CURRENT_MEETING_REPORT_ Reported by Patricia Smith/Merit Minutes of the Network Information Services Infrastructure (NISI) Agenda Discussion: 1. NISI Internet Draft Document All comments are in on this draft. April has made the final tweaks and will format it and submit it as an RFC. Yea! 2. NIC Profiles X.500 Directory At the Atlanta meeting in July 1991 the information being sought for the NIC Profiles had been discussed at length. At the Santa Fe meeting a suggestion was made that we not get hung up with that type of discussion again but rather make an effort to put information on more NICs up in X.500 and allow folks on the NISI and DISI lists to play around with it. Pat indicated she would be pro-active in this area and begin to knock on NIC doors to solicit their participation. In addition, the effort to create a friendly user interface environment in order to facilitate entry and updating of information will continue. 3. Overlap with User Connectivity Working Group chaired by Dan Long The UC Working Group is looking at gathering NOC information via template for inclusion in some sort of directory. There is general agreement that NISI should have some liaison activity with UC in order to avoid duplication of effort. Pat sat in on the UC meeting on Wednesday and told them of the NISI interest. UC members agree that we should work together and Pat agreed to stay in touch with Dan Long as the NIC directory activity develops. 4. Request for a Database Security Document After the Atlanta IETF, the IESG tasked the NISI Working Group with writing an informational document that makes some recommendations regarding the need for accuracy and privacy of data in databases maintained by network information centers. After some discussion, it was decided that April Marine, J. Paul Holbrook, and John Curran will work up a draft of this RFC which is expected to be only a few pages long. In addition, the section on database accuracy that was added to the current NISI Internet Draft document, which addresses much the same concerns, will be retained in that document. 1 5. Internet Society Request from Vint Cerf Vint Cerf suggested that the NISI Working Group collect information regarding various Internet products and services. Evidently this request was prompted by the fact that the ISOC has received questions about the Internet and has felt the need of such a collection. The Working Group was reluctant to take this on in the form suggested because the task is one that each NIC does currently for its own constituency and the task seemed redundant. In addition, the CNI is putting together a directory of directories, lending more weight to the fact that NISI should not do so as well. The Working Group agreed that one good strategy for ISOC to use with such callers would be to refer them directly to an existing Internet information center (the NNSC was specifically mentioned) for the answers to such general questions as ``What is the Internet?'' ``What's on the Internet?'' and ``How do I join the Internet?'' However, while this suggestion solved part of the problem, it led to a related discussion regarding the problem of easy discovery of information available about and via the Internet. Currently, there is no means for either a NIC or a user to easily determine what information is available and where. Neither is there an easy means for alerting users to information newly available. This discussion was a natural lead in to the following Agenda topic. 6. Should NISI be dissolved? There was discussion of whether or not NISI should be terminated at the next IETF and emerge as a new working group. We decided to take to the mailing list a discussion of whether or not NISI has accomplished what it set out to do. The consensus at first glance appears to be that if at the next meeting in March the RFC has been published and other projects are either completed or well underway, then the San Diego meeting would be the last one for the NISI group. The related issues of information discovery and delivery could be handled in a new working group in the User Services Area which would tentatively be called Network Information Delivery (NID). NID is seen as filling a very important and timely need since, at present, everyone is trying to figure out the best and most efficient means of locating and delivering information (X.500, WAIS, etc.). It is felt that we can provide critical direction in this area as far as understanding and application of the various types of directory services currently available. Over the next couple of months, then, the mailing list needs to discuss the questions of whether the NISI group has fulfilled its charter or what else it has on its plate, what the charter of this new working group would be, and various matters related to the work we've recommended in the NISI doc. Plus we'll need feedback and 2 comments on the db security draft. April and Pat will take it upon themselves to try to get the discussions going on the list. Attendees Miriam Amos Nihart miriam@decwet.zso.dec.com Robert Blokzijl K13@nikhef.nl James Codespote jpcodes@tycho.ncsc.mil John Curran Peter Deutsch peterd@cc.mcgill.ca Alan Emtage bajan@cc.mcgill.ca Martyne Hallgren martyne@nr-tech.cit.cornell.edu Ittai Hershman ittai@nis.ans.net Ellen Hoffman esh@merit.edu J. Paul Holbrook holbrook@cic.net Greg Hollingsworth gregh@mailer.jhuapl.edu Alton Hoover hoover@nis.ans.net Geoff Huston g.huston@aarnet.edu.au Darren Kinley kinley@crim.ca Carol Lambert cjlx@cornella.cit.cornell.edu Ruth Lang rlang@nisc.sri.com Peter Liebscher plieb@sura.net April Marine april@nisc.sri.com Ellen McDermott emcd@osf.org David Minnich dwm@fibercom.com Marsha Perrott mlp+@andrew.cmu.edu Joyce Reynolds jkrey@isi.edu Karen Roubicek roubicek@faxon.com Harri Salminen hks@funet.fi Dana Sitzler dds@merit.edu Patricia Smith psmith@merit.edu Joanie Thompson joanie@nsipo.nasa.gov Chris Weider clw@merit.edu Scott Williamson scottw@nic.ddn.mil Nancy Yeager nyeager@ncsa.uiuc.edu 3