Minutes of GISD WG meetig

[Tony Bates <]

	Minutes of the GISD WG meeting, Toronto, 27th July, 1994

Chairman: David Sitman, EARN
Minute taker: Tony Bates, RARE/PRIDE Project


1. Agenda

The following agenda was agreed:

   - What is GISD ?
   - Overview of past activities (Tony Bates)
   - New Charter
   - Structure and Format of GISD Document
   - Content of GISD document
   - What can you do for GISD ?


2. 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 over 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 in the Internet
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 focussed 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.  


3. New Charter 

The new charter was formally agreed and accepted. 
The goals and milestones are as follows:

  Jul 94
    Review current GISD draft and add any additional aspects felt
    essential.

  Dec 94
    Prepare final draft of GISD and submit as an Internet-Draft.

  Mar 95
    Follow-up with final amendments and submit to RFC editor for 
    publication as an FYI RFC
    
The only change from the old charter was a essentially a shift in dates 
to have the first draft ready for review by the San Jose IETF.


4. 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:

	1) Access
	2) Generic Services
	3) Connectivity
	4) Operations
	5) Information Provision and Coordination
	6) 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 wont 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 of 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 didn't 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.


5. SUMMARY OF ACTIONS

   ACTION 1 - David Sitman, Mike O'Dell and Tony Bates 
      produce a guidance paper reflecting the change in structure 
      and clarifying the aspects per area.

   ACTION 2 - Kim Long
      produce first draft of "Operations" area for GISD.

   ACTION 3 - David Sitman
      send call for volunteers for other GISD areas.