CURRENT_MEETING_REPORT_
Reported by Chris Weider/Merit
Minutes of the Integration of Internet Information Resources Working
Group (IIIR)
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to Kevin Gamiel for taking notes for these minutes during
the second session.
Prologue
IIIR was originally scheduled for only one session, on the evening of
the 14th. However, Tim Berners-Lee, author of the HTML Internet-Draft,
would have been unable to attend, so an additional session was added on
the 13th to discuss the document.
HTML Internet-Draft
The HTML Internet-Draft describes current practice for the Hypertext
Markup Language used in the World Wide Web. As such, it will be
submitted for publication as an Informational RFC as soon as possible.
There are two other protocols used in the Web which will be brought into
the Internet standards track: HTML-2, and the Hypertext Transport
Protocol (HTTP).
Previous Minutes
No changes were suggested.
Vision Document
Chris Weider gave a brief overview of the vision paper. Jill Foster
wanted an additional layer of integration on top of the architecture by
having a single client that speaks all the information service
protocols. Mitra indicated a need for a set of shared, common libraries
for each server to use for URN ! URL access. These suggestions will be
incorporated into a future version of the paper.
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Transponder Document
Chris Weider gave an overview of the transponder document. The final
consensus of the working group was to consider the transponder document
as a ``call to arms'' to start thinking about ways to make maintenance
of the URN ! URL infrastructure automatic.
Taxonomy Document
Chris Weider and Peter Deutsch were not able to complete the taxonomy
document. However, Cliff Neuman pointed out that there were several
recently published papers that cover most of the ground of the taxonomy
document, and that they would serve as well. Cliff will post references
to those papers to the mailing list and the taxonomy document will be
removed from the list of goals and milestones.
Gopher
There were still concerns that RFC 1436 documenting the base Gopher
protocol did not adequately reflect current operational practice. Chris
Weider took an action item to talk to the authors and resolve the issue
by the end of August.
Prospero
Cliff Neuman gave a talk on Prospero and outlined how it might be used
to integrate disparate information services on the Internet.
IIIR Format Types
Mitra stated that there needs to be a set of data/format type specifiers
for resources that is consistent across all the NIDR systems.
Historically each system has created its own format specifiers, which
impedes inter-operability. The MIME content type specification process
is now ``open'' for additions, so a consistent set can now be
registered. Mark McCahill has agreed to register the Gopher types in
MIME, and that will serve as a basis for the IIIR set. An earlier BOF
on datatypes resulted in the formation of a mailing list designed to
discuss this issue; the list is ietf-types@cs.utk.edu. At this writing
the activation of the list has not yet been announced.
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Data Elements
Much concern was expressed by members of the working group that a paper
on data elements for metainformation transfer had not been released. A
small working group composed of librarians and IETFers are working on
it, but there was also concern that the process of creating the document
was not open. Peter Deutsch noted that in many cases current practice
is being accepted over architecting a working solution. Chris Weider
agreed that a draft of the paper would be released to the working group
as soon as it was available.
Quality Assurance
Mitra gave a brief talk on his concerns about the quality (or lack
thereof) of pointer maintenance, and noted that if a given retrieval
request fails, that it is impossible to determine where it has failed.
Chris Weider took an action item to submit a request for volunteers to
write a paper on technical quality assurance.
Z39.50
Jim Fullton mentioned that a paper by Cliff Lynch on Z39.50 over TCP/IP
will be submitted for consideration as an Informational RFC in time for
Houston. Brewster Kahle, John Kunze, and Jim Fullton agreed to write a
paper on the use of Z39.50 in information systems.
Gopher+
Time expired before Gopher+ could be discussed, but will be taken to the
list. Of particular concern is that the Gopher+ extensions allow
interoperability with other information systems deployed on the
Internet.
Attendees
Luc Boulianne lucb@cs.mcgill.ca
Jodi-Ann Chu jodi@uhunix.uhcc.hawaii.edu
James Conklin jbc@bitnic.educom.edu
Peter Deutsch peterd@bunyip.com
Reinhard Doelz embnet@comp.bioz.unibas.ch
Jill Foster Jill.Foster@newcastle.ac.uk
Jim Fullton fullton@cnidr.org
Kevin Gamiel kgamiel@cnidr.org
Ben Geerlings ben.geerlings@surfnet.nl
Anders Gillner awg@sunet.se
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Rune Hjelsvold Rune.Hjelsvold@idt.unit.no
Xander Jansen xander.jansen@surfnet.nl
Olle Jarnefors ojarnef@admin.kth.se
Michael Khalandovsky mlk@ftp.com
Pekka Kytolaakso pekka.kytolaakso@csc.fi
April Marine april@atlas.arc.nasa.gov
John Martin John.Martin@newcastle.ac.uk
Mitra mitra@pandora.sf.ca.us
Clifford Neuman bcn@isi.edu
Lisa Nielsen lisa@hawaii.edu
Lars-Gunnar Olsson Lars-Gunnar.Olsson@data.slu.se
Joyce K. Reynolds jkrey@isi.edu
Ulla Sandberg ulla@kiera.ericsson.se
Rickard Schoultz schoultz@admin.kth.se
Patricia Smith psmith@merit.edu
Karen Sollins sollins@lcs.mit.edu
Vladimir Sukonnik sukonnik@process.com
Peter Svanberg psv@nada.kth.se
Guido van Rossum guido@cwi.nl
Ton Verschuren Ton.Verschuren@SURFnet.nl
Lea Viljanen Lea.Viljanen@helsinki.fi
Chris Weider clw@merit.edu
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