+
+ <para>
+ Index Data continues to advocate the support of open standards. We
+ work with database vendors to support standards, so you don't have
+ to worry about programming against non-standard services. We also
+ provide tools (see <ulink
+ url="http://www.indexdata.com/simpleserver">SimpleServer</ulink>)
+ which make it comparatively easy to build gateways against servers
+ with non-standard behavior. Again, we encourage you to share any
+ work you do in this direction.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ But the bottom line is that working with non-standard resources in
+ metasearching is really, really hard. If you want to build a
+ project with pazpar2, and you need access to resources with
+ non-standard interfaces, we can help. We run gateways to more than
+ 2,000 popular, commercial databases and other resources, making it simple
+ to plug them directly into pazpar2. For a small annual fee per
+ database, we can help you establish connections to your licensed
+ resources. Meanwhile, you can help! If you build your own
+ standards-compliant gateways, host them for others, or share the
+ code! And tell your vendors that they can save everybody money and
+ increase the appeal of their resources by supporting standards.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ There are those who will ask us why we are using Z39.50 as our
+ switchboard langyage rather than a different protocol. Basically,
+ we believe that Z39.50 is presently the most widely implemented
+ information retrieval protocol that has the level of functionality
+ required to support a good metasearching experience (structured
+ searching, structured, well-defined results). It is also compact and
+ efficient, and there is a very broad range of tools available to
+ implement it.
+ </para>