User Services Working Group Chairperson: Karen Bowers/NRI CURRENT MEETING REPORT Reported by Karen Bowers and Martyne Hallgren AGENDA o Welcome New Members o Review Current Projects in Progress/Planned o Brief Discussion of Ralph Drom's Universal Directory Service for the Internet o Participation in USER-DOC, NISI and NOC-Tools WGs o Reconvene to Discuss Issues of Distribution for the NOC- Tools catalog, USER-DOC Biblio and other USWG Undertakings ATTENDEES 1. Bowers, Karen/kbowers@nri.reston.va.us 2. Breeden, Laura/breeden@bbn.com 3. Easterday, Tom/tom@nisca.ircc.ohio-state.edu 4. Enger, Robert M./enger@sccgate.scc.com 5. Finkelson, Dale/dmf@westie.unl.edu 6. Gerich, Elise/epg@merit.edu 7. Hallgren, Martyne M./martyne@tcgould.tn.cornell.edu 8. Hastings, Gene/hastings@morgul.psc.edu 9. Jacobsen, Ole/ole@csli.stanford.edu 10. Kincl, Norman/kincl@iag.hp.com 11. LaQuey, Tracy/tracy@emx.utexas.edu 12. Malkin, Gary/gmalkin@proteon.com 13. Marine, April/april@sri-nic.arpa 14. Miller, Stephen/miller@m2c.org 2 15. Moore, Berlin/bm24@andrew.cmu.edu 16. Morris, Don/morris@ncar.ucar.edu 17. Mundy, Russ/mundy@tis.com 18. Oattes, Lee/oattes@utcs.utoronto.ca 19. Pak, Raylene/raylene@tardis.tymnet 20. Partridge, Craig/craig@nnsc.nsf.net 21. Perillo, Francine/perillo@cisco.com 22. Pleasant, Mel/pleasant@rutgers.edu 23. Pugh, Jon/pugh@nmfecc.llnl.gov 24. Redfield, Elizabeth/red@sri-nic.arpa 25. Reynolds, Joyce K./jkrey@venera.isi.edu 26. Roberts, Mike/roberts@educom.edu 27. Roberts, Ronald/roberts@jessica.stanford.edu 28. Roubicek, Karen/roubicek@nnsc.nsf.net 29. Schoffstall, Martin/schoff@nisc.nyser.net 30. Sitzler, Dana/dds@merit.edu 31. Sollins, Karen/sollins@lcs.mit.edu 32. Stahl, Mary/stahl@sri-nic.arpa 33. Steinberg, Lou/louiss@ibm.com 34. Stine, Robert/stine@sparta.com 35. Sweeton, Jim/sweeton@merit.edu 36. Veach, Ross/rrv@seka.cso.uiuc.edu 37. Wintringham, Dan/danw@osc.edu 38. Youssef, Mary/mary@ibm.com 39. Yuan, Aileen/aileen@gateway.mitre.org MINUTES The purpose of the fairly brief USWG session on Tuesday morning, 25 July 1989, was to welcome new members and acclimate them to the recently established activities of User Services. A brief review of the current charter and organizational structure was provided and a quick synopsis given on the three currently active USWG projects: NISI (Network Information Services Infrastructure), User-Doc and NOC-Tools. During this IETF plenary, 3 full concentration of efforts was placed on the three ongoing projects scheduled the remainder of Tuesday and all day Wednesday. (Separate meeting reports covering those activities have been prepared by the respective Chairs and are enclosed within the July 1989 Proceedings and the IETF: directory.) A new item brought to light at the close of this short session was an Internet Directory Service (IDS) being proposed by Ralph Droms (NRI). Discussion on the immediate impact of this IDS and the associated implications is to be continued during the next (interim) USWG meeting, at which Ralph Droms has agreed to provide a presentation and field audience questions. On Thursday morning, 27 July 1989, the User Services Working Group reconvened to discuss the issues of distribution of Internet information such as the NOC-TOOLS catalog and the USER-DOC bibliography. As a way to approach this complex issue, the group spent some time defining the user community it was trying to reach, the goals of the distribution effort and what methods were currently in use or could be used. The audience is extremely broad. It includes end users (defined as someone who uses the network as a tool, such as a researcher), site support staff including user, network or technical, and administrative support (site being defined as an academic, industrial, or government organization), regional and backbone network providers, political groups such as state or federal legislatures, and specialized groups. These specialized groups may be associated with a specific discipline or interest or computer vendor. Such groups include EDUCOM, SIGUCCS, SHARE, DECUS, RLG, OCLC, and the American Physical Society. The goal of distributing information to this audience is to share information and to provide guidelines on using and supporting the Internet. The information can educate or be used as reference material to both new and old participants in the Internet community. The USER-DOC bibliography is useful to the entire audience. The NOC-TOOLS catalog is targeted more towards those groups which do technical management of a network. At present, the main method of information distribution on the Internet is via personal networking, i.e., "the old boy" system; to find out something, one asks somebody else if they know the answer or who else to ask. This personal networking will always continue. In addition, MERIT and the NSF Network Service Center (NNSC) work to provide information on specific areas. (While not mentioned in the discussion, SRI-NIC should also be included with MERIT and NNSC). As the regional networks have blossomed, a rough hierarchy has formed, where information flows vertically (generally from a top-level 4 "NIC" to a mid-level or regional organization to some number of sites) and horizontally (between the organizations at each level of the hierarchy). Specialized groups tend to share information amongst their own members, without regard to any hierarchy. The basic issue then, is to define or open new paths of communication through which a broad audience can be reached and be provided with the how's and why's of finding information about the Internet. There are several possibilities on how to do this. Organizations such as SIGUCCS, SIGCOMM, IEEE, ACE, Nysernet, MERIT, and NSF use conferences, workshops, and publications as information distribution mechanisms. Vendors/industry have both formal (documentation) and informal means of sharing information with their customer and internal user base. Newsletters and trade publications also provide opportunities to share information. The role of IETF User Services in distributing information, such as the NOC-Tools catalog and USER-DOCS bibliography, is to make use of communication avenues already developed by other organizations. This can be accomplished through liaison relationships with other organizations such as EDUCOM and SIGUCCS and use of existing distribution avenues such as the NNSC Bulletin. User Services plans the following activities. An announcement of the IETF User services working group and how to participate will be made at the EDUCOM, SIGUCCS, and INTEROP conferences this fall (Martyne Hallgren, Karen Roubicek and Karen Bowers). There will be announcements of the USER-DOC bibliography and the NOC-Tools catalog via the following avenues: NNSC bulletin (with a special mailing to the Computer Center directory list), on-line mailing lists, and through FARNET. Karen Bowers (chr), Karen Roubicek, Mary Stahl, and Gene Hastings will discuss and chose what mailing lists shall be used for distribution. Martyne Hallgren (chr), Laura Breeden, Karen Roubicek, and Dale Finkelson will pursue the liaison relationships with other organizations, including EDUCOM, SIGUCCS, NSF, and FRICC. Additional Action Items: o Connection Checklist (Laura Breeden and Craig Partridge) o BOF at Interop 89 o Contact PM at NSF for the Outreach program Other Items: 5 o Dan Wintringham has raised the issue of establishing a WG to address Configuration Tools. o Tom Easterday is interested in defining procedures on 'How to Set-Up A Campus NIC/NOC', an activity in which Tracy LaQuey expressed interest earlier. o If concentrated help in future projects is required, Joyce Reynolds has kindly volunteered to Chair a WG as needed.