ISN Minutes for Toronto

[Jennifer Sellers <[e-mail]>]

ISN Minutes
Toronto IETF, July 27, 1994
Submitted by Jennifer Sellers, Chair

The meeting was called to order at approximately 9:40 a.m.  The meeting
agenda was approved as follows.  Because of time limits of some of the
document authors, the Chair did not adhere to the order of the agenda.

1)  AUP document status
2)  Stages of Connectivity document status
3)  K-12 Internetworking Guidelines document status
4)  Connection Provider document status
5)  K-12 Directory database - April Marine
6)  Future Direction of ISN
7)  Any other business

The document entitled "K-12 Internetworking Guide" by Joan Gargano and
David Wasley can be found in the IETF repositories (ds.internic.net, etc.)
as internet-drafts/isn/draft-ieft-isn-k12-guide.01.txt and
internet-drafts/isn/draft-ieft-isn-k12-guide.01.ps.  Consensus was reached
at the Seattle meeting in March that document is good as it stands.  Since
there were no objections to any of the changes made in the interim, it
will be submitted for RFC/FYI status.  It was also noted that the
California Department of Education guide, upon which this shorter document
is based, is located at goldmine.cde.ca.gov.

A short document on creating an Acceptable Use Policy by Bill Manning can
be found in the IETF repositories as
internet-drafts/isn/draft-ieft-isn-aup.01.txt.  The author indicated that
after the document went out for a "last call" at the request of the IESG,
some modifications might be needed.  Options were to define the target
audience as the educational community and leave the CoVis AUP in as a
sample in the appendix, or to define the target audience as a more
general one and leave out the CoVis example as well as publish the
document in a different working group.  The decision was to leave in the
CoVis example and sent the document up for RFC/FYI status from the ISN
group.

A document entitled "Stages of Connectivity for Schools" by Bob Carlitz
and Gene Hastings was discussed.  The authors have been asked if they
would be willing to publish the document as an RFC/FYI, and the group is
waiting to hear their decision.  If this document is not published as an
RFC/FYI memo, ISN will refer to the document and will not write another to
satisfy the milestone which it was to fulfill.

April Marine, NASA NAIC, led a discussion of the K-12 Directory Database
project.  She began by reminding the group that this was a "white pages"
type of project to collect contact and other information (name, address,
email, subject taught, age of students, etc.) on educators and educational
projects who use the Internet.  Whatever system is used needs to be low
maintenance, as automated as possible, and must address issues of privacy.
The work of ISN was to define the requirements for implementation then
advocate for a group in the Internet community to develop the database
system, make the database available, and maintain it.

Since Seattle, a group of ISNsters has defined the fields of information
that should be included in such a database.  CNIDR is doing some work in
the area of whois++ and volunteered in Seattle to create an initial,
centralized database and begin seeding the effort, with the idea that it
will eventually need to be distributed over more than one server.  CREN
volunteered to do basically the same thing using X.500 as the
implementation.  InterNIC Directory Services said at the Seattle meeting
that they would be willing to assist with initially setting up an X.500
server of less than 50 entries, a standing offer to the Internet
community, and assist others in setting up and maintaining their own
servers.  Susan Calcari, InterNIC Information Services, will check on and
report to the list the status of the three efforts and what exactly each
provider is willing to do.  We also need to identify if CoSN (the
Consortium for School Networking) is able to do anything towards
maintenance of the database or any other aspect of the effort.  It was
noted that it may be possible to submit an unsolicited proposal to NSF for
funding to support this effort.  The group agreed that the document
expected to satisfy the milestone created for this effort would be one
that discusses the database and tells people how to access it, use it, and
enter their information into it, and that this can only be written when an
initial implementation is complete!

The milestone to write a document on connecting educational sites
directed at connection providers was modified to state that the goal will
be not a document but an electronic repository of existing useful
documents.

In discussing the future of ISN, the general consensus of the group was
that the working group should continue.  ISN is a valuable forum to
discuss K-12 connectivity problems/issues and to interact with the
engineering community.  The following were identified as potential
projects:  to assist with the creation of an information clearinghouse of
K-12 Internet education projects; at meetings, allow time for tutorials on
the various projects represented; assist with the creation of Web pages
for K-12 projects, developing a template for consistent look and
information of the pages; assist with dissemination of provider and vendor
information that has an educational focus, with providers maintaining
their own information.  A side note, an educator hired by NASA is
collecting information on special connectivity deals available to
educators.  If anyone in the IETF community has a special connectivity
program for educators, please send email to [e-mail].

The NASA NAIC's guide can be used as a model for information delivery.
The guide was produced for the NASA Science Internet community to assist
them with answering the "now what do I do once I'm connected?" question.
The guide can be accessed via the World Wide Web; the URL is
http://naic.nasa.gov/naic/guide/.

For those new to the K-12 community, it was suggested that they subscribe
to the Consortium for School Networking Discussion List (cosndisc:
[e-mail], sub cosndisc) as well as to the ISN list.

By next the next meeting (in December in San Jose, California), the group
should set up the template for the directory database, define the process
for information collection, draft a Web page to begin the clearinghouse
project, delineate and begin next steps in setting up the clearinghouse,
and set up the Web-accessible repository to take the place of the
connection provider document.  The Chair will submit a revised charter to
reflect the latest progress.

At the next IETF, ISN will make a special effort to have local educators
attend our meeting to discuss their needs and requirements.  Although
educators are always invited, the group recognizes that ISN is probably
the only working group they would be interested in, so the Chair and Area
Director will pursue ways to include educators that reflect this desire.

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 11:30 a.m.  These minutes are
based on notes which Jodi Chu took during the meeting; many thanks to
Jodi!