Editor's Note: Minutes received 12/2/92
CURRENT_MEETING_REPORT_
Reported by Pat Smith/Merit
Minutes of the Network Information Services Infrastructure Working Group
(NISI)
Thirty-Three people attended the NISI session. April Marine (co-Chair)
was unable to attend.
Agenda
1. nic-profiles
2. net-help, immediate and future
3. Future of NISI.
Nic-profiles
History: the nic-profiles concept was conceived at the St. Louis
meeting in March 1991. The idea behind nic-profiles is to obtain and
maintain key pieces of information about NICs around the world that will
be easily accessible to all the NICs.
A mail server is in place to add/modify/retrieve nic-profiles
information. Send to x500test@merit.edu and put ``help'' in the subj:
field to receive further information.
This project is now an action item at the top of the NISI priority list.
The near-term goal is to have information on as many NICs as possible by
the March IETF.
Suggestions were made that we make every effort to utilize any
collections of information that may already exist and that we try to
approach the ``right'' people when attempting to obtain this information
so that the request doesn't get tossed in the black hole.
Three volunteers, Charlotte Mooers (NNSC/BBN), Marsha Perrott (PREPnet)
and Bill Yurcik (NASA) will work with Pat Smith (Merit) on proactive
outreach to discover as many NICs as possible, group them in some
logical way, and then proceed with making the contacts to interest them
in filling out a template and submitting it to nic-profiles
electronically.
Net-help
Current plans. Extensive discussion took place regarding how we are
going to keep net-help as simple as possible. A sampling of
questions/comments:
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o Where will the information coming from?
o The contents of the help screen should be managed locally. Each
site should be able to control where they send their users.
o How ``smart'' will net help be?
o What about dial-ins where the IP is dynamically assigned?
After discussion of these and other points, Ed Kroll volunteered to
write an ``implementation requirements'' brief document as a starting
point. Ed will send his draft out to the list. The plan is that we
will hack on it at the next meeting and, hopefully, come up with
agreed-upon written requirements which we can then use to work with the
applications folks and work toward a feasible implementation plan.
The other very brief paper will summarize the nethelp plan as it stands
now, including the screen that was agreed on at the July '92 meeting.
Jack Hahn (SURAnet) volunteered to write this one.
There was some further discussion on how nethelp will be enhanced in the
future. Future of NISI
Again there was a short of period of discussion regarding the future of
NISI. The Group consensus is that NISI is needed and will continue as a
viable Working Group.
Attendees
Steve Bucey sabucey@ns.pacbell.com
Jodi-Ann Chu jodi@uhunix.uhcc.hawaii.edu
James Conklin jbc@bitnic.educom.edu
Naomi Courter naomi@concert.net
Tim Dixon dixon@rare.nl
Greg Dobrich gdobrich@nalusda.gov
Roger Fajman raf@cu.nih.gov
Jill Foster jill.foster@newcastle.ac.uk
Jack Hahn hahn@sura.net
Deborah Hamilton debbie@qsun.att.com
Alf Hansen Alf.Hansen@delab.sintef.no
Alisa Hata hata@cac.washington.edu
Masaki Hirabaru hi@nic.ad.jp
Ellen Hoffman ellen_hoffman@um.cc.umich.edu
Laura Kelleher lak@merit.edu
Edward Krol e-krol@uiuc.edu
Gary Malkin gmalkin@xylogics.com
Janet Marcisak jlm@ftp.com
Bob McCollum bobm@nic.ddn.mil
Michael Mealling michael@fantasy.gatech.edu
Mitra mitra@pandora.sf.ca.us
Charlotte Mooers mooers@nnsc.nsf.net
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Pete Percival percival@indiana.edu
Marsha Perrott mlp+@andrew.cmu.edu
Joseph Ramus ramus@nersc.gov
Joyce K. Reynolds jkrey@isi.edu
Richard Rodgers rodgers@nlm.nih.gov
Jane Smith jds@jazz.concert.net
Patricia Smith psmith@merit.edu
Janet Vratny janet@apple.com
Chris Weider clw@merit.edu
Scott Williamson scottw@nic.ddn.mil
William Yurcik yurcik@dftnic.gsfc.nasa.gov
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