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		   User Services Working Group Minutes
   	             IETF - San Jose, California
	            Monday, December 9th, 1300-1500
		Chair: Joyce K. Reynolds/ISI (jkrey@isi.edu)


          Thanks to Ryan Moats who assisted in the minute taking
                          of this session.


	Subscription/Unsubscription requests for the USWG email list
        should be sent to uswg-request@isi.edu.

1)  A report on IETF User Services Area activities 

The following working groups in the USV Area are meeting at this IETF:
HARTS, ISN, RUN, SSH, IDS, and USWG.

The related USV Area I-Ds and FYI RFCs include: 

	draft-ietf-ssh-handbook-03.txt (There will be one more I-D
	version posted before the SSH WG Chair sends the document to
        the IESG for approval and RFC publication.)

	draft-ietf-ssh-overview-00.txt

	draft-ietf-harts-guide-00.txt


        FYI 29 "Catalogue of Network Training Materials",
               (Also RFC 2007), October 1996.

        FYI 22 "Frequently Asked Questions for Schools",
               (Also RFC 1941), May 1996.

        FYI 18 "Internet Users' Glossary", (Also RFC 1983,)
               August 1996.


2)  Reports on related global liaison group activities and
    international conferences

-InterNIC report - Tom Newell, Susan Calcari, and Rick Huber provided
 the InterNIC report.

Tom Newell presented an update to his InterNIC endeavors: 
     The InterNIC Registry: 825,000 registered domains. 
     Updated (85,000 new a month and 100,000 changes a month)
     IP allocation: will be spun off as a non-profit organization from
     NSI.
     I/E front: have over 17 people including the NetScout folks.

The current projects they are working on include:
    The 15 minutes Internet series is moving forward (40 modules
    currently, but target is 100) in http/powerpoint format.
    Metering and demography clearinghouse.   
    Document share: working with two organizations to create a single
    clearinghouse of user services documentation links to this
    available from http://rs.internic.net/

Susan Calcari provided a report on NetScout:

NetScout, is associated with the University of Wisconsin, with a staff
of 4, including folks that work on the net-happenings mailing list.
The Scout Toolkit has been updated with a target to meeting an
expressed need from a focus group for additional summary and analysis
information about the scout tools.  Cheat sheets for the major search
engines and directories have been created as handouts for when
providing training.  These are not being distributed as hardcopy, but
there are PostScript and Adobe pdf format available from the NetScout
web page.  A new newsletter is being produced on the Internet by kids
for kids.  The name of the newsletter is KIDS.  The target for
publication is to be published every two weeks, with four schools
working on it (two in Madison, WI and two in Boulder, CO).

Rick Huber gave a report on a project called Nomenclature.  This
endeavor is still being developed.  Joanne Ordille will present
something on this in the IDS working group on Wednesday.  Earlier this
summer, ds.internic.net took over maintenance of the netfind seed
database and source code from Mike Schwartz and have greatly increased
the capacity of the seed database.  In addition, they have introduced
a tool for finding web servers called webfind, available from
http://ds.internic.net/ds/webfinder/WebFinder.html. They are also
continuing to expand our document repository and maintaining our
existing search tools.  Rick stated that they are always looking for
comments and suggestions: send mail to admin@ds.internic.net

   
-TERENA/IETF ETINU

TERENA is the Trans-European Research and Education Network
Association.  The TERENA web page is located at http://www.terena.nl/
A newly formed group, called ETINU, is the "Environment To Inspire
Network Users".  It is a joint effort of the TERENA Information
Services and User Support (ISUS) and the IETF User Services Area.  Its
charter and focus is in developing a system to deliver enhanced user
support via the network.

Some of the objectives include:

	o prioritise main issues related to user support today,
          including: helpdesk queries, FAQs, software updates,
          hardware fault reporting, documentation, online training o
          discuss the pros and cons of online support as opposed to
          conventional methods
	o collate experiences of help desk software
	o collect references to relevant papers, articles, web sites,
          etc. and link them from a task force home page 
	o identify and evaluate any available online support systems 
	o identify the features of an ideal online support system 
        o build a pilot online support service which could act as a
          model for many sites
        o standardise appropriate elements of the pilot system via RFC
          process

The leaders of this effort believe we should be supporting, inspiring,
and encouraging the user to make fuller use of the network to overcome
their difficulties AND also help others when possible.

	To join, send an email message to:

	     mailserver@terena.nl

	containing the text:

	     subscribe tf-etinu 'your real name'

	replacing 'your real name' as appropriate.


INET97, the Internet Society's (ISOC) annual conference will be held
in June 1997 in Malaysia.  There is a "User Track", with Mark Prior
and Joyce K Reynolds as the co-track leaders.

The User Track sessions for INET97 include:

	  o Disabilities
	  o Using Technology
	  o Electronic Publishing
	  o Network Information Retrieval
	  o Community Networking
	  o Impact of the Internet
	  o Disabilities Panel

Jodi Ito mentioned that there will be a K12 INET session before the
actual INET conference again this year.


The IESG had retreat last October in Santa Barbara.  This was the
second retreat this year.


3) Discussion/Participation

Discussion and attendee participation focussed on the final topic in
the agenda - the continued USV Area Focus.  In Montreal, the following
objectives were decided by the USWG:

	-Liase with TERENA ISUS. (See ETINU effort mentioned above.)

  	-Update certain selected FYI RFCs. 
         The update of FAQ documents were discussed in Montreal, but
         nothing has happened beyond that.)  At this session, Jodi Ito
         and Sepi Boroumand volunteered to update FYI 4, "FYI on
         Questions and Answers: Answers to Commonly asked "New
         Internet User" Questions".

	-Continue to provide documentation for developing countries.

	-Liase with other IETF areas.
         This includes working with QOS protocols, Next Generation
         Internet, Internet 2, etc.  The result will be a new world
         network providing QOS, and how will that affect the User
         Area.  As an example: the service side is usually crisis
         driven, and the idea is to become proactive.  The new network
         will be providing end-to-end services to a user/application,
         and problems will involve coordination between multiple
         administration organizations (e.g., ISPs).