Internet Standards/CD1.mdf/INET/IETF/ISN/95APR.MIN

Text File | 1995-06-26 | 7.2 KB | 169 lines

CURRENT_MEETING_REPORT_


Reported by Jennifer Sellers/NASA IITA - Sterling Software and
Jodi Ito/University of Hawaii

Minutes of the Internet School Networking Working Group (ISN)


First Session - 4 April 1995


The minutes of the first session were submitted by ISN co-Chairs
Jennifer Sellers and Jodi Ito, based on excellent notes taken by Pat
Smith.

Following the usual custom of ISN meetings, the participants introduced
themselves and explained their interest in ISN.

It was noted that the ISN mailing list has moved.  The new address for
subscribing is [e-mail] (subscribe isn-wg <optional e-mail
address>) and the address for posting is [e-mail].


Document Repository Project


The first order of business was a discussion of the document repository
project.  The repository is in place at www.lloyd.com and is ready to be
populated with documents on the technical issues related to helping
schools get on-line.  Two documents were suggested for inclusion, one a
United States survey on telecommunications in K-12 US schools, and one
entitled ``Stages of Internet Connectivity for School Networking'':


     http://info.ckp.edu/publications/articles/stages/stages.html


The group discussed its responsibility for the repository and agreed
that the volunteers who have agreed to maintain the data (i.e., check to
ensure that documents are current and links are correct) should keep
that responsibility, while the group's milestone would be to issue an
FYI RFC announcing the location, nature, general contents, and how to
contribute to the repository.  A draft of this FYI will be ready by the
time of the Stockholm meeting.  The group will also investigate the
possibility of having a gopher and/or e-mail server with search
capabilities to facilitate access by those that do not have sufficient
Internet access.



K-12 Directory Project

The next item was a discussion of the K-12 Directory project.  The group
will iterate, via the mailing list, the fields considered best for the
directory template.  InterNIC staff will do their best to map the fields
to those available in existing implementations, possibly X.500.  When
that outcome is posted to the list, we will contact CoSN and ask if it
looks as if the proposed information to be gathered will meet their
needs and to get their input before proceeding.  In addition, an item
was added to Wednesday night's ISN session with educators to get input
from them as to whether a directory of people or one of projects would
be more useful.

In the short term, the group will use the InterNIC's Directory of
Directories as a starting point to begin collecting project information.
That directory includes an Education Directory.  We will get the
template and post it to the mailing list for group input, and some
members will get input from educators with whom they work.  Then we will
post the template to a number of education mailing lists, soliciting
contributions to the database.


FYI 22 -- FAQ for Schools

The group discussed FYI 22 (RFC 1578), a document of Frequently Asked
Questions for schools.  The document will be updated, and a draft is
planned for the Stockholm meeting.  There are some questions to be
resolved, the most important of which is, ``Is there anything out there
which supplants this document and makes an update unnecessary?''  Some
discussion ensued about what should be added or changed in the document;
the group gave good feedback.  It was suggested that we take the list of
questions to the Wednesday night ISN session to get feedback from
educators, so that item was added to the agenda.  Any further comments
on the FAQ document -- and further comments are most welcome!  -- should
be directed to Jennifer Sellers [e-mail] and Julie
Robichaux [e-mail].


Milestones Review

The group reviewed the milestones in the charter, which will be updated
to reflect work that has been completed and include the new milestones
that the group agreed on.  The new charter will be posted to the ISN
list and placed in the proper repositories.


Agenda for Next Session

Finally, the group drafted a short agenda for Wednesday night's ISN
session, which a number of local educators are expected to attend.  The
meeting was then adjourned.


Second Session -- 5 April 1995

Minutes of the second session were submitted by ISN co-Chairs Jodi Ito
and Jennifer Sellers, based on excellent notes taken by Ed Klein.

This second meeting of the ISN Working Group was convened with local
educators invited to attend and get their feedback on current ISN
projects.  The evening began with introductions around the room,
approximately twenty people giving a brief explanation of their reasons
for attending.

User Services Area Director Joyce Reynolds then gave an overview of the
IETF and the USV area, explaining our history and function.

Co-chair Jodi Ito followed with a summary of current ISN projects,
including the Document Repository, the Directory (person/projects)
Project, and the FYI 22 update.

Co-chair Jennifer Sellers discussed the RFCs that ISN has put out, and
explained how to access them, then proceeded to discuss the FYI 22
update, handing out a list of the questions posed in the current FYI to
help solicit feedback.


Discussion

A discussion of the Directory project followed, bringing out much useful
feedback from educators.  There seemed to be a rough consensus that
project information would be more useful than people information if only
one were possible, but that some kind of cross-linked service would be
optimal.

There is a yellow-pages of projects that already exists, and Jennifer
will try to identify who is in charge of it.  The InterNIC Directory of
Directories does part of the people-directory function already.

With respect to projects, there should be a field describing the
criteria for interaction.  (Do the current project leaders want new
sites involved, and if so, to what degree?).  A criteria is needed for
what projects go into the database (even if those criteria are
``anything that anyone wants to put in it''), as well as some aging
scheme so that out-of-date information gets culled out.  We need to
ensure that the database is searchable based on geographical location,
and that the following information is available:  grade level, language,
computer hardware/software used, subject (math, science, etc.), type and
speed of connectivity (14.4 dialup, dedicated T1, etc.), size of
organization, type of organization (public, private, religious
affiliation, etc.), start date/end date, participant criteria,
content/methods of access, and status (complete, planned, operational).
The next item of discussion was the repository of documents to help
schools and service providers in getting the schools on-line.  The
groups' comments on the document repository project reiterated the need
to have the information available via gopher and e-mail (in addition to
WWW) and to have the documents searchable.

The group then discussed FYI 22, soliciting possible additional
questions for the document to address.  A question and answer pair along
the lines of, ``Why don't things always work?''  was suggested, as an
effort to promote more realistic expectations for new users.  The group
also recommended that a section on the Web needs to be included.

The meeting was adjourned.