The User Services Area of the IETF

		Toronto, Ontario, 
		      Canada
		   26  July 1994

Joyce K. Reynolds
Information Sciences Institute
University of Southern California
Marina del Rey, California
USA

jkrey@isi.edu

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"The only two activities where the participants are called users are
drugs and computers."*

					--jon.

*reused by permission from Jon Postel.

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- Started in 1989 as one Working Group within the IETF (USWG).

- January 1991 - User Services Area (USV) created.

- Currently, we have 11 WGs.

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Philosophy for Membership

- People participate as individuals, NOT representatives of
  organizations, countries, networks, or anything 
  else.

- We like to have people with a variety of backgrounds and experience.

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- International in scope.

- Interact and liase with other global organizations (e.g., RARE,
  EARN, RIPE, CNI, APNIC, etc.)

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- IETF User Services Area is a second level service.

- We are NOT an end-user specific entity.

- ALL levels of users, not just novice.

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- User, Information, and Network Services.

- Act as a neutral point for NICs of all levels (local, regional,
  global) to participate in the IETF forum to exchange ideas.

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- We interact with other Areas in the IETF (e.g., Applications,        
  Operations, Security, etc.).

- Interact with other disciplines (e.g., Librarians, School Teachers,
  etc.)

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-  The FYI RFC Series of Notes.

     Currently, 24 FYI RFCs.

     Handbooks, Catalogues, Glossaries, etc.

     For example, 

          Site Security Handbook, 
          Internet Users' Glossary, 
          NOCTools  Catalogue, etc.

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IETF User Services Working Groups and Projects

*Integrated Directory Services (IDS)

*Integration of Internet Information Resources (IIIR)

Internet School Networking (ISN)

Network Information Services
Infrastructure (NISI)

			*Joint APP/USV effort

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IETF User Services Working Groups and Projects

Network Training Materials (TRAINMAT) [IETF/RARE endeavor]

*Universal Resource Identifiers (URI)

User Services (USWG)

*Whois and Network Information Lookup Services (WNILS)

			*Joint APP/USV effort

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IETF User Services Working Groups and Projects

Arts and Humanites - Sharing Center Stage on the Internet (ARTS) BOF

Nettiquette (ABBY) BOF

*Site Security Handbook (SSH) BOF

User Services Area Council (USAC)

			*Joint SEC/USV effort

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IETF User Services Area Plan

Seven types of User Services objectives:

-	User Information

-	Network and Information Services Development

-	Network Operational Management

-	Education

-	Documentation and Distribution

-	Interaction with IESG Areas 

-	Interaction with other international user services entities

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The Future of the User Services Area of the IETF

- Expanding/clarifying the mission.

- Set up of ``USV-WEB" and ``USV-TV".

- HTML the FYI RFC Series of Notes.

- Bringing in other disciplines.

- Advertising on other lists to ``get the word out" about USV.

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The Future of the User Services Area of the IETF

- New area plan with new and updated objectives and goals within the
  IETF.

- Separate from the IETF, creating a separate Task Force 
  (e.g.,``USTF").

- Or?????

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Parting Shots

Acknowledgements