User Services Area

Director(s):


   o Joyce Reynolds:  jkrey@isi.edu


Area Summary reported by Joyce Reyolds/ISI

Three new Working Groups met at the IETF in St.  Louis:


   o Directory Information Services (pilot) Infrastructure Working Group
     (DISI), Chaired by Chris Weider.

   o Internet User Glossary Working Group (userglos) Chaired by Karen
     Roubicek and Tracy LaQuey Parker

   o NOC-Tool Catalogue Revisions Working Group (noctool2) Chaired by
     Robert Enger and Gary Malkin


Working Group Reports

DISI - Chaired by Chris Weider

DISI is chartered to facilitate the deployment in the Internet of
Directory Services based on implementations of the X.500 standards.  It
will facilitate this deployment by producing informational RFCs intended
to serve as a Directory Services ``Administrator's Guide''.  These RFCs
will relate the current usage and scope of the X.500 standard and
Directory Services in North America and the world, and will contain
information on the procurement, installation, and operation of various
implementations of the X.500 standard.  As the various implementations
of the X.500 standard work equally well over TCP/IP and CLNP, the DISI
working group shall not mandate specific implementations or transport
protocols.

DISI is an offshoot of the OSI Directory Services group and is a
combined effort of the User Services Area and the OSI Integration Area
of the IETF.

NISI - Chaired by Dana Sitzler and Patricia Smith


                                   1






The ``Building a Network Information Services Infrastructure'' draft
document was expanded to more accurately define and describe a NIC, with
the ultimate goal intended to make it easier for users to get
information from NICs.  The current Working Group draft was gone over
with the NISI members, with the intent to install it as an
Internet-Draft after the St.  Louis IETF.

NOCTOOL2 - Chaired by Robert Enger and Gary Malkin

A new Charter is in place.  The ``Son of NOCTools'' Working Group is
currently in process of updating and revising their catalog to assist
network managers in the selection and acquisition of diagnostic and
analytic tools for TCP/IP Internets.

USERGLOS - Chaired by Karen Roubicek and Tracy LaQuey Parker

The User-Gloss Working Group is chartered to create an Internet glossary
of networking terms and acronyms for the Internet community.  At this
meeting the working group went over and amended the charter, defined the
criteria for glossary terms, reviewed existing glossaries, discussed
glossary format, and discussed and defined processes for drafting,
editing and group review.

SSPHWG - Chaired by J. Paul Holbrook and Joyce K. Reynolds

Please consult the Security Area Director's report for information on
this group's current progress.  The SSPHWG is a combined effort of the
Security and User Services Area of the IETF.

USWG - Chaired by Joyce K. Reynolds

Agenda items included:


   o QUAIL - presented by Gary Malkin
     Gary led a brief discussion of the two currently issued Quail
     documents, and requested additional volunteers to continue to help
     monitor the mailing lists, and to contribute to future updates of
     Quail.

   o DISI(-SpresentedebyeChrisaWeiderbove working group report.)

   o The USWG published two documents:


      -  Malkin, G., and A. Marine, ``FYI on Questions and Answers -

                                   2






         Answers to Commonly asked `New Internet User' Questions'', FYI
         4, RFC 1206.
      -  Malkin, G., Marine A., and J. Reynolds, ``FYI on Questions and
         Answers - Answers to Commonly asked `Experienced Internet User'
         Questions'', FYI 7, RFC 1207.

Announcement


     The User Services Area of the Internet Engineering Steering
     Group (IESG), has established a User Services Area Council
     (USAC) to promote and encourage creative exchange of
     international user service needs and concepts.  Constructive
     input from various national and international user services
     organizations for the purpose of not duplicating each
     organization's efforts is also encouraged.  USAC will be
     responsible for researching and defining short term and long
     term user services needs and coordinating developments in
     finding solutions.

     The primary responsibilities of USAC members are to actively
     provide input for the current and future developments of user
     services concerns.  This forum will conduct meetings in
     conjunction with the IETF plenaries.  Primary interaction among
     members will take place via electronic mail.  The User Services
     Area Director of the IESG chairs the USAC. Current membership
     includes representation from Australia, Canada, Europe, Israel
     and Japan.



                                   3