Letter from SilverPlatter

[Kimberly Parker <kimberly.parker@yale.edu>]

I received a letter dated 31 Dec 1998 from SilverPlatter outlining their
new policy for support of SP technology.  Most of the information does NOT
apply to Yale, since we don't have any SilverPlatter local servers, but
access our networked databases remotely or via CD-ROM.  However, there is
a germ in there I think we need to know and keep our eye on.

The essence of the letter is that SilverPlatter intends to have two
categories of technology which will be supported in different ways.
Category A is the newest version of things, and will be supported at the
highest levels.  Category B is the prior version of technology and gets a
little less support.  (no further development work or bug fixes).

The key to note is that they are now talking that prior versions of
software may cease to be supported even at Category B levels after 1 year.

Why we shouldn't worry immediately about our remote access:

They provided me with a chart of what currently falls into Category A and
Category B.  (If anyone wants a copy I can send).  On this chart, they
specifically make an exception for WebSpirs 3.1 (our non-JAVA URLs) in
that although it is in Category B, they have no plans to drop support
altogether at the end of a year. 

Those of you who maintain CD ROMs for SilverPlatter databases, also
shouldn't worry too much, since you should get latest versions with your
CDs, and keeping old versions of WinSpirs and Mac Spirs isn't too much of
an option.

Anyway, I wanted you to be aware of this trend at SilverPlatter in case at
some point in the future they say they are dropping support for the "old"
version of Web access and will only support the Java (or newer technology)
versions.

--Kim
kimberly.parker@yale.edu
2-0067