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Editor's Note: These minutes have not been edited.
User Services Working Group Minutes
IETF - Memphis, Tennessee
Monday, April 7th, 1300-1500
Chair: Joyce K. Reynolds/ISI (jkrey@isi.edu)
Subscription/Unsubscription requests for the USWG email list
should be sent to uswg-request@isi.edu.
First on the agenda was a report on IETF User Services Area
activities. The following working groups and one BOF in the USV Area
met at this IETF: HARTS, ISN, ISNII BOF, RUN, SSH, IDS, STDGUIDE, and
USWG.
The related USV Area I-Ds and FYI RFCs include:
draft-ietf-run-spew-00.txt
draft-ietf-harts-guide-01.txt
draft-ietf-ssh-handbook-04.txt
draft-ietf-ssh-overview-00.txt
draft-ietf-ssh-users-00.txt
draft-ietf-stdguide-ops-02.txt
RFCs-to-be (approved by IESG, currently in RFC-ED queue for
publication):
RFC-IDS-x500-IMPS
RFC-IDS-ROOT-NAMING
Next on the agenda were the reports on related global liaison group
activities and international conferences
The InterNIC report was provided by Tom Newell and Susan Calcari.
Tom Newell (<tomn@internic.net>) presented an update to his InterNIC
endeavors. Patrick Crispen's ROADMAP96 is now available on the web
from the InterNIC. This Internet workshop has been extremely
successful, and the InterNIC is pleased to facilitate the distribution
of this popular tool for beginners. The InterNIC project called, the
15 Minute series is also proving itself successfully. This series
offers tools for the Internet trainer that are modular, extensible,
"15 minute" sessions on Internet-related topics. Tom is currently
working on the monthly InterNIC Electronic Newsletter. The next
installment will have an article and sidebars on the IETF, what's new
that is currently going on, including the user services area. Tom is
also working with Joyce on updating the User Services Area's web pages
that are being housed at the InterNIC, along with links to the IETF
web pages.
Susan Calcari (<scal@internic.net>) provided a report on NetScout.
NetScout is associated with the University of Wisconsin, with a staff
of 7, including folks that work on the net-happenings mailing list.
The Scout Toolkit was updated with a target to meeting an expressed
need from a focus group for additional summary and analysis
information about the scout tools. As noted at the last USWG session
in San Jose, cheat sheets for the major search engines and directories
have been created as handouts when providing training. These are
not being distributed as hardcopy, but there are PostScript and Adobe
pdf format available from the NetScout web page. The KIDS newsletter
that is being produced is successful. It is a newsletter on the
Internet by kids for kids. The publication target is every two weeks,
with four schools working on it (two in Madison, WI and two in
Boulder, CO).
The TERENA/IETF ETINU report was presented next. TERENA is the
Trans-European Research and Education Network Association. The TERENA
web page is located at http://www.terena.nl/
A newly formed group, called ETINU, is the "Environment To Inspire
Network Users". It is a joint effort of the TERENA Information
Services and User Support (ISUS) and the IETF User Services Area. Its
charter and focus is in developing a system to deliver enhanced user
support via the network.
Some of the objectives include:
o prioritise main issues related to user support today,
including: helpdesk queries, FAQs, software updates,
hardware fault reporting, documentation, online training
o discuss the pros and cons of online support as opposed to
conventional methods
o collate experiences of help desk software
o collect references to relevant papers, articles, web sites,
etc. and link them from a task force home page
o identify and evaluate any available online support systems
o identify the features of an ideal online support system
o build a pilot online support service which could act as a
model for many sites
o standardise appropriate elements of the pilot system via RFC
process
The leaders of this effort believe we should be supporting, inspiring,
and encouraging the user to make fuller use of the network to overcome
their difficulties AND also help others when possible.
To join, send an email message to:
mailserver@terena.nl
containing the text:
subscribe tf-etinu 'your real name'
replacing 'your real name' as appropriate.
An update on TERENA's ETINU Task Force activities were reported by
Christine Cahoon (<christine@unite.co.uk>) to Joyce Reynolds via email
the day after the USWG session. It is recorded here for the USWG's
information and comment.
In January at the UK UCTLIG (Universities and Colleges Teaching
Learning and Information Group) Workshop, "Technology to help
Advisors", at Bradford University, I gave a presentation on ETINU.
