Network Information Services Infrastructure (nisi)
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 Charter
 Last Modified: 04/07/1998

 Current Status: Concluded Working Group

 Chair(s):
     April Marine  <april.marine@nominum.com>

 User Services Area Director(s):
     April Marine  <april.marine@nominum.com>

 User Services Area Advisor:
     April Marine  <april.marine@nominum.com>

 Mailing Lists: 
     General Discussion:nisi@merit.edu
     To Subscribe:      nisi-request@merit.edu
     Archive:           

Description of Working Group:

The NISI Working Group will explore 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 work will begin with existing
NIC functions and services and should build upon work already being
done within the Internet community. A primary goal of the group is to
facilitate the development of relationships between NICs that will
result in the presentation of a seamless user support service.  NISI
will work with all NICs, including the InterNIC, to achieve the goal of
a fully-functioning, cooperative mesh of worldwide NICs.  In addition
to creating policies for interaction, NISI will address areas such as
common information formats, methods of access, user interface, and
issues relating to security and privacy of Internet databases.

 Goals and Milestones:

   Done         Review draft for phase 1 and begin discussions for 
                completing the second phase which is to define a basic set 
                of `cooperative agreements' which will allow NICs to work 
                together more effectively to serve users. 

   Done         Revised draft document ready for working group review. 
                Document defines NIC functions and suggests some 
                standardizations for NIC services, as well as offers new 
                mechanisms for exchanging information between NICs. 

   Done         Document submitted as Internet-Draft for comment from a 
                wider Internet audience. 

   Done         Working group discussed current Internet-Draft and 
                suggested minor revisions. Decision made to continue 
                Working Group activity beyond this document. 

   Done         First document released as Informational RFC. Outline and 
                discuss new NISI tasks at IETF meeting. 

   Done         Write a document explaining the security issues of privacy 
                and accuracy in Internet databases. Publish as an 
                Informational RFC. 

   JUN 93       Post an Internet-Draft of a NIC user handoff procedure 
                based on the UCP work. 

   Done         Post an Internet-Draft describing NIC interelationships. 

   Done         Post an Internet-Draft describing accessing the 
                nic-profiles data in the X.500 database at Merit. 

   DEC 93       Submit the NIC Interelationship document for consideration 
                as an FYI RFC. 

   DEC 93       Submit the NIC-Profiles paper for consideration as an FYI 
                RFC. 

   DEC 93       Submit the User Handoff procedures for consideration as an 
                FYI RFC. 

   Done         Complete draft for phase 2 suggesting cooperative 
                agreements for NICs. 


 Internet-Drafts:

  No Current Internet-Drafts.

 Request For Comments:

  RFC   Stat Published     Title
------- -- ----------- ------------------------------------
RFC1302 I    FEB 92    Building a Network Information Services 
                       Infrastructure 

RFC1355 I    AUG 92    Privacy and Accuracy Issues in Network Information 
                       Center Databases