CURRENT_MEETING_REPORT_

Reported by Linda Millington/University of London Computer Centre

Minutes of the Integrated Directory Services Working Group (IDS)


Introduction

The group is about to be chartered.  The new chairs, Linda Millington
and Sri Sataluti, were introduced.


Charter Discussion

Several questions were raised as to the purpose of this working group.
Erik Huizer discussed a white pages meeting that took place during the
Houston IETF and the document, RFC 1588, which came out of that meeting.
A clayman proposal for an Internet White Pages Service (IWPS), contained
in RFC 1588, was described.  Three working groups have been formed to
achieve the IWPS:


   o Internet White Pages Requirements (WHIP) has been tasked to develop
     a set of requirements for the IWPS.

   o Access/Synchronization of the Internet Directories (ASID) has been
     tasked to develop access protocols to the various directory
     services.

   o Integrated Directory Services (IDS) has been tasked to deal with
     all things independent of the actual access protocols.


IDS is a policy group, not an implementation group.  IDS will focus on
things like legal issues.  It will provide as much information to the
implementors as possible.

After WHIP concludes, a new group will probably be formed to work on an
indexing model.  A real prototype for IWPS is expected by the middle or
end of next year.

Discussion of the proposed agenda then took place.  Use of the word
``pilot'' was questioned since many organizations are already running
production directory services on the Internet.  A question was also
raised about collecting information on other directory services not on
the Internet.  It was generally felt that those running these directory
services should try to communicate with the IETF. IDS will also be
responsible for the revision of FYIs and RFCs that it produces when they
need updating.

With these few changes, it was decided to accept the description of the
working group contained in the proposed charter.  Discussion of the
goals and milestones will be deferred to the mailing list.  Erik
reminded us that each item in the goals and milestones section must have
a name assigned to it.


Information Privacy and Legal Issues

A paper by Catherine Treca and Erik Huizer, ``An Overview of
International Privacy Issues Concerning Provision of Directory
Services,'' was distributed to the mailing list just before the IETF
meeting.  This paper is not a legal document.  It simply gives an
overview of the legal issues in several European countries.

In European countries, one cannot even start to deploy a directory
service before making an analysis of privacy laws.  Many European
countries abide by the same model for information privacy.  This paper
attempts to summarize that general model.  Following the general model
is a section that describes privacy laws by specific country where they
differ from the general model.  Now countries can describe their
policies in relation to the general model.

Erik would like people in the US and other countries to gather similar
information for inclusion in this paper.  Many people felt that doing an
analysis of privacy issues for the US would be difficult.  One solution
might be to not include a summary for the US.

There is also the NADF User Bill of Rights which perhaps could be
included in the paper.


Liaison Reports

Tim Howes reported that the NADF is still piloting and that there is
nothing new to report.

Linda Millington reported that interworking reports were recently made
available by the Operational Interworking Forum and Platform (OIFP). The
OIFP deals with interworking between X.500 implementations.  The final
report is available on the Paradise FTP server:
ftp://ftp.paradise.ulcc.ac.uk/paradise/oifpfinal.txt.


X.500 Implementation Catalog

Arlene Getchell reported that several contributors to the catalog are
interested in submitting updated product descriptions.  Considering how
long it took to publish this last update of the catalog, probably many
of the descriptions are out-dated.

A discussion took place regarding the possibility of turning this RFC
into a ``living document.''  The RFC would be comprised of the static
information plus pointers (probably URLs) that would point to where the
updated product information actually lives.  The InterNIC would possibly
be the primary source for the current product descriptions.

Erik will look into the feasibility of doing this and get back to us.


WHOIS++ Catalog

Chris Weider stated that this catalog is still non-existent.  The
current status of the WHOIS++ effort is that four server implementations
and many clients exist but no one has had the time to collect
descriptions of them for this catalog.

Joan Gargano volunteered to work on a first draft of the WHOIS++
implementation catalog.


Code of Conduct

Very little discussion has taken place so far on the mailing list
(discussion:  idcc@es.net, subscription:  idcc-request@es.net).  Tony
Genovese sees that there are several starting points for this effort:


   o The NADF User Bill of Rights

   o Rodney Tillotson's Code of Conduct paper for the UK Academic
     Community Directory pilot

   o Catherine and Erik's paper on international privacy issues


It was agreed that this discussion needs to be moved back to the larger
list.  There is a need to clear up the requirements for this activity.
Tony suggested using Rodney's paper as a starting point (after getting
his permission).


X.500 Projects Catalog

The purpose of this catalog is to provide information for new
organizations to find out how to get connected to a directory service
(how to get connected to the global DIT). Allan Cargille sent out a
draft version just before the IETF meeting.  There was one suggestion
that an item should be added that allows the service to be characterized
as production or pilot.