[297] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
IETF WG on LISTSERV-like capability?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (pgross@NRI.Reston.VA.US)
Tue Mar 5 11:50:01 1991
To: David Herron <david@twg.com>
Cc: com-priv@psi.com, jkrey@isi.edu, rdhobby@ucdavis.edu
Cc: gvaudre@NRI.Reston.VA.US, vcerf@NRI.Reston.VA.US, pgross@NRI.Reston.VA.US
Date: Tue, 05 Mar 91 10:29:34 -0500
From: pgross@NRI.Reston.VA.US
David -- Thanks for the summary of LISTSERV features. That was helpful
for us folks who don't know too much about LISTSERV.
To all -- Could I invite some of you folks to the IETF meeting next week
in St. Louis to explore setting up an IETF working group on this activity?
I can set up the logistics to kick it off (eg, organize the session,
insert it into the agenda, open the session). However, what we really
need is some knowledgable and interested folks who would be willing to work
on this problem. I have tried on two other ocassions to spin up some
activity in this area, but unless we have some knowlegable and interested
folks who will be willing/available to carry this forward, it just won't fly.
A proto-agenda for such a session might look like:
- list desired features for an Internet LISTSERV-like application,
eg,
- automatic subscription/de-subscription
- automatic file retrieval
- distributed operation to reduce message explosion
(note: this sounds like a tough issue for the
non-tree structured Interenet)
- database archival of messages
- other features like, say, an email version of whois
or finger?
- Decision: should we turn this into an IETF WG? If yes, go to
next step. (If not, go to fine lunch. :-)
- discuss/define command language for help, file retrieval,
automatic subscription, etc
- discuss methods for other features (eg, database, distributed
operation, whois, etc)
- outline an RFC describing features, command language, methods, etc
- Make writing assignments for RFC
- consider pilot projects (explore who is doing current work in
this area. Could their efforts cooperate under this WG?)
- Administrivia: designate chair for WG, set up mailing list,
pick date/location for next meeting, write draft WG
charter including task list and milestones, etc)
If I get enough response (say, even half dozen folks who would attend
this session), I will schedule such a meeting. I can send information
about the IETF meeting to anyone interested.
Please feel free to make suggestions/comments on the proto-agenda above.
We shouldn't burden the com-priv list with this topic for too long, so
after an initial round of responses, if there is enough interest, I
would suggest that we take this offline.
Thanks,
Phill Gross
IETF Chair
