IS Brief V1 I2 rev1

[/PN=tom.dewitt/O=gsa2/PRMD=gov+gsa2/ADMD=telemail/C=us/@sprint.com]

Volume I Issue 2 1993

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Integrated Services Brief
Report from the Federal Government Integrated Services Panel
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IS Panel Report
Chairman - Dave Bittenbender
Environmental Protection Agency
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The activities of the Integrated Services Panel continue to revolve primarily 
around the issue of Government-wide electronic messaging and directories.  These
services, we believe, offer significant opportunity for increased service to the
public, while at the same time presenting enormous cost saving and efficiency 
potential within the Federal Government.

The past months have been particularly eventful.  We have seen considerable 
progress in the activities of our working groups, and we have also participated 
in other activities centered around the initiation of a National Performance 
Review Laboratory project which should bring our vision of a single Federal 
Government messaging environment closer to reality.  To assist our activities in
support of existing messaging environments, the Inter-agency E-Mail Users 
Working Group and General Services Administration have also agreed to establish 
a pilot "help desk", which will provide assistance to agencies who are trying to
wend their way through the maze of external e-mail connectivity.

An Office of Management and Budget appointed task force has been established to 
plan for a government-wide e-mail program office.  Dr. Neil Stillman, of the 
Department of Health and Human Services, has agreed to chair this task force, 
and is currently putting a team together.

The Integrated Services Panel has established membership in the Electronic Mail 
Association, has established informal ties to the Internet Engineering Task 
Force, and is working to strengthen our relationship with the Internet 
community.

As always, we welcome participation from all U.S. Government organizations, and 
hope to see your organization represented in  upcoming meetings.

For further information, contact Dave Bittenbender at EPA, 
Phone: [phone].  
X.400:G=dave;S=bittenbender;O=epa;P=gov+epa;A=attmail;C=us

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Working Group Reports
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Interop & Help Desk
Interagency E-Mail Users Working Group
Co-Chairman - Mike Stein
Environmental Protection Agency
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Federal interagency e-mail activity continues to gather strength in terms of 
user access and activity as seen from within the E-Mail Users Working Group. 
Participation at monthly meetings remains high and my electronic distribution 
list  has doubled in length and the number of agencies  has grown by 50%.

If you read the first Integrated Services Brief, you will notice a group name 
change. The reference to X.400 has been dropped in favor of "e-mail." Although 
X.400 participants outnumber Internet by 3:1, Internet usage will continue to 
play a strong role in interagency communications. There is consensus that 
addressing and transport issues will be resolved to better integrate the 
functionality of these two approaches to messaging.
A major group accomplishment is progress in the establishment of a Help Desk 
that will provide a focus for technical assistance, problem resolution and 
information dissemination to the general federal e-mail messaging community (see
the Special Topics article "Help Desk Now in Service"). A pilot has started 
which will concentrate on building expertise in e-mail support through inquiry, 
responses and referrals. The Help Desk is accessible by X.400, Internet and 
Facsimile. In addition to, and in support of the Help Desk, the group has 
established a series of special interest groups, (SIGs,) each focusing on a 
particular e-mail application, (cc:Mail, All-In-1, WPMail, etc.)

In addition to communications within the federal community, the Clinton 
Administration's interest in public access was brought to the group through 
representation of the White House Office of Media Affairs. The group chairs will
also meet with the principals in the Americans Communicating Electronically 
(ACE) project to evaluate how our activities may be complimentary to ACE.

For further information, contact Mike Stein at EPA, 
Phone: [phone].  
X.400:G=mike;S=stein;O=epa;P=gov+epa;A=attmail;C=us
Internet:[e-mail]


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Directory
Interagency E-Mail Users Working Group
Co-Chairman - Martin Smith
International Trade Commission
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In May, the Interagency E-Mail User Working Group's Directory Working Group 
(DWG) compiled, and distributed to members, a prototype "US Government 
Directory" of e-mail addresses (and telephone numbers, where available) for some
2,500 persons from half a dozen agencies, including OMB, GSA, Commerce, 
Agriculture, Justice, and the USITC. The names and addresses were extracted from
agencies' E-mail systems, combined in a database and sent back to agencies 
electronically and in hard copy.  In late June, the DWG instituted its first 
automatic directory synchronization using a sample of 500 names from EPA and a 
similar list from ITC.  Once a suitable facility is located, the DWG expects to 
ramp up the automatic directory exchange to between 50,000 and 100,000 names by 
the end of the summer, as a "proof of concept" for large-scale directory 
synchronization among Federal agencies.

