User Services Area

Director:


   o Joyce Reynolds:  jkrey@isi.edu


Area Summary reported by Joyce Reyolds/Information Sciences Institute

Two BOFs and ten active working groups in the User Services Area of the
IETF met in Seattle, Washington.


Distribution and Announcement BOF (DAWG)

The Distribution and Announcement BOF (DAWG) met to consider how
effectively the output of the User Services Area reaches its intended
audience.  The goal was to determine if sufficient information was
getting to Interet users, especially new Internet users.  If that goal
was not being met, the group would try to find new avenues for reaching
the users.

It was determined that the goal is indeed being met.  With the various
archive retrieval services (e.g., Gopher, WWW), documents are easily
obtainable over the Internet.  The many books now available reach the
new user audience quite well.  No further work needs to be done in this
area.


Telecommuting BOF (TELEWORK)

The Telework BOF met to discuss telework and the technologies which
could enable more widespread choice of work locations and times.
Projections by a recent DOE/DOT study suggests that the telecommuting
population within the US will grow by one million people a year through
the year 2000, and two million a year thereafter.  The hope of the BOF
was that Internet-style technology could enable a more rapid exponential
growth, and thus promote a better set of work alternatives for everyone.
Most of the discussion centered on the experience of people in the
computer and networking industry, and the need for support for others.


Integrated Directory Services Working Group (IDS)

The IDS Working Group is chartered to facilitate the integration and
interoperability of current and future directory services into a unified
directory service.  This work will unite directory services based on a
heterogeneous set of directory services protocols (X.500, WHOIS++,
etc.).  In addition to specifying technical requirements for the
integration, IDS will also contribute to the administrative and
maintenance issues of directory service offerings by publishing
guidelines on directory data integrity, maintenance, security, and
privacy and legal issues for users and administrators of directories.

FYI 11, RFC 1292 is out but needs to be substantially revised as it
refers to documents as Proposed Standards which are not.  Sri Sataluri
has volunteered to help Barbara Jennings on the Directory Data
Management in the US paper.  Erik Huizer's papers on ``Privacy Laws in
Europe'' and ``Overview of Data Protection Policies'' will be sent out
very soon, and a new paper on a ``Code of Conduct for Directory Services
on the Internet'' needs to be produced; a team has been assembled to do
that.  Marco Hernandez's paper on an ``Overview of Directory Services''
may be similar to other efforts, and the User Services Area should
review it.  The WHOIS++ implementation catalog is not out yet but will
be by 1 July.  The X.500 pilot project catalog will be put into RFC form
by Allen Cargille and Linda Millington.  IDS's charter will be revised
to reflect its new role in the White Pages Directorate; the group will
be dissolved and will reform under a new name; Tim Howes and Chris
Weider will revise the charter.  The new group will deal with data
management policy, legal issues, and protocol independent quality
issues.



Integration of Internet Information Resources Working Group (IIIR)


IIIR is chartered to facilitate interoperability between Internet
information services, and to develop, specify, and align protocols
designed to integrate the plethora of Internet information services
(WAIS, archie, Prospero, etc.)  into a single ``virtually unified
information service.''

The vision paper and transponder paper by Chris Weider will be modified
as recommended in Houston and submitted as RFC material in the next
several weeks.  The Z39.50 paper is also ready to go and will be
submitted.  The WAIS and Z39.50 protocol paper will be submitted as an
Informational RFC and a new version detailing how WAIS uses the 1993
version of Z39.50 will be submitted before Toronto.  Gopher+ will also
be submitted as an Internet-Draft in the next month or so.

The Format Types registry list has been set up.  HTML and HTTP will both
be resubmitted as Internet-Drafts on their way to Informational RFCs.
Karen Sollins gave a presentation on the general architecture work that
had been done by a small architecture group; they will write something
up and submit it as soon as possible.  The quality assurance work will
be spun off into a separate working group.  The charter will be revised
to reflect the new work on architecture and will get rid of the ``Query
Routing Protocol'' work.


Internet School Networking Working Group (ISN)

The ISN Working Group is chartered to facilitate the connection of the
United States' K-12 (Kindergarten through twelfth grade) schools, public
and private, to the Internet, and school networking in general.

Joyce Reynolds reviewed the charter and summarized milestones for March
and July 1994.  Activities are on time for this and the next IETF.
FYI 22, RFC 1578 on ``FYI on Questions and Answers -- Answers to
Commonly Asked `Primary and Secondary School Internet User' Questions,''
and the Internet-Draft on ``K-12 Internetworking Guidelines'' were
published.

