.edu is cited for supplying Internet pointers, industry publications, multimedia exhibits, and "myriad" Internet software, including NCSA Mosaic.

The editors are looking for nominations for top sites -- maybe your server would qualify!

NCSA Web Server Software Popular
Each year, Netcraft -- a United Kingdom-based company -- conducts a survey to determine what Web server software is being used on Internet-connected computers. Their November 1995 survey of more that 31,500 servers revealed that NCSA HTTPd software is used more frequently than similar software produced by other Internet software providers.

The NCSA HTTPd software is used by more than 14,000 servers -- 45% of all servers surveyed. NCSA's software commands a large market share for servers in the .gov domain (government) with almost 70% of the servers. NCSA HTTPd has 60% of the education domain (.edu) and 40% of the commercial (.com) market.

Vive la Web!
The Fifth International WWW Conference will be held May 6-11 at CNIT-Paris La Defense, located on the western side of Paris, France. A forum for discussion and dissemination of advances in Web technology, the conference was most recently held in Boston (December 1995). Heightened interest in the Web upped participant numbers from 382 at the first meeting at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland (May 1994) to nearly 3,000 nineteen months later in Boston. Each conference since the first has been "sold out" long before the registration deadline.

Innovations and new software for the Web are presented in technical papers and often become the processes used for organization and coordination of the conference itself. Examples of new Web technology that is now standard fare for the conference preparation include online paper review, registration, an online survey, and M-BONE live video over the Net.

The Web conferences will become annual events (rather than biannual) beginning in the spring of 1997, primarily due to the additional planning time needed because of the phenomenal increase in attendance. The site of the 1997 conference will be announced in February.

The recent World Wide Web conference in Boston was the site of the innaugural presentation of the SoftQuad Web Award honoring someone "whose vision and work helped make the Web Possible." The 1995 honor was bestowed upon Dr. Douglas C. Engelbart, the inventor of the graphical user interface, shared-screen teleconferencing, context-sensitive help, and the now-ubiquitous mouse. The biographical statement distributed about Engelbart notes that he "anticipated and helped shape the computing environment in which we live and work and continues to offer direction, particularly in the area of the World Wide Web -- the most visible manifestation of his vision."

Engelbart (seated middle) is shown signing copies of Boosting Our Collective IQ, selected readings from his more than thirty-year career in organizational computing. Also signing copies is Tim Berners-Lee (seated left), the author of HTML. Looking on is the late Yuri Rubinsky, sponsor of the SoftQuad Web Award and a member of the World Wide Web Conference Committee. (Rubinsky, a writer, publisher, and software developer, died suddenly in January.) NCSA's Barbara Kucera (seated right), also a member of the conference committee, numbers the signed copies that will be sold to raise funds for the Bootstrap Institute founded by Engelbart. To order a copy, send email to info@bootstrap.org or call Mary at (510) 713-3550.