CURRENT_MEETING_REPORT_
Reported by Patricia Smith/Merit
Minutes of the Network Information Services Infrastructure (NISI)
Agenda
Discussion:
1. NISI Internet Draft Document
All comments are in on this draft. April has made the final tweaks
and will format it and submit it as an RFC. Yea!
2. NIC Profiles X.500 Directory
At the Atlanta meeting in July 1991 the information being sought
for the NIC Profiles had been discussed at length. At the Santa Fe
meeting a suggestion was made that we not get hung up with that
type of discussion again but rather make an effort to put
information on more NICs up in X.500 and allow folks on the NISI
and DISI lists to play around with it. Pat indicated she would be
pro-active in this area and begin to knock on NIC doors to solicit
their participation.
In addition, the effort to create a friendly user interface
environment in order to facilitate entry and updating of
information will continue.
3. Overlap with User Connectivity Working Group chaired by Dan Long
The UC Working Group is looking at gathering NOC information via
template for inclusion in some sort of directory. There is general
agreement that NISI should have some liaison activity with UC in
order to avoid duplication of effort. Pat sat in on the UC meeting
on Wednesday and told them of the NISI interest. UC members agree
that we should work together and Pat agreed to stay in touch with
Dan Long as the NIC directory activity develops.
4. Request for a Database Security Document
After the Atlanta IETF, the IESG tasked the NISI Working Group with
writing an informational document that makes some recommendations
regarding the need for accuracy and privacy of data in databases
maintained by network information centers. After some discussion,
it was decided that April Marine, J. Paul Holbrook, and John Curran
will work up a draft of this RFC which is expected to be only a few
pages long. In addition, the section on database accuracy that was
added to the current NISI Internet Draft document, which addresses
much the same concerns, will be retained in that document.
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5. Internet Society Request from Vint Cerf
Vint Cerf suggested that the NISI Working Group collect information
regarding various Internet products and services. Evidently this
request was prompted by the fact that the ISOC has received
questions about the Internet and has felt the need of such a
collection. The Working Group was reluctant to take this on in the
form suggested because the task is one that each NIC does currently
for its own constituency and the task seemed redundant. In
addition, the CNI is putting together a directory of directories,
lending more weight to the fact that NISI should not do so as well.
The Working Group agreed that one good strategy for ISOC to use
with such callers would be to refer them directly to an existing
Internet information center (the NNSC was specifically mentioned)
for the answers to such general questions as ``What is the
Internet?'' ``What's on the Internet?'' and ``How do I join the
Internet?''
However, while this suggestion solved part of the problem, it led
to a related discussion regarding the problem of easy discovery of
information available about and via the Internet. Currently, there
is no means for either a NIC or a user to easily determine what
information is available and where. Neither is there an easy means
for alerting users to information newly available. This discussion
was a natural lead in to the following Agenda topic.
6. Should NISI be dissolved?
There was discussion of whether or not NISI should be terminated at
the next IETF and emerge as a new working group. We decided to
take to the mailing list a discussion of whether or not NISI has
accomplished what it set out to do. The consensus at first glance
appears to be that if at the next meeting in March the RFC has been
published and other projects are either completed or well underway,
then the San Diego meeting would be the last one for the NISI
group. The related issues of information discovery and delivery
could be handled in a new working group in the User Services Area
which would tentatively be called Network Information Delivery
(NID).
NID is seen as filling a very important and timely need since, at
present, everyone is trying to figure out the best and most
efficient means of locating and delivering information (X.500,
WAIS, etc.). It is felt that we can provide critical direction in
this area as far as understanding and application of the various
types of directory services currently available.
Over the next couple of months, then, the mailing list needs to
discuss the questions of whether the NISI group has fulfilled its
charter or what else it has on its plate, what the charter of this
new working group would be, and various matters related to the work
we've recommended in the NISI doc. Plus we'll need feedback and
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comments on the db security draft. April and Pat will take it upon
themselves to try to get the discussions going on the list.
Attendees
Miriam Amos Nihart miriam@decwet.zso.dec.com
Robert Blokzijl K13@nikhef.nl
James Codespote jpcodes@tycho.ncsc.mil
John Curran
Peter Deutsch peterd@cc.mcgill.ca
Alan Emtage bajan@cc.mcgill.ca
Martyne Hallgren martyne@nr-tech.cit.cornell.edu
Ittai Hershman ittai@nis.ans.net
Ellen Hoffman esh@merit.edu
J. Paul Holbrook holbrook@cic.net
Greg Hollingsworth gregh@mailer.jhuapl.edu
Alton Hoover hoover@nis.ans.net
Geoff Huston g.huston@aarnet.edu.au
Darren Kinley kinley@crim.ca
Carol Lambert cjlx@cornella.cit.cornell.edu
Ruth Lang rlang@nisc.sri.com
Peter Liebscher plieb@sura.net
April Marine april@nisc.sri.com
Ellen McDermott emcd@osf.org
David Minnich dwm@fibercom.com
Marsha Perrott mlp+@andrew.cmu.edu
Joyce Reynolds jkrey@isi.edu
Karen Roubicek roubicek@faxon.com
Harri Salminen hks@funet.fi
Dana Sitzler dds@merit.edu
Patricia Smith psmith@merit.edu
Joanie Thompson joanie@nsipo.nasa.gov
Chris Weider clw@merit.edu
Scott Williamson scottw@nic.ddn.mil
Nancy Yeager nyeager@ncsa.uiuc.edu
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