See: http://boris.qub.ac.uk/christine/etinu0197.ppt
The amount of positive feedback was very encouraging. It also helped
identify other systems for evaluation, such as Lotus Notes using a
Domino web server. It's commercial, but it looks very good and
comprehensive.
Following the January workshop we submitted a paper to JENC8 and it
was accepted. Also, we have just heard that the paper has been
accepted for INET97 as well.
See: http://www.terena.nl/jenc8/
Progressing Work
I feel that, generally, Computing Services staff are reluctant to get
too involved in developing a system because they are mostly under
resourced, stressed, and/or ill-managed. They prefer 'easy' solutions.
To 'get the best' from the ETINU list, we're planning to create a
simple online questionnaire containing brief snappy questions about
the issues below. This will at least give us some 'real' evidence
regarding what the consensus out there is on 'advanced user support'.
o respondent's role within organisation
o software used
o procedures used
o perceived need for change in current working practice
o is change needed in adopted technologies, people management
or both
o reaction to an online support system
o importance attached to developing a standard way of
providing online support
o providing keywords that summarise most important
requirements of user support today
More can be added -- will try and make it a point and click business
except for the keywords which should be freetext. Hopefully we can
spread it beyond the current ETINU list to increase the sample to
several hundred.
We believe the results will be very relevant to USWG and TERENA ISUS.
The last report was on INET97, the Internet Society's (ISOC) annual
conference that will be held in June 1997 in Malaysia. There is a "User
Track", with Mark Prior (Australia) and Joyce K. Reynolds (USA) as the
co-track leaders.
The User Track final sessions for INET97 include:
o Disabilities
o Using Technology
o Electronic Publishing
o Network Information Retrieval
o Community Networking
o Impact of the Internet
o Disabilities Panel
There will also be a K12 INET session before the actual INET
conference.
Discussion and attendee participation focussed on the final topic in
USWG's the agenda - updating FYI 4, RFC 1594 ("FYI on Questions and
Answers: Answers to Commonly asked "New Internet User" Questions").
This was led by Jodi Ito and Sepi Boroumand, with additional
assistance by Tom Newell.
The group went through the exercise of defining, who is the audience
now? The notion of being creative with new questions, feel free to
take out old questions and restructure the document FYI 4 was agreed
on by the participants. An new outline was developed as the group
went through the original table of contents:
Questions about the Internet. This includes, What is the Internet?
(not a BBS,AOL, Microsoft, Web), Internet goverence - top level
domains?, Internet registries, How do I find out if a site has a
computer on the Internet?, and How do I get a list of all the hosts on
the Internet?
How does it work? This includes, What is TCP/IP?, What is HTTP? (vs.
HTTPS), What are other well-known protocols?, What is a URL?, What is
DNS?, and What is a Fully Qualified Domain Name?
What can I do? This includes, What is the Wold-wide Web? (netscape
and other browsers), How do I create my own web page/server?, What is
TELNET?, What is (anonymous) FTP?, What is USENET news?, What is
gopher?, What is CHAT?, What is MUD/MOO?, What is email?, How do I
find someone's email address?, How do I find xxx web page?, and How do
I make money on the Internet?
What if it doesn't work? This includes, email, web page, ftp, and
gopher.
What about security and privacy on the Internet? This includes, TRUST
NO ONE!, What am I at risk for?, firewalls, proxy servers?,
certificates, PGP, cookies, public key, viruses, electronic commerce,
and implications when using company email - personal vs. private
opinion.
How do I find out more? This includes, What is an RFC?, How do I
obtain RFCs?, How do I obtain a list of RFCs?, What is the RFC-INFO
service?, Which RFCs are Standards?, What is an FYI?, What is an STD?,
What is the Internet Monthly Report?, What is an Internet Draft? Are
there any guidelines available for writing one?, How do I obtain OSI
Standards documents?, What is the IAB?, What is the IETF?, What is the
IRTF?, What is the Internet Society?, What is the IANA, What is a NIC?
What is a NOC?, What is the InterNIC? What is the DDN NIC
(nic.ddn.mil)?, and What is the IR?
Other subjects of interest to develop are, Kids on the Internet - is
it safe?, Is it true what I heard...? (Internet urban legends).
Rounding out the document will be a References section and a Glossary.