User Services Area

Director(s):


   o Joyce Reynolds:  jkrey@isi.edu


Area Summary reported by Joyce Reyolds/Information Sciences Institute

Three BOFs (Birds of a Feather) and ten Working Groups, in the User
Services Area of the IETF, met in Columbus, Ohio.

Gopher BOF (GOPHER)

This BOF focused on the Gopher protocol and insuring its existence in a
well-defined, standard fashion.  Current implementations/licensing
issues were not discussed at this meeting as it is outside the scope of
involvement of the Chairpersons and the BOF.

Comments on the current Gopher protocol (RFC 1436) were fielded and
discussed.  Discussion and consensus of moving this BOF to the
Integration of Internet Information Resources Working Group (IIIR) for
formal actions was approved.  The GOPHER Chairs and the IIIR Chair,
Chris Weider, will report the results of this BOF to the people working
on Gopher at the University of Minnesota.

Low Cost IP Hardware Wish List BOF (LOIP)

The purpose of this BOF was to draw together interested IETFers and
multi-vendors to define the next generation of its router/modem
products.  The issues were mostly operational (functions, features,
price, performance).  The FARNET community is interested in these issues
because it provides services across a spectrum of users (from
cost-conscious schools and colleges to supercomputer centers).

World-Wide Web BOF (WWW)

The World-Wide Web has an established user base, many compatible
implementations, and many new ideas.  This BOF discussed how the current
WWW standards should be put into the RFC process, and what are the
future directions for the Web.

Tim Berners-Lee mentioned a few recent developments, including NCSA's
``Mosaic'' WWW client for X11, a windows client for MS-DOS machines, and
the growth rate of access to the CERN server.

The three ``standards'' important for WWW at this stage include the
Universal Resource Locators specification which defines the addressing
syntax used by WWW, the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) specification
that defines the transport format for menus, hypertext and general
on-line documentation, and the HTTP access protocol which is used by WWW

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servers.

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, the IDS Group 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.

The final draft of the X.500 Advanced Usages Survey was released and
will be moved to RFC publication status.  The final draft of FYI 11
revision (``A Catalog of Available X.500 Implementations'' will be out
in three weeks for movement to RFC publication.  The Pilot Project
Catalog was not released in time for review and discussion for this
IETF.

The Whois++ - X.500 Interoperability document was assigned to Chris
Weider and Mark Prior.  The Whois++ Implementation Catalog will be
assigned at the next IETF in Amsterdam.  The ``Directory Administrator's
Guide'' has been assigned to a team of 7 people and will be called,
``The Directory Policy Handbook'' A ``Directory Users Rights'' document
will be discussed at the next IETF.

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 Agenda included:  the introduction and correction of Minutes from
last meeting, discussions on a Resource Transponder document, and the
draft, ``Vision of Integrated Information Services document'' A taxonomy
document was discussed, but not assigned at this session.  The Gopher
protocol work will be brought into IIIR.

Internet School Networking Working Group (ISN)

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

Gene Hastings led a discussion on his draft document of connectivity
models.  Jennifer Sellers discussed ISN's FAQ draft document.  Jon
Postel described the history and concept of domain names, and the United

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States domain.  K12 placement in the naming system was discussed.  Art
St.  George and Connie Stout went over new/updated ISN goals and
milestones.

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 discussed the current relationships between NICs
of different ``levels'' especially as they relate to the roles of the
new InterNIC and to NISI. From this discussion, new goals were defined,
including writing an informational paper describing these NIC roles and
relationships and starting work toward developing guidelines for
coordinating cooperative user assistance when more than one NIC is
involved.

Network Training Materials Working Group (TRAINMAT)

The Network Training Materials Working Group is chartered to enable the
research community to make better use of the 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 the 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.