Meanwhile, the group has forwarded to the FIRMPoC via the IS Panel a 
recommendation for a policy letter to be sent to all agencies outlining a 
suggested policy on e-mail directory dissemination.  FIRMPoC would ask agencies 
to contribute their addresses to the DWG's Federal directory pilot.  The DWG is 
also considering a proposal for a standard file format for exchanging directory 
information, and a draft "call for data" to be sent to all agencies requesting 
input for the directory.

Key challenges for further progress of the pilot interagency directory are how 
to "package" the directory so it can be made easily available to users on agency
e-mail systems, and how to encourage agencies to maintain more attributes (like 
telephone number or title) in their local directories so the widest possible set
of standard information can be made available.

For further information, contact Martin Smith at ITC, 
Phone: [phone].  
X.400:G=martin;S=smith;O=ec;P=gov+itc;A=telemail;C=us


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Support Environment
Governmentwide E-Mail Working Group
Chairman - Dan Schneider
Department of Justice
-----------------------------------

The Governmentwide E-Mail Working Group is developing its Final Report package 
on a Mail Users Support Environment (M.U.S.E.).  The report will focus on the 
functional requirements and architectural design for using e-mail to change the 
Government's paper business processes to electronic business processes.  The 
business processes being addressed by the group are electronic filing and 
electronic commerce, along with interpersonal messaging and document 
interchange.  They encompass the full range of citizen, private sector, and 
state and local government business interactions.

One-stop-shopping and information dissemination are also service areas ready for
e-mail enabled applications.  The group is developing appropriate 
recommendations for them.  In addition, the Final Report may contain some new 
recommendations for implementation.

The group's Preliminary Report Package was received with considerable interest, 
and drew thoughtful comments.  The comments showed a positive view on the 
overall architecture and functionalities, but reflected differing opinions on 
the technology choices involved.

For further information, contact Dan Schneider at DOJ, 
Phone: [phone].  

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High Speed Data Services
Access Engineering Working Group
Article by Tom DeWitt
--------------------------------

The Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) Engineering Working Group has 
been reformed as the Access Engineering Working Group.  Under this 
reorganization we expect to have working group co-chairs, each focused on a 
particular data service type.  Service types under consideration include Shared 
Multi-megabit Data Service (SMDS), Frame Relay, ISDN , and analog telephony.

We are seeking nominations for co-chairs for this working group.  Candidates 
should be Federal Government employees with subject matter knowledge.

For further information or nominations, contact Tom DeWitt at GSA, 
Phone: [phone].  
X.400:G=tom;S=dewitt;O=gsa2;P=gov+gsa2;A=telemail;C=us

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Special Topics       
**************

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Help Desk Now Open
Inter-agency E-Mail Users Working Group
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In a coordinated effort, the Interagency E-Mail Users Working Group, and the 
General Services Administration have succeeded in establishing an E-Mail Help 
Desk pilot implementation.  The Help Desk is now available for use by working 
group members, at no cost, by contacting:

E-Mail Help Desk ,
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
X.400:G=emailhelp;S=interagency;O=gsa2;P=gov+gsa2;A=telemail;C=us

Each participating agency is permitted one primary and one alternate user of the
Help Desk service.   All Help Desk inquiries will be logged and tracked to 
determine how many and what kind of inquiries are being received.  A best effort
will be made to be responsive to the customer, using a variety of secondary 
resources.  For instance, a directory of agency e-mail points of contact and 
product/service provider support centers will be available to the Help Desk 
staff.

The pilot is using spare capacity on an existing help desk operation.  GSA will 
report to the working group on lessons learned and options for a permanent Help 
Desk with cost recovery.

