CURRENT_MEETING_REPORT_ Reported by Tony Bates/RARE - PRIDE Project Minutes of the Generic Internet Service Description Working Group (GISD) Agenda The following agenda was agreed: o What is GISD? o Overview of past activities o New charter o Structure and format of GISD document o Content of GISD document o What can you do for GISD? Brief History of GISD Tony Bates gave a brief overview of the history of GISD. GISD evolved from a RARE project run at the RIPE NCC under the direction of the RARE Technical Program. It was an ``open'' project with no hidden agendas other than to provide service providers with a clearer and better understanding of what an Internet service is and what are the common aspects of Internet service today. It had originally started as a specification, but over time consensus had shown that a `descriptive' document was more appropriate. The project had limited time (20% of six months in total) and most of the work had focused on understanding the need, focus and structure on which to create such a document. A project report is available summarising the initial ideas and progress made towards the GISD document. It is available from ftp://ftp.ripe.net/ripe/docs/ripe-094.ps. There have been two BOFs (Columbus and Amsterdam) and a working group meeting (Houston) held under Tony's chairmanship. However, due to time constraints and commitments to other work, the necessary push from Tony has been somewhat lacking and it was decided if GISD was to progress it needed a new chair. Thankfully, David Sitman agreed to take over this role. New Charter The new charter was formally agreed and accepted. The goals and milestones are as follows: o July 94 - Review the current GISD draft and add any additional aspects felt essential. o December 94 - Prepare the final draft of GISD and submit as an Internet-Draft. o March 95 - Follow-up with final amendments and submit the document to the RFC Editor for publication as an FYI RFC. The only change from the old charter was essentially a shift in dates to have the first draft ready for review by the San Jose IETF. Structure and Format of GISD Document An FAQ was handed out outlining the basic ideas behind GISD. It attempts to answer such questions as the scope, coverage and detail the structure and aspects of GISD. The FAQ is available from ftp://ftp.ripe.net/gisd/FAQ.txt. Questions of funding were raised as to whether GISD should discuss the way in which services and service providers are funded. This is clearly outside the scope of GISD. David presented the current structure of GISD. The basic outline is a set of short descriptions divided into six distinct areas of service currently known as: o Access o Generic services o Connectivity o Operations o Information provision and coordination o Security Within each of these areas a number of service `aspects' have been defined. For each of these aspects a simple structure is used to describe the aspect. The list of aspects was handed out. After much discussion, the general consensus was to change the structure to unify the aspects within an area. In practical terms this means that one author will write the entire area. This is seen as essential to maintain a coherent view of the area. To make this possible, an action was taken to produce a small guidance document on how an area (and specifically the general format) should be approached. This will mean a slight departure from the current proposed structure in that each aspect will not be divided up into the various categories. Mike O'Dell, David Sitman and Tony Bates will produce such a guidance paper and send it to the list as soon as possible. The remaining time was spent reviewing the currently defined aspects. It was clear some clarification would be needed to accompany the guidance paper if an author was to feel comfortable with working on an area. However, the only major change from the presented aspects was to drop aspect 1.5 (IP over X.25) as it did not need to be specifically highlighted in its own right. The general format of the aspects seemed to be fine with some possible `word-' needed to clarify the options a little more. David made a call for volunteers. Kim Long from NYSERNET agreed to work on the operations area. David would post a `call for volunteers' as soon as the guidance document was posted. Summary of Actions o David Sitman, Mike O'Dell and Tony Bates will produce a guidance paper reflecting the change in structure and clarifying the aspects per area. o Kim Long will produce the first draft of the ``operations'' area for GISD. o David Sitman will send a call for volunteers for other GISD areas.