Figure 8.1 An integrated community support system on the Internet
The mail archives are made available through FTP, and they are also automatically converted to HTML format to allow them to be browsed easily through World-Wide Web. Figure 8.2 shows the archives of the www-talk list server converted to HTML and indexed by topic using the conversion program hypermail. The FTP server gives access to all the archives, allowing new HTML documents to be uploaded to maintain the World-Wide Web facilities.
Figure 8.2 Archives of a list server converted and accessed through World-Wide Web
One consideration in setting up the system shown in Figure 8.1 that has not been discussed so far is that of security. Is the system to be accessible to all those who have access to the Internet, or does the community require privacy? It is possible to set up list servers so that they are moderated and access is controlled by the moderator. It is possible to set up ftp sites so that access requires a password. It is possible to set up World-Wide Web servers so that access requires authentication and documents are transmitted in an encrypted form that requires a password to decrypt. To manage security effectively requires a skilled Unix system adminstrator aware of the many problems that can arise in security on the Internet and of the techniques to overcome them. It also involves the user community in a greater effort to maintain secure passwords. Fortunately many communities are either open, or do not have major concerns about privacy, and can operate in a simple mode not requiring significant attention to security other than to ensure that archives cannot be accidentally erased or deliberately vandalized.