Status reports were given on the ISN tasks of ``Define the information
to be included in an on-line database of educational people involved in
networking, recommend a process for collecting and updating the data,
and coordinate with a directory services provider to implement the
database,'' and ``write a set of two documents, one aimed at connection
providers and the other aimed at educational sites, providing guidelines
for bringing educational sites on-line.  Included will be a broad
definition of connection providers.''

Bill Manning presented the Acceptable Use Policies (AUP) draft document
that Don Perkins and he had developed and circulated on the isn-wg
mailing list.  It was published as an Internet-Draft on 5 April
(draft-ietf-isn-aup-00.txt).  Gene Hastings presented a document
authored by himself and Bob Carlitz, ``Stages of Internet Connectivity
for School Networking,'' and distributed copies.  The group agreed that
the document should be put on-line as an Internet-Draft.  Gene Hastings
and Joyce Reynolds will work on getting author approval, etc., and to
proceed to publish this document as an Internet-Draft.

There was a discussion of the Gargano-Wasley Internet-Draft.  It was
agreed by the working group that the document would be submitted for FYI
RFC publication.


The Network Information Services Infrastructure Working Group (NISI)

NISI is exploring the requirements for common, shared Internet-wide
network information services.  The goal is to develop an understanding
for what is required to implement an information services
``infrastructure'' for the Internet.

The NISI Working Group met and enjoyed a record number of participants.
There were many non-US participants, and participants from a wide
variety of organizations.  Pat Smith is stepping down as co-chair of
NISI due to increasing responsibilities at Merit, which leave her less
time for co-chairing.  Her leadership has been greatly appreciated and
will be sorely missed.  Thank you, Pat.

Debbie Hamilton of the DS InterNIC reported on the transition of the NIC
profile information listing points of contact for approximately 75 NICs
from an X.500 database at Merit to a site provided by the InterNIC. Some
discussion took place regarding the preferred format and access methods
for the information, and volunteers for helping to flesh out
presentation and updating were taken.  The ever-pending ``NIC
Relationships'' document was deemed too complicated and
perspective-specific to be worth any more effort and the group voted to
kill it.

Some discussion took place regarding the submitted document, ``Network
Information Center Guidelines'' and whether it fulfilled the goal of
updating RFC 1302.  Consensus was that it was worth being published as
an Informational RFC, but the question of whether it updated RFC 1302
was moot since no one else was going to update RFC 1302 anyway.  This
question will be taken up between the chair and the area director.

The group finished up with an interesting discussion of outreach and
trying to define user needs (customer needs assessment).  It was decided
to try to actually telephone contacts in the NIC Profiles list, which
would have the double advantage of working on updating the information
and finding out if there were any needs NISI should be addressing.
Volunteers were recruited to do the calling and, first, to figure out
what we'd like to know.  This effort will form the basis of deciding
future NISI tasks, if any.


Network Training Materials Working Group (TRAINMAT)

The Network Training Materials Working Group is chartered to enable the
research community to make better use of networked services.  Towards
this end, the working group will work to provide a comprehensive package
of ``mix and match'' training materials for the broad academic community
which will:  1) enable user support staff to train users to use
networked services and 2) provide users with self-paced learning
material.  In the first instance, it will not deal with operational
training.  This working group is the IETF component of a joint RARE/IETF
group working on network training materials.


   o The Catalog of Network Training Materials

     Margaret Isaacs produced a catalog of training materials at
     Newcastle.  Those catalog entries were mapped into the ``trainmat''
     templates.  At the last IETF, several fields of the template were
     revised.  The information needs to be updated.  A list of entries
     was circulated around the room so volunteers could sign up to
     complete the remaining entries.  The target date for completion is
     one month after the revised template is sent out.

   o Review of Available Materials

     Where are the gaps?  Information is needed about PPP/SLIP for
     Mac/PC platforms:  installation information, and information on why
     a direct connection is needed (and what is a direct connection
     versus asynchronous serial connection).  Information is also needed
     about installation of the different servers (Gopher, WAIS, Mosaic,
     etc.); tips about configuration/menu setup/etc.  would also be
     helpful.

   o Using the Network to Deliver Training

     Some would like to experiment with using MBone/multicasting to
     deliver video training.  Insufficient quality is a concern (current
     frame rate is around 5-10 frames per second), as is the need for
     high-end equipment to receive the broadcast, and time zone
     differences.


