The User Services Area of the
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
Joyce K. Reynolds, <jkrey@isi.edu>
October 1993
When the IETF was first established, it did not immediately create a
distinct User Services Area. As of 1991, this area has grown to take
its place with other Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) areas
as the importance of a user services forum has increased globally.
This area provides an international forum for people interested in
all levels of user services, to identify and initiate projects
designed to improve the quality of the information available to users
of the Internet.
One continuing goal of the User Services Area is to coordinate the
development of user information services by clearly and concisely
providing documentation information and distribution for the Internet
community. FYI (For Your Information) RFCs (Request for Comments)
are introductory and overview documents for network users. Their
purpose is to make available general information, rather than the
protocol specifications or standards that is typical of other RFCs.
FYIs are allied to the RFC series of notes, but provides information
about who does what on the Internet. The FYI RFC series has proved a
success since its initiation, and its goal is to continue to do so.
A current list of FYI RFCs are listed at the end of this document.
The actual projects of the User Services Area are handled by the
creation of Working Groups. There are currently ten working groups
in this area.
Four new FYI RFCs have been published (FYIs 21, 20, 19, and FYI 2).
See the "Internet Documentation for USERS (not Wizards!)" section,
page 6 of this report. Since the Amsterdam IETF, we have the
following draft documents in process the User Services Area:
Internet-Drafts:
draft-ietf-isn-faq-01.txt
draft-ietf-ids-pilots-00.txt
draft-ietf-iafa-howftp-00.txt
draft-ietf-ids-x500-survey-02.txt
draft-ietf-iiir-html-01.txt, ps
draft-ietf-nisi-nics-00.txt
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IETF User Services Area October 1993
Other draft postings:
FYI 4, RFC 1325, "FYI on Questions and Answers: Answers to
Commonly asked "New Internet User" Questions", has been
updated and is now under review. You may anonymous FTP it
from: naic.nasa.gov as files/fyi4-june93.txt.
The following working groups in the User Services Area have had the
following adjustments since the last IETF in Amsterdam:
Trainmat (Training Materials WG)
Ellen Hoffman (Merit) has stepped aside from co-chair of this
group due to time constraints. Jill Foster will continue to
chair this group.
ISN (Internet School Networking WG)
John Clement and Connie Stout have stepped aside as co-chairs.
Jennifer Sellers (NASA) who led the ISN session in Amsterdam,
has come on board as new co-chair to work with Art St. George,
who will continue as co-chair.
IIIR (Integration of Internet Information Resources WG)
Kevin Gamiel (CNIDR) has come on board as new co-chair with
current chair, Chris Weider.
IETF User Services Area Working Groups
Internet Anonymous FTP Archives (IAFA). IAFA is chartered to
define a set of recommended standard procedures for the access
and administration of anonymous ftp archive sites on the
Internet.
Integration of Internet Information Resources (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".
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IETF User Services Area October 1993
Integrated Directory Services (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.
Internet School Networking (ISN). ISN is chartered to
facilitate the connection of the United States' K-12
(Kindergarten-12th Grade) schools, public and private, to
promote school networking in general.
Networked Information Retrieval (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 the IETF, RARE, and CNI.
Network Information Services Infrastructure (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.
Network Training Materials (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.
User Documentation (USERDOC2). UserDoc2 is preparing a revised
bibliography of on-line and hard copy documents/reference
materials/ training tools addressing general networking
information and how to use the Internet. (Target audience:
those individuals who provide services to end users and end
users themselves.)
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IETF User Services Area October 1993
Universal Resource Identifiers (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.
User Services (USWG). The User Services Working Group 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.
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.
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IETF User Services Area October 1993
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| WG Chair(s) Mailing List |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| IAFA Peter Deutsch iafa@bunyip.com |
| Alan Emtage |
| |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| IDS Tim Howes ids@merit.edu |
| Chris Weider |
| |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| IIIR Kevin Gamiel iiir@merit.edu |
| Chris Weider |
| |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| ISN Art St. George isn-wg@unmvma.unm.edu |
| Jennifer Sellers |
| |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| NIR George Brett nir@mailbase.ac.uk |
| Jill Foster |
| |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| NISI April Marine nisi@merit.edu |
| Pat Smith |
| |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| TRAINMAT Jill Foster us-wg@nic.near.net |
| |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| URI Alan Emtage uri@bunyip.com |
| Jim Fullton |
| |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| USERDOC2 Ellen Hoffman userdoc@merit.edu |
| Lenore Jackson |
| |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| USWG Joyce K. Reynolds us-wg@nic.near.net |
| |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| WNILS Joan C. Gargano ietf-wnils@ucdavis.edu |
| |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
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IETF User Services Area October 1993
Internet Documentation for USERS (not Wizards!)
The FYI RFC Series
FYI 21 "A Survey of Advanced Usages of X.500", (Also RFC
1491), July 1993.
FYI 20 "FYI on "What is the Internet?", (Also RFC 1462),
May 1993.
FYI 19 "FYI on Introducing the Internet-- A Short
Bibliography of Introductory Internetworking
Readings", (Also RFC 1463), May 1993.
FYI 18 "Internet Users' Glossary", (Also RFC 1392),
January 1993.
FYI 17 "The Tao of IETF - A Guide for New Attendees of the
Internet Engineering Task Force, (Also RFC 1539),
October 1993.
FYI 16 "Connecting to the Internet: What Connecting
Institutions Should Anticipate", (Also RFC 1359),
August 1992.
FYI 15 "Privacy and Accuracy Issues in Network
Information Center Databases", (Also RFC 1355),
August 1992.
FYI 14 "Technical Overview of Directory Services Using
the X.500 Protocol", (Also RFC 1309), March 1992.
FYI 13 "Executive Introduction to Directory Services Using
the X.500 Protocol", (Also RFC 1308), March 1992.
FYI 12 "Building a Network Information Services Infrastructure",
(Also RFC 1302), February 1992.
FYI 11 "A Catalog of Available X.500 Implementations",
(Also RFC 1292), January 1992.
FYI 10 "There's Gold in them thar Networks! or Searching for
Treasure in all the Wrong Places", (Also RFC 1402),
January 1993.
FYI 9 "Who's Who in the Internet: Biographies of IAB, IESG
and IRSG Members", (Also RFC 1336), May 1992.
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IETF User Services Area October 1993
FYI 8 "Site Security Handbook", (Also RFC 1244), July 1991.
FYI 7 "FYI on Questions and Answers: Answers to Commonly Asked
"Experienced Internet User" Questions", (Also RFC
1207), February 1991.
FYI 6 "FYI on the X Window System", (Also RFC 1198),
January 1991.
FYI 5 "Choosing a Name for Your Computer", (Also RFC 1178),
August 1990.
FYI 4 "FYI on Questions and Answers: Answers to Commonly
asked "New Internet User" Questions", (Also RFC 1325),
May 1992.
FYI 3 "FYI on Where to Start: A Bibliography of Internetworking
Information", (Also RFC 1175), August 1990.
FYI 2 "FYI on a Network Management Tool Catalog: Tools for
Monitoring and Debugging TCP/IP Internets and
Interconnected Devices", (Also RFC 1470), June 1993.
FYI 1 "F.Y.I. on F.Y.I.: Introduction to the F.Y.I.
Notes", (Also RFC 1150), March 1990.
Details on obtaining FYI RFCs via FTP or EMAIL may be obtained by
sending an EMAIL message to "rfc-info@ISI.EDU" with the message body
"help: ways_to_get_rfcs".
For example:
To: rfc-info@ISI.EDU
Subject: getting rfcs
help: ways_to_get_rfcs
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