2.8.1 User Services (uswg)

NOTE: This charter is a snapshot of the 44th IETF Meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It may now be out-of-date. Last Modified: 11-Feb-99

Chair(s):

April Marine <amarine@globe.arc.nasa.gov>

User Services Area Director(s):

April Marine <amarine@globe.arc.nasa.gov>

User Services Area Advisor:

April Marine <amarine@globe.arc.nasa.gov>

Mailing Lists:

General Discussion:uswg@isi.edu
To Subscribe: uswg-request@isi.edu
Archive: ftp://ftp.near.net/mail-archives/us-wg*

Description of Working Group:

The User Services Working Group of the IETF provides a regular forum for people interested in all levels of user services to identify and initiate projects designed to improve the quality of information available to users of the Internet. Actual projects themselves are handled by separate groups, usually through IETF working groups, or through liaisons with international organizations such as TERENA's (Trans-European Research and Education Network Association) Information Services and User Support.

(1) Meet on a regular basis to consider projects designed to improve services to users. In general, projects should:

- Clearly address user assistance needs;

- Produce an end-result (e.g., a document, a program plan, etc.);

- Have a reasonably clear approach to achieving the end-result (with an estimated time for completion); and

- Not duplicate existing or previous efforts.

(2) Create working groups or other focus groups to carry out projects deemed worthy of pursuing.

(3) Provide a forum in which user services providers can discuss and identify common concerns.

This is an active, on-going working group in the USV area of the IETF. It is the spawning ground for establishing other working groups in this area.

No Goals and Milestones
Internet-Drafts:

Request For Comments:

RFC

Status

Title

 

RFC1150

 

F.Y.I. on F.Y.I.: Introduction to the F.Y.I. notes

RFC1207

 

Answers to Commonly asked ``Experienced Internet User'' Questions

RFC1462

 

FYI on ``What is the Internet?''

RFC1594

 

FYI on Questions and Answer Answers to Commonly asked ``New Internet User'' Questions

Current Meeting Report

Minutes of the User Services Working Group (USWG)
IETF - Minneapolis, MN - March 1999

Recorded by April Marine.

The heart of the USWG agenda consisted of the following:

USV Area Update

April Marine provided an overview and update of activities in the Area as a whole.

The SSH group has shut down after successfully publishing the User's Security Handbook (RFC 2504, FYI 34).

The RUN working group has its "Don't Spew" document before the IESG. This is draft-ietf-run-spew-08.txt that advises people not to spam; it is being revised to address some IESG comments. It has another document on its charter dealing with responsible advertising on the net, which just enlisted some new editors, so should be moving ahead.

USV has two BOFs meeting in Minneapolis, which were introduced. The WEIRD BOF deals with putting new user/IETF newbie information up on the web. The FYIUP group will be updating some FYI documents.

TERENA Update

Yuri Demchenko provided an update regarding the activities of TERENA, the Trans-European Research and Education Networking Association. He gave highlights of three activities.

Update of FYI 1

This was a discussion of draft-ietf-uswg-fyi1-00.txt, which itself was an update to a previous draft that would explain which FYI documents were considered out of date. Most of the discussion regarding the text of the document dated from Orlando, so there was little controversy at this meeting. This doc is essentially ready at this level, but should be held to move forward with the update of FYI 4.

Update of FYI 4

Ray Plzak led the discussion of the latest draft of FYI 4. This was a substantive discussion of the draft, which has progressed significantly. Suggestions were made to re-order some sections of the document and volunteers were volunteered to rewrite some sections. These included: April rewrite 2.3, Phil to rewrite 2.4, Gary to add a section regarding addresses and URLs and Ray to add references. There were other comments on wording and such. The following schedule was worked out:

- April 9: rewrites, new paragraphs and comments to the list
- April 16: comments on above to list
- May 7: Ray to issue a new ID
- May 21: comments to list on new draft and hopefully from there up to the IESG for review...

Sitting here writing the minutes one day before they are due and one week before the first date on this list, this now seems rather ambitious. However, I think we have divided the work nicely so that small chunks were handed out and these goals can be met.

Slides

None received.