Thirty people attended the Working Group session to discuss training.
This is the first official meeting of the group following a BOF at the
last IETF in Washington, D.C. The group discussed a current, on-going
project at the University of Newcastle, UK, to catalog training
materials and agreed to use this work as the basis for an informational
RFC on training materials.  Jill Foster lead the discussion on a
template to be used to catalog the materials.  The template has been
developed based on input from several other projects, including NIR,
IAFA, and the Coalition for Networked Information's TopNode.  The group
had open discussions on what is needed in training materials and what
projects are being worked on.  The group agreed to work on an informal
posting system to the USWG mailing list to share information about
training aimed at the trainers.  (This working group is a joint project
with RARE ISUS.)

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

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the IETF, RARE, and CNI.

Updates were provided by Jane Smith on the Clearinghouse for Networked
Information Discovery and Retrieval, and Jill Foster on the RARE ISUS
Working Group NIR activities.  The Working Group reviewed the draft
Status Report on NIR tools and groups (version 3.0) and reviewed the
templates in light of experience in completing them.  Dates were
scheduled for the next revision and the next step of evaluation of the
various tools.

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.

URI held three sessions at this IETF. Sessions one and two focused on
Uniform Resource Locators (URLs).  In the first session, Tim Berners-Lee
led a discussion of URLs and review of the draft URL document.
Incorporation of final changes to the draft were discussed, and it is
hoped that the document will be an Internet-Draft before the Amsterdam
meeting in July.  The second session included presentation and
discussion of proposals for URIs (open admission) and discussion of
transitioning to UR*s.  It was agreed that the URI document will be
ready for the Amsterdam IETF. Session three focused on future plans
beyond URLs and URIs.

After much spirited discussion, URI was able to finalize both the URL
documents (which will now be submitted as Internet-Drafts) and a
conceptual and syntactical framework for Uniform Resource Names (URNs).
Documents will be written for URNs and should be submitted to the list
in the next couple of weeks.  Work continues to define elements needed
for these objects to be useful to the end-user.

User Documents Revisions (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.

The short bibliography is now complete and has been submitted to the
User Services Area Director as a first step in becoming an official FYI
RFC. The ``Introducing the Internet'' document archive which contains
the files documented in the short bibliography is on-line at four sites
and four other sites have expressed interest in mirroring the files for
anonymous FTP. Merit has the files in Gopher and WAIS. The group's next
project is completing a comprehensive bibliography to supplement RFC
1175.  A first draft was distributed and discussed, with a final version
to be completed by the next IETF in Amsterdam.  Future goals were
considered, including a new FYI aimed at those who are not connected to


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the Internet, a documents location system aimed at making materials in
the long bibliography available, and consideration of developing
materials aimed specifically at making information available to help
librarians.  The first of these projects will be started by looking at
materials already produced by several Working Group members.

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.

Joyce Reynolds reported on the IETF User Services Area activities
including:  Working Groups coming to closure, new Working groups
starting up, new publications, and current User Services related
Internet-Drafts postings.  Discussion also focused on the ``new NICs''
(i.e., the InterNIC and the proposed/experimental APNIC - Asia/Pacific
NIC). Jill Foster presented an update on RARE activities, including a
report on the RARE Information Services/User Services (ISUS) activities.
Susan Calcari presented a talk on the new InterNIC.

Gary Malkin led a session on two FYI RFC updates; FYI 7 ``FYI on
Questions and Answers:  Answers to Commonly Asked ``Experienced Internet
User'' Questions'' (Also RFC 1207), February 1991 and FYI 4 ``FYI on
Questions and Answers:  Answers to Commonly asked ``New Internet User''
Questions'' (Also RFC 1325), May 1992.

Whois and Network Information Lookup Service (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.

Peter Deutsch led a review of Whois++ - Architecture.  Dave Crocker
briefly presented his two drafts to the WNILS session.  Chris Weider led
a review of Distributed Whois++ Model - Centroids, and Jim Fullton lead
a review of Front End to Database Integration.

Discussion of Projects:  A simple server, centroid and client will be
available by April 30.  Sources will be available on ftp.cnidr.org.  The
working group also discussed and revised their goals and milestones.



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