Internet Info 1997 December/Internet_Info_CD-ROM_Walnut_Creek_December_1997.iso/ietf/95apr/area.userservices.95apr.txt

Text File | 1995-05-26 | 12KB | 280 lines

User Services Area

Director:


   o Joyce K. Reynolds:  [e-mail]


Area Summary reported by Joyce Reyolds/Information Sciences Institute

Eight active working groups and one BOF (ARTS) were held in the User
Services Area (USV) of the IETF in Danvers, Massachusetts.


The Arts:  Sharing Center Stage on the Internet BOF (ARTS)

The group identified three goals to be pursued as a working group.  The
first goal is development of a FAQ regarding value and role of the arts
in the Internet.  Tasks for this include development of a document
summarizing current issues regarding the arts community Internet with an
accompanying survey designed to identify needs and concerns from the
arts and humanities community.  Survey results will be used to develop
the FAQ.

The second goal is to define tools for artists' organizations on the
Internet which will focus on creating, viewing and storage formats for
arts humanities resources.  This will include contributions regarding
text, sound, still and motion images.  It will address different
operating systems, a glossary of basic terminology, and a bibliography.
The third goal is to further define issues surrounding copyright and
intellectual property, funding, and other support for arts humanities
participation and any other needs identified by the survey.  A draft of
the summary document and survey will be prepared and presented at the
next IETF meeting in Stockholm.


Integrated Directory Services Working Group (IDS)

The main aim of this meeting was to focus on the existing charter to
either assign timescales to work items or to drop them.  Work on the
X.500 implementations catalogue is progressing and a version will be
available on the Web by May.  The WHOIS++ catalogue has been promised
for April.  A number of items were deemed beyond their sell-by date and
have been dropped.  A decision will be made on whether to pursue the
privacy and legal issues in the next month and a revised charter will be
circulated to the mailing list for comment and discussion.

It was suggested that the following new items be added to the list of
work items:


   o CCSO system documentation
   o CCSO to X.500 gateway
   o Core Internet X.500 schema
   o Evaluation of existing directory services with reference to WHIP


All work items have been assigned and timescales have been agreed.

The liaison reports indicated progress in the current directory service
pilot projects.


Integration of Internet Information Resources Working Group (IIIR)

With the resignation of both chairs (Kevin Gamiel at the San Jose IETF
and Chris Weider at the Danvers IETF), the IIIR Working Group has
formally closed.  The only outstanding item,
draft-ietf-iiir-publishing-03.txt, will be moved into another
appropriate group.


Internet School Networking Working Group (ISN)

The first few minutes of the session was spent having everyone introduce
themselves and describe their interests in K-12 networking.  Next on the
agenda was the status and discussion of the document repository project.
The webserver is located at http://www.lloyd.com and is ready to house
documents or pointers to documents which will be of use to schools
getting connected.  Two documents were identified by the group to be
included in the repository:  Hastings and Carlitz's ``Stages of Internet
Connectivity for School Networking'' and the US DOE survey on
telecommunications for K-12 schools.  The group also noted that the
inclusion of a gopher and e-mail server with search capabilities would
be useful.  A draft FYI RFC announcing and describing the repository
will be written by the Stockholm IETF. Additionally, it was noted that a
review of the COSN gopher to avoid duplication of efforts should be
done.

The next item on the agenda was the status and discussion of the K-12
white pages project.  Since the last IETF, no progress has been made.
There was some discussion as to the scope of the project -- whether it
should be a combined people and project directory or if it should be two
projects.  That question would be put forth to educators at the
Wednesday evening session.  A list of data elements will be circulated
on the mailing list for feedback and then forwarded to InterNIC
directory services to determine if the fields can be mapped to X.500.
Additionally, the group will investigate using the existing directory
services for K-12 projects by first reviewing the current directory
service template.

The next item on the agenda was the update of RFC 1578 (FYI 22).  It was
mentioned that the document should reference the Hastings and Carlitz's
document ``Stages of Internet Connectivity for School Networking'' and
that definitions for connectivity types should be added.  Any other
feedback would be welcomed by Jennifer Sellers and Julie Robichaux.  A
draft revision will be completed by the Stockholm IETF.

The charter will be updated to reflect the completion of several
milestones and the inclusion of a few new ones.  Lastly, the group
drafted an agenda for Wednesday night's session with local educators.

The second meeting of the ISN Working Group was convened with local
educators invited to attend and give their feedback on current ISN
projects.  The first few minutes was spent in the traditional ISN
tradition -- going around the room and having each attendee introduce
themselves and describe their interest in ISN.

Joyce Reynolds then gave a general overview of the IETF organization
and, specifically, the USV area of the IETF.

Next on the agenda, the co-chairs gave short descriptions of the current
ISN projects:  the document repository, people/project directory and
update of FYI 22.  This was followed by more detailed discussion of each
project which gave the attendees an opportunity to comment and provide
input on the various projects.

The group had several comments on the update of FYI 22.  There was a
significant discussion that the FYI should ``give realistic
expectations'' of the Internet (busy hosts/networks, unable to locate
host, etc.).  Questions along the lines of:  ``Why can't I get to X?''
and ``What am I doing wrong?''  should be added.  The group also
strongly recommended that a section on the Web needs to be included.

