EditorŐs note: These minutes have not been edited. Trainmat Meeting Minutes Network Training Materials (trainmat) User Services Working Group March 6, 1996, Los Angeles Co-Chairs: Jill Foster (University of Newcastle) Mark Prior (University of Adelaide) (unable to attend) Margaret Isaacs (University of Glasgow) (unable to attend) Minutes: Tom Newell (InterNIC) Meeting Agenda 1. Discussion and approval of agenda 2. Trainmat Catalogue - draft-ietf-trainmat-catalogue-05.txt - final revisions 3. Introductions and sharing of project information between meeting participants - Netskills Project - InterNIC - Others 4. Using the network to deliver training Meeting Notes 1. Discussion and approval of agenda Jill Foster made introductions and reviewed the proposed agenda, soliciting approval and suggestions for additional discussion items. 2. Trainmat Catalogue The motivation for pursuing a catalogue of Internet training resources grew from discussions two years ago in recognition that no similar resource existed. Mark Prior, Margaret Isaacs and Jill Foster led the initial efforts as working group chairs. Mark developed a WWW forms-based submission capability for interested people to nominate training resources for inclusion. http://coolabah.itd.adelaide.edu.au/TrainMat/catalogue.html A mailing list was used to review submissions and discuss the draft. List Address: network-training-tf@mailbase.ac.uk Mailing lists software address: mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk (subscribe network-training-tf firstname lastname) Note: new submissions via the web form were emailed to a small editorial board for review. At the Stockholm IETF meeting, the decision was made to prune the number of entries and begin making a qualitative assessment of training resources submitted for inclusion in the catalogue. At the same time, it was decided to organize entries around categories and to standardise the values in the fields of the entry form/template. Margaret Isaacs (University of Glasgow) took on much of the work and completed this in January.The existing entries are currently being verified by the Netskills team (Newcastle) with the authors or responsible agencies. The working group chairs believe it is time to close the work on the document. If the review process is allowed to continue, the project has the potential for never ending. Jill will issue the document as a final internet-draft by the end of April. It was agreed that the effort should avoid becoming a forum for commercially-based training vendors to use as an advertising or promotional venue. If this were to become a living document, volunteers would be needed to maintain it. It was suggested that an editorial board could be an appropriate mechanism for reviewing items submitted for inclusion (as suggested in Stockholm) but that this should not be taken on given the volunteer nature of the exercise. This was met with little discussion. 3. Introductions and sharing of project information between meeting participants Jill said that, following brief presentations regarding the Netskills project and the InterNIC "15 Minute Series", she would ask participants to highlight training related initiatives which they or their institutions are pursuing. Donal Hanna (Netskills programmer) provided an overview of the Netskills project. The Netskills project is principally a collection of modular training packages focused upon supporting the higher-ed community by providing materials and resources for trainers. The project does include some user-based training materials in the form of WWW-based interactive tutorials. (Initial version in the final stages of development.) This preserves "state" between sessions and records user progress. The service is built upon Perl scripts. Donal went on to provide a synopsis of the Information Gateway and the Network Education and Training Electronic Gateway (NETEG) services as repository programs for collecting training resources. The overview highlighted an organizational schema for resources accessible via the WWW. More information about Netksills can be found at the URL: http://www.netskills.ac.uk/ Tom Newell of the InterNIC provided an overview of the "15 Minute Series" program. The InterNIC in a partnership with the American Library Association, Library and Information Technology Association, has begun developing an Internet-accessible resource for Internet trainers. The "15 Minute Series" will be a collection of modular and extensible training packages from which an Internet trainer may construct a curriculum which meets the needs of a local community or specific environment. The packages will be made available in a variety of formats using the Internet as a delivery medium. The InterNIC brings to the partnership a unique positioning within the community to promote and disseminate Internet information. The library community provides the effort a concern and empathy for the needs of information-seekers. The InterNIC is developing a prototype currently and hopes to have a set of core materials available by late this summer. Kesh Bakaru of San Diego State University discussed a project exploring real-time delivery of of sound and image data and its application in long-distance education. April Marine mentioned the NASA NIC training efforts. Joyce Reynolds indicated she would like to see the project continue in some useful capacity. She is especially interested in examples of using the network to deliver training. She mentioned the idea of using MBONE technology. Tom Newell (InterNIC) expressed an interest in exploring the potential of such a project as a tool for R&E communities. A Systems Architect for Bell Atlantic demonstrated a JAVA applet tool for network metering with a training potential. 4. Using the network to deliver training Jill discussed projects in the UK which used ATM and MBONE networks to provide (amongst other teaching applications) surgery observation capabilities over long-distances. Tom Newell mentioned that the InterNIC was working with Patrick Crispin to host the ROADMAP mailing list training program on a regular basis. Jill Foster indicated she would be interested in mirroring the effort in the UK. Jill concluded with a discussion of her efforts to get PowerPoint registered as a MIME type which has hit a brick wall. She suggested that the Area Directors were looking into the current process for nominating MIME types and the review mechanisms. Finally, Jill encouraged USV folks participate in HTTP development discussions in order to raise issues focused on user needs and interests related to training. Once the final draft has been approved, the working group will close down.