For further information contact Tom Hillman or Eldon Hershberger at the E-Mail 
Help Desk ,
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
X.400:G=emailhelp;S=interagency;O=gsa2;P=gov+gsa2;A=telemail;C=us

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National Performance Review Pilot Started
General Services Administration
Office of Telecommunication Services 
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President Clinton launched a major initiative on March 3, 1993, announcing the 
creation of the National Peformance Review (NPR) under the leadership of Vice 
President Gore.  In a letter dated April 9, 1993, the Vice President requested 
that GSA designate organizational units to be laboratories for reinventing 
government.  On June 11, 1993 the "Interagency E-mail Pilot Project",  sponsored
by the GSA Office of Telecommunications Services, was approved as a National 
Performance Review Laboratory.

The mission of the project is to "introduce electronic messaging (e-mail) into 
the work flow process used by selected pilot groups."  Six candidate pilot 
groups have already been identified.  Of those six, three will be selected for 
full pilot participation and the others will be given more general support in 
achieving their objectives.  The six candidate groups include sponsors from the 
Executive Office of the President, Office of Science and Technology Policy and 
Office of Management and Budget; the General Services Administration, including 
the National Security and Emergency Preparedness (NSEP) Office; and the Federal 
Information Resource Policy Council Resource Sharing Panel.  The three groups 
for full participation will be selected by an Advisory Panel composed of 
representatives from various agencies.

Within the pilot project, e-mail distribution list and document retreival 
services will also be implemented in accordance with recommendations from the 
Interagency E-Mail Users' Working Group.  These common services will be made 
available to all six of the candidate pilot groups.  Groups selected for full 
participation will receive dedicated resources and support in addition to the 
common services support.  Finally, all six groups will have access to the E-Mail
Help Desk (see "Help Desk Now Open" article).
Small Agency E-Mail Pushing Forward
Small Agency Council
IRM Committee 

The Small Agency Council has unanimously endorsed the goal of e-mail 
connectivity by year end 1993.  The proposal was written by Federal Trade 
Commission Deputy Executive Director for Planning and Information, Alan Proctor.

According to the proposal, "there are a number of alternative means of 
interconnecting with interagency e-mail networks, some of which require no more 
than a PC, modem, and modest $10 to $20 charge per month."

The proposal also allows for the use of X.400 or Internet; "The e-mail systems 
should preferably meet the X.400 standard that is mandatory under existing 
federal IRM regulations, but connection through Internet would also be 
acceptable to facilitate the overriding goal of providing maximum 
interconnectivity between and among agencies and the various organizations and 
individuals with whom they are now or should be exchanging information."

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Registration Services
General Services Administration Office of Telecommunication Services 
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The implementation of Government Open Systems Interconnection Profile (GOSIP) 
compliant networks is taking place under the distributed administrative 
authority of Federal, state and local governments, and private industry.  The 
General Services Administration (GSA) currently provides services for the 
registration of GOSIP Version 2 Administrative Authority Identifiers (AAI) used 
in network addresses, and Government Organization Names used in X.400 Private 
Management Domains.  These services are provided under a delegation of authority
from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
To date, GSA has registered sixty seven Government Organization Names, forty 
Government Administrative Authority Identifiers, and twenty eight other than 
government Administrative Authority Identifiers.

Additional information is in the GSA "U.S. GOSIP Registration Services, 
Instructions to Applicants" document, available from the General Services 
Administration Customer Requirements Office, Room G242 KBA, 18th and F Streets 
NW, Washington DC  20405.

For further information, contact Shirlene Green at GSA, 
Phone: [phone].  
X.400:G=shirlene;S=green;O=gsa2;P=gov+gsa2;A=telemail;C=us

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Meeting Calendar 
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Integrated Services Panel
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July 27th - GSA National Capitol Region Building, Room 5700, 7th and D Streets 
SW, DC.

September 14th - GSA Central Office Building, Room 5141A, 18th and F Streets NW,
DC.

October 26th - GSA Central Office Building, Room 5141A, 18th and F Streets NW, 
DC.

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Interagency E-Mail Users' Working Group
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Contact Mike Stein at EPA, 
Phone: [phone].  
X.400:G=mike;S=stein;O=epa;P=gov+epa;A=attmail;C=us
Internet:[e-mail]

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Governmentwide E-Mail Working Group
-----------------------------------

Contact Dan Schneider at DOJ, 
Phone: [phone].  



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All Interested Parties,

The text version of the Federal Government Integrated Services Brief,
Version 1 Issue 2 is attached for your use.  Please redistribute.

Regards,
Tom DeWitt
General Services Administration