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.

Discussions on the directory project were focused around the question:
Which of the two would be more useful - a ``people'' directory or a
``project'' directory?  The general consensus of the group was a
``project'' directory.  The group also started identifying data elements
of the project directory.  The complete list will be circulated back to
the group for comments.



Network Information Services Infrastructure Working Group (NISI)


Due to travel schedule conflicts for the working group chair, NISI did
not meet in Danvers.  This working group will meet at the Stockholm IETF
this coming July 1995.



Network Training Materials Working Group (TRAINMAT)

The key items to be discussed were the catalogue of network training
materials, review of available training materials, and using the network
to deliver training.

Discussion of the catalogue included extensive review of the template
fields:  addition of new fields, changing the names of existing fields,
and categorization standards for various fields like country and
languages.  The group reached consensus on the proposed field changes
and additions.

The entries in the catalogue needed to be reviewed for quality and
currency.  Several people volunteered to review ``chunks'' of the
catalogue.  Summaries will be sent to the list.  The group did note that
many templates were not completely filled out and pointed out the need
for an automated template verification process -- upon submission, the
template would be scanned automatically to ensure that key fields are
completed.  Additionally, it was noted that ``searchable'' fields should
have the contents of it ordered with the most significant bit of
information first followed by the next most significant bit of info
(i.e., last name, first name).

The Catalogue of Training Materials is available via the Web from:


   o University of Adelaide
     http://coolabah.itd.adelaide.edu.au/TrainMat/catalogue.html

   o MidNet
     http://www.mid.net/TRAINMAT


It was noted that pointers to the catalogue should be created from the
USV-Web.

The last item on the agenda was general discussion on using the network
to deliver training.  Several people mentioned using the Web to deliver
training which illustrated the need to to have ``states'' incorporated
into the httpd protocol.  Additionally, Jill is working on having
PowerPoint registered as a MIME file type.  Jill also mentioned that
Joyce has been working on getting a time slot allocated on the MBONE to
experiment with broadcasting training over the MBONE. Details of the
various projects will be posted in the TRAINMAT Working Group minutes.


Responsible Use of the Network Working Group (RUN)

The RUN Working Group met to review the first pass draft of the
Netiquette Guide.  There were a few general format comments followed by
a complete review of the two sections of the draft which had been posted
to the group's discussion list.  The group then worked on the
Introduction and Information Services sections in real-time.

Participants came up with enough material that the new draft (which
should be ready later this month) may be posted as an Internet-Draft.
After a round of review by e-mail, there should be approval of the final
Internet-Draft in Stockholm.


Site Security Handbook Working Group (SSH)

The SSH Working Group met twice during this IETF. During these two
meetings, the group agreed on a detailed outline for the system/network
administrators document.  The group also reviewed material developed by
several people and then worked on describing the content for the
remaining sections.  The group plans to have an Internet-Draft by May 1,
and a second one before the Stockholm IETF meeting.  All in all, the two
working group sessions were very productive.


Uniform Resource Identifiers Working Group (URI)

Two URI Working Group sessions were held in Danvers.  Session one
included a presentation on URAs (Uniform Resource Agents), and a round
robin URN-Fest to summarize current proposed URN schemes.

Session two initiated reviews and attendee feedback of the following URI
Internet Drafts:


     draft-ietf-uri-relative-url-06.txt
     draft-ietf-ietf-uri-url-irp-02.txt
     draft-ietf-uri-url-finger-02.txt
     draft-ietf-uri-url-mailserver-01.txt


URC Scenarios and Requirements were presented for discussion by Ron
Daniel and Michael Mealling.  The authors are seeking feedback
concerning the minor modifications made of the draft document.  The
remainder of this session was devoted to continued discussion of five
proposed URL schemes and associated issues.  A URN Scheme Bake Off is
proposed for the Stockholm IETF (or failing that, the Dallas IETF).


User Services Working Group (USWG)

Opening introductions of USWG attendees and a report on IETF User
Services Area activities initiated this session.  Joyce Reynolds
provided a report on the IETF USV Area presentations at the
Interop+Networld95 convention in Las Vegas, Nevada in March and at the
RIPE meetings in Amsterdam, The Netherlands last January.

Jill Foster provided a liaison report on current TERENA ISUS proposals
and activities.

The INET95 ``User Track'' conference sessions have been finalized and
were presented to the USWG members.  INET95 will be meeting the week of
June 26th in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Progress/Discussion of USWG projects included the USV-WEB (by Debbie
Hamilton, InterNIC), USV-HTML (by Janet L. Marcisak, FTP Software), and
by JKRey regarding USV-TV. In the last 30 minutes of the session, there
was discussion on updates of two FYI RFC documents:


   o FYI 16, RFC 1359 -- ``Connecting to the Internet:  What Connecting
     Institutions Should Anticipate''

   o FYI 3, RFC 1175 -- ``FYI on Where to Start:  A Bibliography of
     Internetworking Information''