00100	NOTES ON PROPOSED PROPOSAL FOR SUPPORT OF RESEARCH IN COMPUTER SERVICES
00200	
00300	
00400		The idea is to get some support for programming a lot of useful
00500	services on the Stanford AI computer.  I don't yet have a complete
00600	picture of the services we might produce, but the following are
00700	possibilities:
00800	
00900		1. News service.  Like MIT, we would put the AP wire into the
01000	computer, but unlike them, we would allow a user to locate stories on
01100	topics of interest to him.
01200	
01300		2. Buying and what's on service.  We would hire one person to
01400	find, select, and enter information useful to consumers like sales,
01500	movie, comparative pricing, etc.
01600	Besides our own consoles, we would make this infor accessible from public
01700	consoles in Tressider and at one of the Co-op supermarkets.
01800	
01900		3. Semi-permanent useful information would also be made available.
02000	Comments on the quality etc. of services would be allowed, and the stores
02100	commented on could answer complaints as they chose.
02200	
02300		4. The National Science Foundation RANN (Resarch Applied to National
02400	Needs should have first crack at supporting this proposal).
02500	
02600		5. A small number of consoles should be put in homes.  Some of these
02700	consoles should go into the homes of non-computer people to see if the
02800	services are useful to unsophisticated users.  The ultimate test will
02900	be whether they are willing to pay a reasonable rental for the service.
03000	This suggests that some of the initial guinea pigs should be people at
03100	a rather high income level.
03200	
03300		6. Some kind of children's educational toy should be included.
03400	
03500		7. A large amount of system hacking will be supported including
03600	lookup programs, file maintenance for useful files, etc.
03700	
03800		8. We will make a special effort to import programs and services
03900	written elsewhere so as to develop our ideas about what is required to
04000	make on-line services portable from one time-sharing system to another.
04100	We shall try to develop standards for user interaction and system calls
04200	and file reference that will make it possible for services developed in
04300	one place to be used all over the country.  Query:  Does PL/I have standard
04400	human interaction, system call and file reference, and is it good enough?
04500	If not, and I believe not, such a language should be developed.
04600	
04700		9. If we can get enough money, we will develop good home consoles.
04800		10. In so far as we can now identify them, other technological
04900	problems relating to the public use of computers will be identified.
05000	
05100		11. Facilities for extracting information useful to students and
05200	faculty out of the Stanford Administrative computer will be developed.