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 1 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 2 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 3 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 4 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. 5