CURRENT_MEETING_REPORT_

Reported by Tony Bates/RARE - PRIDE Project

Minutes of the Generic Internet Service Description Working Group (GISD)



Agenda

The following agenda was agreed:


   o What is GISD?
   o Overview of past activities
   o New charter
   o Structure and format of GISD document
   o Content of GISD document
   o What can you do for GISD?



Brief History of GISD

Tony Bates gave a brief overview of the history of GISD. GISD evolved
from a RARE project run at the RIPE NCC under the direction of the RARE
Technical Program.  It was an ``open'' project with no hidden agendas
other than to provide service providers with a clearer and better
understanding of what an Internet service is and what are the common
aspects of Internet service today.  It had originally started as a
specification, but over time consensus had shown that a `descriptive'
document was more appropriate.  The project had limited time (20% of six
months in total) and most of the work had focused on understanding the
need, focus and structure on which to create such a document.  A project
report is available summarising the initial ideas and progress made
towards the GISD document.  It is available from
ftp://ftp.ripe.net/ripe/docs/ripe-094.ps.

There have been two BOFs (Columbus and Amsterdam) and a working group
meeting (Houston) held under Tony's chairmanship.  However, due to time
constraints and commitments to other work, the necessary push from Tony
has been somewhat lacking and it was decided if GISD was to progress it
needed a new chair.  Thankfully, David Sitman agreed to take over this
role.



New Charter

The new charter was formally agreed and accepted.  The goals and
milestones are as follows:

   o July 94 - Review the current GISD draft and add any additional
     aspects felt essential.

   o December 94 - Prepare the final draft of GISD and submit as an
     Internet-Draft.

   o March 95 - Follow-up with final amendments and submit the document
     to the RFC Editor for publication as an FYI RFC.


The only change from the old charter was essentially a shift in dates to
have the first draft ready for review by the San Jose IETF.



Structure and Format of GISD Document

An FAQ was handed out outlining the basic ideas behind GISD. It attempts
to answer such questions as the scope, coverage and detail the structure
and aspects of GISD. The FAQ is available from
ftp://ftp.ripe.net/gisd/FAQ.txt.

Questions of funding were raised as to whether GISD should discuss the
way in which services and service providers are funded.  This is clearly
outside the scope of GISD.

David presented the current structure of GISD. The basic outline is a
set of short descriptions divided into six distinct areas of service
currently known as:


   o Access
   o Generic services
   o Connectivity
   o Operations
   o Information provision and coordination
   o Security


Within each of these areas a number of service `aspects' have been
defined.  For each of these aspects a simple structure is used to
describe the aspect.  The list of aspects was handed out.  After much
discussion, the general consensus was to change the structure to unify
the aspects within an area.  In practical terms this means that one
author will write the entire area.  This is seen as essential to
maintain a coherent view of the area.  To make this possible, an action
was taken to produce a small guidance document on how an area (and
specifically the general format) should be approached.  This will mean a
slight departure from the current proposed structure in that each aspect
will not be divided up into the various categories.  Mike O'Dell, David
Sitman and Tony Bates will produce such a guidance paper and send it to
the list as soon as possible.

The remaining time was spent reviewing the currently defined aspects.
It was clear some clarification would be needed to accompany the
guidance paper if an author was to feel comfortable with working on an
area.  However, the only major change from the presented aspects was to
drop aspect 1.5 (IP over X.25) as it did not need to be specifically
highlighted in its own right.  The general format of the aspects seemed
to be fine with some possible `word-' needed to clarify the options a
little more.

David made a call for volunteers.  Kim Long from NYSERNET agreed to work
on the operations area.  David would post a `call for volunteers' as
soon as the guidance document was posted.


Summary of Actions

   o David Sitman, Mike O'Dell and Tony Bates will produce a guidance
     paper reflecting the change in structure and clarifying the aspects
     per area.

   o Kim Long will produce the first draft of the ``operations'' area
     for GISD.

   o David Sitman will send a call for volunteers for other GISD areas.