NOTE: This charter is accurate as of the 30th IETF Meeting in Toronto. It
may now be out-of-date. (Consider this a "snapshot" of the working
group from that meeting.) Up-to-date charters for all active working
groups can be found elsewhere in this Web server.
Access/Synchronization of the Internet Directories (ASID) Charter
Chair(s)
- Tim Howes <tim@umich.edu>
Mailing List Information
- General Discussion <ietf-asid@umich.edu>
- To Subscribe <ietf-asid-request@umich.edu>
- Archive <ftp://terminator.rs.itd.umich.edu/ietf-asid/archive>
Description of Working Group
There is a clear need to provide and deploy a well managed Directory
Service for the Internet. A so-called White Pages Directory Service
providing people- and organizational- information, is especially long
overdue. While the ultimate goal is a general Directory Service for
the Internet, this is too ambitious a goal to be tackled by a single
working group. Therefore ASID will keep a tight focus on access and
synchronization protocols for an Internet White Pages Directory Service.
Other related working groups will be formed in the Applications Area
that will deal with other aspects of the Internet Directory Service.
Currently there are various protocols under development in the Internet
that aim to provide such a service: Internet X.500, WHOIS++, NETFIND,
CSO, RWHOIS, etc. To allow these services to evolve to a ubiquitous
Internet Directory Service, a hybrid system that allows interaction
between the various different services is a requirement.
The ASID Working Group will define, evolve, and standardize protocols,
algorithms and access methods for a White Pages Directory Service on the
Internet.
The following protocols (some still under development, some completed by
other IETF working groups) will be considered by the working group:
- Lightweight Directory Acces Protocols (LDAP and Connectionless LDAP)
- User Friendly Naming (UFN) and User Friendly Searching (UFS)
- The SOLO directory access and searching system
- The WHOIS++ directory service
The following work items are handled by other groups, and as such are
outside the scope of this group. However their results are important to
the development of a White Pages Directory Service, and will be taken
into account:
- The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
- The UR* definitions
- The NETFIND directory service
The group will focus on harmonizing, evolving and developing protocols
and algorithms that deal with access to and synchronization of
Directory Service, both ad hoc and standards-based, with a goal of
converging where possible towards a hybrid system that ties together
various forms of Directory Service. Clearly, protocol-level
integration is only part of the solution. But to keep this group
tightly focused, harmonizing directory information and service models
will be tackled by other working groups.
Goals and Milestones
- Jul 1994
- SOLO revised Internet-Draft published.
- Jul 1994
- CLDAP Internet-Draft submitted as Proposed Standard.
- Jul 1994
- X.500 URL Internet-Draft published.
- Sep 1994
- SOLO Internet-Draft submitted as Proposed Standard.
- Sep 1994
- LDAP URL Internet-Draft published.
- Sep 1994
- SOLO URL Internet-Draft published.
- Sep 1994
- Stand-alone LDAP Internet-Draft published (LDAP without X.500).
- Nov 1994
- Revised versions of all Internet-Drafts.
- Jan 1995
- Submit all Internet-Drafts as Proposed Standards.
Internet-Drafts
RFCs