MSUinfo available on the World Wide Web

The World Wide Web is a distributed system of information servers. Users view hypertext "pages" with embedded references to other information. By "clicking" or otherwise activating "hot spots" in the hypertext, the user retrieves more information — be it text, pictures, sounds, or even video.

Even though the World Wide Web is a young and rapidly developing information service, Mississippi State has several WWW servers on campus. All can be accessed from a central point referred to as the university's "front-door page," which is actually on a computer operated by the Computing Center.

From the "front-door page" one can access information published by some colleges, departments and administrative units which operate WWW servers or publish "pages" from a Computing Center computer. There are links to WWW servers run by centers and institutions affiliated with Mississippi State and by other universities in Mississippi. From the "front-door page" one can also connect to other information resources at Mississippi State, such as the campus Gopher server, as well as to WWW servers around the world. There is also a connection to the Online Campus Directory.

Probably the richest source of information about Mississippi State on the World Wide Web, however, is MSUinfo, the university's three-year old computer-based information system. MSUinfo, which is operated by the Department of University Relations, is accessed from the "front-door page" by activating "General Information about Mississippi State University."

MSUinfo is available to any of the estimated 20 million users of the global Internet, including local users connected to the campus network or who dial in to RA/Isis/Nova. Its database contains about 50 million characters of text, pictures, maps, and even sounds, and is growing rapidly.

Information found there includes the university catalog; most of the university's policies and procedures; the Alumnus magazine complete with pictures; each issue of MSU Memo; athletic schedules; documents relating to the Ayers vs. Fordice case; the Homecoming schedule; a calendar of events; announcements; directories, such as a list of faculty members and their areas of expertise; and the list of standing committies; and current campus job openings.

One of the most interesting features of the World Wide Web is the ability to include sounds. For instance, a user can call up a picture of the Chapel in MSUinfo, read a discription of it, and actually hear the carillon chiming the noon hour, complete with mockingbird in the background. There is also a sound bite in MSUinfo of the first moments of life of WMSV, the campus radio station, as it went on the air for the first time March 21, 1994. Of course, to hear the sounds you must have a computer which has the capability of playing them.

To tap in to MSUinfo and other information about the university, use a WWW browser such as Mosaic, Cello, or Lynx to access the Universal Resource Locator "http://www.msstate.edu/." To go directly to MSUinfo, use the URL "http://msuinfo.ur.msstate.edu/msuinfo.htm."

Faculty and staff who have accounts on Ra/Isis/Nova can simply give the command "lynx http://www.msstate.edu/." For the same data presented with a very simple interface, give the command "www."