NETF-VAS 1991-03-22

		Value Added Services

	Chair:		Harri Salminen	hks@funet.fi
	Secretary:	Matti Aarnio	mea@funet.fi

	Participants:
		Matti Aarnio		mea@funet.fi
		Harri Salminen		hks@funet.fi
		Rolf Nordhagen		Rolf.Nordhagen@use.uio.no
		Petri Ojala		Petri.Ojala@funet.fi
		Reijo Metso		gucre@gd.chalmers.se
		Anders Gillner		awg@kth.se
		Eric Thomas		eric@searn.sunet.se
		Jan Michael Rynning	jmr@nada.kth.se
		Peter Hausken		Peter.hausken@usit.uio.no



	1.  Agenda

		HKS proposal was accepted

	2.  Review of minutes and developements

		Minutes were accepted without comments.

		Developments:

		- Rolf: Oslo has a research student studying SuperCom
			and related confrencing systems.
		- Hks:	Group communication gateway effort is still
			under development and the older gateway in production.
		- Rolf:	]rhus Open University has made a study of
			centralized confrencing systems.  Copies of
			report are available.  Ask Rolf for info.

	3.  Group communication

	3.1	Current status

		*sigh*  (collectively)
		IETF does have plans for a wg to standardize listserv
		functionality. Hks & Eric will follow up.

		SuperCom has been installed in Oslo a couple of days ago.

	3.2	Desired functionality

		A SuperSet of  Mail (RFC822/976), NetNews (RFC1036), and
		Com, plus some extra features.

			- Reachability by mail
			- Closed groups
			- References
			- Error management
			- Participant control (not only membership ctrl)
			- Efficient, speedy, and reliable distribution
			- Management in distributed fashion
			- Clear identifaction of the forum
			- Common user interface protocol 

		Requires better user interfaces for mail users.
		It should be backward compatible enough to allow
                access via normal Internet Mail but extended functionality
		would be desired and hopefully easy to implement.

	3.3	Common attributes & mapping

		Most of the required attributes are already defined in 
		the Netnews RFC1036 so it can be used as a starting point.
		Few additions like Type: (normal, personal, list, newsgroup,
 		non-delivery report and auto-reply indication) and stricter
		definition on the usage of current ones like reply-to:, Sender:
		In-Reply-To:, References etc. 

		After this a clear mapping between old services is possible.
		Distribution, gatewaying and listserv functionality should
		be in a separate document.

		Harri has already presented a paper on Group Communication
		Interconnection on NORDUNET 90 conference but a detailed RFC
		style specification is needed to progress this issue.
		We decided that Harri will write a paper about this, and it
		will be thought over among members.

	3.4	Projects, collaboration

		Multiple user agents and mailers need to be extended
		to handle the new attributes and features.
		In Lund university a portable user interface for
 		mail and news is in the specification phase.
		Collaboration possibilites with NETF mail extension WG
		AMIGO+ (X.400 GCS) and some ietf groups should be
                investigated. 

	4.      No time and not much interest this time. FUNET will continue
		it's own projects on this field and report later.