Internet Info 1994 March/Internet Info CD-ROM (Walnut Creek) (March 1994).iso/inet/ietf/isn/isn-minutes-93mar.txt

Text File | 1993-04-28 | 8KB | 193 lines

CURRENT_MEETING_REPORT_


Reported by Art St.  George/UNMexico

Minutes of the Internet School Networking Working Group (ISN)

The Internet School Networking Working Group met on April 1, 1993 at
1:30 during the Columbus IETF. The session was chaired by Art St.
George (University of New Mexico) and Connie Stout (Texas Education
Network).

Jennifer Sellers, representing the NASA NREN Group, said that the K-12
networking Frequently Asked Questions document would be made into a
standard before the Amsterdam IETF. She solicited comments for changes.
She said she will post the document to Kidsnet and other mailing lists
for review.

A quick poll revealed that there were no K-12 educators in the room,
with Connie Stout having the most direct involvement.  Many in the room
were involved in helping to get K-12 schools on the Internet, either as
consultants, or as part of their jobs as network support people for
universities or regional networks, or as consultants to K-12 schools, or
out of personal interest.  The observation was made that people
supporting K-12 networking needed to continue their dialogue with the
K-12 community, since their physical attendance at IETF was inlikely.
Connie observed that some technical staff working for K-12 schools might
attend future IETFs.

There was some discussion of how K-12 schools should pursue funding for
networking.  Several observed that in some cases funding can be easy to
come by with the right demonstration of need.  Some attendees pointed
out that inter-district funding disparities affect ability to network.
Bill Manning, Rob Raisch, and a couple of other attendees said they
would help devise a list of benefits of networking.  Ray Perry of US
West said his organization has prepared a video that shows advantages of
network connectivity.

Connie stated that she has met with twenty-two institutions involved
with K-12 networking initiatives.  Someone expressed a need for a list
of all K-12 initiatives under way.  Another attendee asked if private
and parochial schools should be part of these initiatives; Connie's
answer was ``yes.''

A distinction was raised between promotional versus ``how to''
documents; there is a need for both.

It was observed that there is a wide range of skill levels among those
interested in starting K-12 networks, and that there is a bootstrap
process required to bring new schools and support staff on-line.  There
was some discussion on how to spread the word more broadly.  One
suggestion was giving talks at teacher conferences.  Brochures from the
Consortium for School Networking were handed out.  (Connie Stout is the
Chair; St.  George is the Secretary- Treasurer.  Their Listserv is

                                   1





[e-mail]; subscribe via a mail message with ``SUBSCRIBE
COSNDISC First_name Last_name''.  General email goes to
[e-mail].)

Gene Hastings handed out (!)  a document that lists a variety of
connection options for K-12 schools.  The document was a menu of options
from dialup to frame relay and all points in between.  There was some
concern this document would overwhelm new sites.  Consensus was
eventually reached that the document fills a definite need and it should
be refined and enhanced with another, more general document.  Gene
mentioned documents available for anonymous ftp from
ftp.cc.berkeley.edu, under /k12.

Connie observed that the average school has two phone lines serving
twenty-two instruments.  Connectivity can be a challenge.

John Postel, one of the architects of Internet Domain Name Service,
spoke on the evolution of DNS and the challenges presented by growing
use of the name space.  He proposed a model for delegating management of
K-12 names to the states, where state authorities would manage names of
the form:



     computer.school.k12.state.us



This announcement led to some lively discussions.  Connie observed that
the ``edu'' domain was being used for universities exclusively in that
model, and that K-12 educators felt that, as educators, the name
belonged to them as well.  She suggested that universities ought to use
a new ``uni'' domain, and leave ``edu'' for the schools.  This led to
some discussion as to how this is handled abroad.  In the U.K. it's
``.ac'' for ``academic community.''  A gentleman from Germany told their
practice (which sounded like the word ``school'' is used).  Connie
observed that statewide education networks also need to be given .edu
names; e.g., tenet.edu.  Bill Manning pointed out that the question of
whether domain names should be geographical or organizational is an old
one.  With 10 million Internet nodes on-line now and another 10 million
coming something must be done to manage the namespace in a distributed
fashion.

Bruce Nelson spoke on ISOC/K12 committee issues.  He said there is a
need for K-12 focus within the Internet Society -- someone who serves as
spokesperson.  He said the Group needs to be sure to include an
international perspective.  He does not see the need for an advocacy
group per se, but he does see a need to infuse ISOC with a K-12
perspective.

There was more discussion of the various initiatives for K-12
networking.  Art St.  George asked if there was a need for a registry of
consultants/advisers who can help new efforts.  Discussion was
inconclusive on this point.

                                   2





Attendees

Robert Beer              [e-mail]
John Boatright           [e-mail]
Thomas Brisco            [e-mail]
Al Broscius              [e-mail]
Sandy Bryant             [e-mail]
Susan Calcari            [e-mail]
David Carr               [e-mail]
Corinne Carroll          [e-mail]
Douglas Carson           [e-mail]
Jodi-Ann Chu             [e-mail]
Naomi Courter            [e-mail]
Brent Curtiss            [e-mail]
Mark Davis-Craig         [e-mail]
Dale Dougherty           [e-mail]
Hans Eriksson            [e-mail]
Sallie Fellows           [e-mail]
Dale Finkelson           [e-mail]
Marcello Frutig          [e-mail]
Maria Gallagher          [e-mail]
Greg Gicale              [e-mail]
Terry Gray               [e-mail]
Robert Gutierrez         [e-mail]
Martyne Hallgren         [e-mail]
Raymond Harder           [e-mail]
Susan Harris             [e-mail]
Eugene Hastings          [e-mail]
Alisa Hata               [e-mail]
Ellen Hoffman            [e-mail]
Susan Horvath            [e-mail]
Barbara Jennings         [e-mail]
John Klensin             [e-mail]
Edward Krol              [e-mail]
Hock-Koon Lim            [e-mail]
Daniel Long              [e-mail]
Paul Lustgraaf           [e-mail]
Gary Malkin              [e-mail]
Bill Manning             [e-mail]
Janet L. Marcisak        [e-mail]
April Marine             [e-mail]
Jerry Martin             [e-mail]
Cynthia Mills            [e-mail]
Bruce Nelson             [e-mail]
William Owens            [e-mail]
Brad Parker              [e-mail]
Marsha Perrott           [e-mail]
Roy Perry                [e-mail]
Jon Postel               [e-mail]
Robert Raisch            [e-mail]
Joyce K. Reynolds        [e-mail]
Jennifer Sellers         [e-mail]
Charlie Smith            [e-mail]
Robert Ullmann           [e-mail]

                                   3





Mario Vecchi             [e-mail]
Ruediger Volk            [e-mail]
Richard Wiggins          [e-mail]
Liang Wu                 [e-mail]



                                   4