Networked Information Retrieval Working Group (NIR)

NIR is chartered to increase the useful base of information about
networked information retrieval tools, their developers, interested
organizations, and other activities that relate to the production,
dissemination, and support of NIR tools.  NIR is a cooperative effort of
the IETF, RARE, and CNI.

This meeting represented the last for the NIR Working Group.  The
current status of CNIDR and RARE was briefly discussed.  The group
decided to cancel further development of an NIR tool checklist based on
the fact that it would provide very little informational return.  The
approximately 200 page NIR report has been individually reviewed,
compiled, and formatted as an RFC and sent up to the area director for
review and submission as an RFC. A discussion of information service
quality issues rounded out the meeting with a commitment to continue the
work in IIIR and possibly to spin off a new group if so desired by
interested parties.


Uniform Resource Identifiers Working Group (URI)

URI is chartered to define a set of standards for the encoding of system
independent resource location and identification information for the use
of Internet information services.

In short, the URI group came, saw, cowered, then conquered.  Consensus
was reached on URLs.  The current URL draft will be reposted as an
Internet-Draft, to be followed by the same document with the minor
changes agreed upon by the group.  That document will then be
wordsmithed to bring it into conformance with accepted Internet-Draft
requirements.

URNs are well on their way to acceptance, with some minor issues
regarding naming authority tags to be resolved.  This could well occur
on the list before the next IETF. The functional requirements list being
developed in parallel is being discussed on the list, and some minor
changes are in order.  The group began preliminary discussions over the
functional requirements of URCs, with several conformant drafts being
prepared at the end of the IETF.


User Documents Revisions Working Group (USERDOC2)

The USERDOC2 Working Group is preparing a revised bibliography of
on-line and hard copy documents, reference materials, and training tools
addressing general networking information and how to use the Internet.
The target audience includes those individuals who provide services to
end users and end users themselves.

A revision of FYI 3 was distributed, and was generally approved by the
group with some minor revisions.  As soon as FYI 3 is completed, a
revision of the short bibliography for novices, FYI 19, will be
developed as well to reflect the many new sources of material that have
become available since last year.  The goal is to have FYI 19 revised
and completed by the next IETF.

The future of the working group, already raised in the earlier USWG
session, was again discussed.  Plans are to conclude the USERDOC2
Working Group after the next IETF, when both FYIs 3 and 19 will be
completed.


User Services Working Group (USWG)

The USWG provides a regular forum for people interested in all user
services to identify and initiate projects designed to improve the
quality of information available to end-users of the Internet.

A report was given on IETF User Services Area activities, including
working groups coming to closure and new working groups starting up, new
publications, and current user services related Internet-Drafts
postings.

A short review of a proposed draft, ``A Primer on Internet and TCP/IP
Tools,'' was conducted.  Scott Williamson and Mark Kosters gave a slide
presentation on Referral WHOIS Protocol (RWHOIS). The proposed protocol
development of RWHOIS will be nested in Tim Howes' Access and
Synchronization of the Internet Directory Working Group (ASID), and
functionality, requirements, document developments, etc., in the User
Services Area.

Joyce K. Reynolds was renominated to serve on the Internet Engineering
Steering Group (IESG) as User Services Area Director for the next two
years.  Joyce opened the rest of the session to discussion and focus of
where USWG and the User Services Area would like to proceed in the next
two years.


WHOIS and Network Information Lookup Service Working Group (WNILS)

The purpose of WNILS is to expand and define the standard for WHOIS
services, to resolve issues associated with the variations in access,
and to promote a consistent and predictable service across the network.

Two of the WHOIS++ Internet-Drafts are ready for submission as RFCs with
Proposed Standard status, ``Recommended Modifications to the WHOIS
Protocol,'' and ``The Distributed WHOIS++ model - Centroids.''  The
WHOIS++ architecture paper by Peter Deutsch has been updated by Rickard
Stoultz and Timothy Patrik.  Rickard and Timothy provided an overview of
the revisions they made to the WHOIS++ architecture document based upon
implementation experience.  They reported that they have five WHOIS++
servers with centroids running in Sweden.  Discussion related to closing
down WNILS will occur via electronic mail and should be completed by the
next IETF meeting.