IETF/IESG Information Architecture

[Greg Vaudreuil <]

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Greg Vaudreuil

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Date:    Thu, 24 Sep 92 17:55:13 -0400
From:    Greg Vaudreuil gvaudre@localhost
To:      IETF-Announce: ;
Subject: IESG Information Architecture


In Following messages, the IESG will announce several new Working
Groups in the User Services and Applications Areas chartered to integrate
Internet Information services.  Below is a draft statement of the
architectural framework written by the Working Group chairs and the
Area Directors as part of the chartering process.  For more
information, please contact Joyce Reynolds or Russ Hobby.


Greg Vaudreuil
IESG Secretary.



		"Integrated Information Architecture"
			    (Revised 9/15/92)

Many new networked services to identify, access, and retrieve
information resources have sprung up in the last several years --
archie, WAIS, and Netfind, to name only three.  Now, much as the
Internet has tied many disparate networks together into an integrated
system, the pressing problem is how to integrate these many new
services into a single coordinated Internet information naming,
discovery, and retrieval system.

There are three vital areas of this integration effort that the IESG
is interested in pursuing:

	1) The identification, cataloging, and documentation of networked
	   information services, new and old.

	2) The standardization of descriptions and identification
	   schemes for networked resources, and the distribution and
	   implementation of these identifiers.

	3) The integration and interoperability of the various
	   new information services.

To this end, the IESG is creating three new working groups:

	1) Networked Information Retrieval (NIR) -- NIR will work on the
	   first issue above by identifying, cataloging, and documenting
	   networked information services.  The result will be a published
	   catalog of network information retrieval services.  In addition,
	   NIR will liaise with other organizations working on this goal,
	   such as RARE ISUS and CNI.

	2) Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI) --  URI will concentrate
	   on the second issue above, particularly on the standardization
	   and implementation of identification schemes for networked
	   resources.  There will be two primary components in this
	   effort: a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) which is a string
	   which tells how to locate a document.  The second part is a
	   Universal Resource Serial Number, which is used to uniquely
	   identify a resource, so that one can, for example tell if
	   two documents with different file names are, in fact, the
	   same.  The standard identification scheme developed by
	   URI will be used by NIR to define the standard resource
	   formats.

	3) Integration of Internet Information Resources (IIIR) --
	   IIIR will work on the third issue by developing technical
	   specifications and documentation for a) interoperation between
	   the various information services and b) the integration of
	   new information services into the existing CIM (combined
	   information mesh).  After the specifications for interoperation
	   have been completed, IIIR will examine the need for additional
	   protocols necessary to further integrate the CIM, including
	   gateway protocols, query routing protocols, and other
	   mechanisms.

In addition to the above named groups, the IETF wishes to facilitate
the standardization of descriptions and data formats for various
specific information services by chartering single-protocol working
groups which will work on this standardization.  Examples of such
groups are the Internet Anonymous FTP Archive group (IAFA), which is
working on standardization of anonymous FTP archives, and the new
Whois Network Information Lookup Service (WNILS), which is working on
standardization of services using the WHOIS protocol.

The IESG considers these WGs to be components of a single coordinated
IETF effort to create an integrated Internet information architecture.
Therefore, the chairs and membership of each group will be active
participants in the other groups.  The overall coordination of this
effort will be under the joint management of the Applications and User
Services Area.

Due to the importance of an Integrated Internet Information Service
Architecture, the IESG requests the working group chairs and the
Applications and User Services area directors to jointly expand this
brief overview into a more fully fleshed out architectural statement,
and to issue periodic progress reports describing how the integrated
information service is developing.



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