old sequences

[Michael Somos]

Dear SeqFans,

     I seem to have started a popular thread. Some very good
suggestions have come out of it so far. Someone might want to
summarize it for us. Some of this involves work by contributors.
Some of this involves work by Neil. Some of this involves work
by computer automated code on the server. The critical path seems
to be Neil. He is faced with a great deal of time-consuming work.
     I am also interested in answering the questions "What is a
sequence?" and "How should a sequence database work?". The first
question is abstract and philosphical. The second is practical,
yet depends on the first. That is, one can't have a sequence
database without a working definition of a sequence. This may
evolve over time based on experience with database operations.
     In my opinion, there is no simple answer to the questions.
Despite this, Neil has managed to sustain his project over many
years up to now. However, the EIS can't be "all things to all
people". There will be disagreements over greater and lesser
details. Neil has the final say about EIS. However, there is a
limit to what one person can do unaided.
     I am concerned about the workload that maintaining the EIS
involves. It reminds me of the evolution of the Domain Name
registration system. It was run by Network Solutions alone up
until last year. Now there are competing registrars. Of course,
these are for profit corporations. However, the model evolved
over time to meet increased demands.
     One distinction mentioned a few times is between "core" and
non-core sequences. There are only a few thousand of these and it
may be worth it to distinquish them more clearly in the operation
of EIS. That way, the impact of the tens of thousands of other
sequences would not dilute the core. A resived print version of
EIS may include only the designated core. Shalom, Michael

-- 
Michael Somos <somos at grail.cba.csuohio.edu>     Cleveland State University
http://grail.cba.csuohio.edu/~somos/            Cleveland, Ohio, USA 44115