Easy-to-grow Design

Start simple, add functions as needed:

Index and Search local files
- Stand-alone search of files, e-mail boxes, or other "documents" in the file system of the computer where it is installed
- Indexer can generate a GILS locator record for each "document"
Index and Search remote sites
- "Web crawler" collects URL's on remote sites
- Indexed contents of URL's can be searched centrally,
  and/or
- Generated GILS Summary Locator Records can be used for search referral or distributed search
Single Information Community
- Locator Records describe Participants as well as Web site contents
- ASF enables search throughout the Information Community
- A "Fallback" holds locator records for all ASF servers in the Information Community
Multiple Information Communities
- Any ASF server may participate in any number of Information Communities
- Search multiple information communities
- Distributed search across information communities
- Centralized search within an information community
- Referral to separate search within an information community