Editor's Note: Minutes received after cut-off for incorporation into Proceedings. Networked Information Retrieval WG IETF Fall 1992. Final Report submitted by Jil Foster & George Brett, co-chairs 1. The Networked Information Retrieval Working Group convened by Jill Foster and George Brett with 37 persons in attendance. The Agenda was discussed and approved as presented 2. Updates of other projects Updates on other related projects were presented by George and Jill. George presented material on the new Clearinghouse for Networked Information Discovery and Retrieval (CNIDR) that he is directing. Jill presented an update of the RARE ISUS working group. 3. Review of the draft "Consumer Report" on NIR Tools and groups The draft of the "Consumer Report" on NIR Tools was reviewed and discussed at length. There was discussion about the networked information retrieval tools and the organizations/groups that have been included and omitted in the "Consumer Report." A number of appendices were recommended from the floor to provide broader base of information for the users and providers of the information. The NIR Tools that should be included in the report are: Alex, archie, Gopher, Hytelnet, netfind, Prospero, WAIS, whois, WorldWide Web, and X.500. Appendices for NIR Tools included: (1) Coming Attractions (those NIR Tools that are in developments and not yet fully implemented, such as Hyper-G, Infocal @ UC-Berkeley, Soft Pages, and Hyper-G); and (2) Extinct Tools (those which are no longer being supported or used by the Internet community) The list of organizations and groups involved with NIR Tools currently includes: 1. the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) and its sub-groups (CNI-Architecture Working Group, Directory Working Group, the TopNode project, and the Z39.50 Interoperability Testbed) 2. the Clearinghouse for Networked Information Discovery & Retrieval 3. the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and its sub-groups (DISI WG, IIR WG, NIR WG, NISI WG, OSI-DS WG, URI WG and WNILS) 4. the Online Catalog Library Center (OCLC) and its sub-group (USMARC WG) 5. the European Research Networks Association (RARE) and its sub-group (ISUS WG) 6. the SR-NETT, the Nordic SR-project 7. the Z39.50 Implementors Group Appendices for organizations and groups that were recommended from the floor included: (1) Other interested parties (these would include other parties who have vested interest in the NIR Tools such as US federal agencies and commercial vendors); and (2) Extinct Groups (those groups or organizations that once developed or support NIR Tools, but now no longer do such as the IETF IAFA WG.) 4. Review of the templates in light of experience in completing them There was some discussion in this area regarding the content and form of the templates. Generally, the templates and the report were well received. It is planned to update the templates on a quarterly basis. 5. Next stage: Evaluation of the various tools The working group also discussed future plans to evaluate the tools, and the general usefulness of this report. Once the "Consumer Report" is stable and in use it should be evaluated on a set of criteria. There was some discussion about the necessary criteria as well as the form of the evaluation. There will be further discussion on this issue in the future. 6. Identifying other tasks (need for documentation, training materials, etc.) Issues that were to be raised by this agenda item were covered in discussion during other parts of the meeting. It was suggested to check with other groups and organizations for recommendations in this area. 7. What Next? The working group concluded its work with a discussion about future dissemination of the report in varied media. There was consensus that the report will have to be made available across the many networked information retrieval tools (esp. gopher, WAIS, archie, and whois++). Another appendix was recommended, "How to prepare info for the various tools," to ensure that the information form accommodates these tools. This task was accepted by Joan Gargano, chair of WNILS WG. One of the first online archives for the "Consumer Report" on NIR Tools will be hosted at the Clearinghouse for Networked Information Discovery and Retrieval. 8. What is the role of the NIR in tracking new working groups [note: I do not remember any discussion about this point. I believe we ran out of time.] 9. Any Other Business The mailing list was discussed because the IETF link to McGill will be going away soon. Jill Foster has arranged for the list to be hosted in the UK. Now to subscribe send mail to: mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk with an empty subject line, and in the body of the message include: subscribe nir Your_First_Name Your_Last_Name. If you have any difficulties contact Jill Foster (jill.foster@newcastle.ac.uk) As requested the chair queried those at the session about who would be attending the IETF summer meeting in Amsterdam. Nine person said that they planned to go to Amsterdam to attend the meeting either at the current registration rate or at an increased price. Attendees Vikas Aggarwal vikas@jvnc.net George Brett George.Brett@cnidr.org Jodi-Ann Chu jodi@uhunix.uhcc.hawaii.edu Peter Deutsch peterd@bunyip.com Tim Dixon dixon@rare.nl Alan Emtage bajan@bunyip.com Roger Fajman raf@cu.nih.gov Richard Fisher rfisher@cdhf1.gsfc.nasa.gov Jill Foster jill.foster@newcastle.ac.uk Jim Fullton jim_fullton@unc.edu Deborah Hamilton debbie@qsun.att.com Alisa Hata hata@cac.washington.edu Russ Hobby rdhobby@ucdavis.edu Laura Kelleher lak@merit.edu Jim Knowles jknowles@binky.arc.nasa.gov Edward Krol e-krol@uiuc.edu David LeRoy dleroy@mitchell.cit.cornell.edu Edward Levinson levinson@pica.army.mil Gary Malkin gmalkin@xylogics.com Janet Marcisak jlm@ftp.com Michael Mealling michael@fantasy.gatech.edu Mark Needleman mhn@stubbs.ucop.edu Clifford Neuman bcn@isi.edu Hilarie Orman ho@cs.arizona.edu Jim Perchik perchik@athena.mit.edu Pete Percival percival@indiana.edu Bradley Rhoades bdrhoades@mail.mmmg.com Alan Roszkiewicz alan@sprint.com Srinivas Sataluri sri@qsun.att.com Jane Smith jds@jazz.concert.net Larry Snodgrass snodgras@bitnic.educom.edu Simon Spero simon_spero@unc.edu Claudio Topolcic topolcic@cnri.reston.va.us Paul Tsuchiya tsuchiya@thumper.bellcore.com Janet Vratny janet@apple.com Chris Weider clw@merit.edu Yung-Chao Yu yy@qsun.att.com William Yurcik yurcik@dftnic.gsfc.nasa.gov