THE INTERNET PILOT TO PHYSICS - AN OPEN INFORMATION-SYSTEM FOR PHYSICS RESEARCH AND EDUCATION

In this article we discuss the effort made by the Internet Pilot to Ph ysics (TIPTOP) project to develop a uniform and open information infra structure for physics research and education. We discuss concepts such as communication in research and education, the importance of distrib uted indexing and catalogs, and briefly the use of new technology such as VRML and Java. We also stress the importance of developing and usi ng standardized protocols and formats such as the Summary Object Inter changeable Format (SOIF) and Thematic Uniform Resource Agents (TURA). TIPTOP has rapidly grown to be one of the most popular physics Interne t knowledge servers, and the recently established collaboration with t he European Physical Society is an important step forward in developin g a stable framework of high quality information for researchers and e ducators.