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Update and a new life beat for GISD.


Okay,
	to get GISD up and running  please find an FAQ that I've put together
for GISD in preparation for next weeks first WG meeting. I will post an agenda
tomorrow. Hopefully you will find this usual as an introduction to GISD. Until
now the GISD work has been a little unclear. I hope to rectify this and get
GISD near to completion with your help. Please note some changes including the
mailing list address, an update to the draft (not much though) and a pointer 
to the working group charter. We have a Monday afternoon slot for GISD. The 
plan is for the meeting to be part free-form looking at the defined aspects 
and areas once more and then a hope of some volunteers to take on an aspect or 
two.  All comments are of course welcome before, during and after the IETF.
As I said Agenda tomorrow.
I will also give a short presentation of GISD as it stands at the session.

	Cheers,
			--Tony.








     GISD Frequently Asked Questions and Answers (FAQ)


Tony Bates                                 26th October 1993

Questions with answers:

1)   What does GISD stand for ?
2)   What is GISD ?
3)   Who is GISD aimed at ?
4)   What is the purpose of GISD ?
5)   How is GISD Structured ?
6)   So what does the GISD structure look like ?
7)   What does GISD not cover ?
8)   What are the areas of GISD ?
9)   Who can contribute to GISD ?
10)  How can I help with GISD ?
11)  Why does GISD have an IETF working group ?
12)  What is the goal of the IETF GISD working group ?
13)  What is the current status of the GISD document ?
14)  Does GISD have a mailing list ?
15)  Is the list archived ?
16)  Where did the idea for GISD come from ?

---

1)   What does GISD stand for ?

GISD stands for "Generic Internet Service Description"

2)   What is GISD ?

GISD is an attempt to collect short descriptions of Internet
Service  aspects.   Internet service here means the interac-
tion of Internet service providers among themselves and with
their  customers.  GISD  aims  to  provide a common frame of
reference and vocabulary to talk about an Internet  service.
GISD  is  merely  descriptive and does not proscribe or man-
date.  GISD is intended to be a living  document  collecting
work of many contributors.

3)   Who is GISD aimed at ?

GISD is aimed at service providers  and  how  they  interact
with  other  service  providers as well as with their custo-
mers.  Here a customer is taken to mean more than  a  single
user,  generally  it will mean some form of organisation who
has a need to use the global Internet and does  this  via  a
service  provider.   In an effort to get things started GISD
concentrates on `Internet Service' in terms  of  service  at
the IP layer itself rather than at the application layer. It
does not describe services run on top of the IP layer unless
they  are  used  to manage the Internet service itself, like
using SNMP for monitoring or E-mail to report problems.



                      October 26, 1993





                           - 2 -


4)   What is the purpose of GISD ?

GISD is not intended to be a mandating document but a  docu-
ment  that  describes  various  aspects  a  service provider
should consider  and  how  some  of  these  aspects  can  be
addressed and are currently being addressed in the Internet.
It is entirely up to the service providers and their  custo-
mers  to  agree  on each aspect of service.  Considering the
rapid changes the Internet is undergoing at  present  it  is
clear  that  GISD cannot be static. It must be updated regu-
larly if it is going to  remain  useful.  With  the  current
changes  in  technology  and  organisational  aspects of the
Internet an update every six months appears to be a  reason-
able timescale.

5)   How is GISD Structured ?

GISD provides a general framework to  describe  an  Internet
service according to six areas.  Within each area an list of
service aspects is  described.   Each  aspect  is  described
independently  according to a fixed format: The what section
describes what the particular  aspect  being  described  is.
The  why section describes in which way it is relevant to an
Internet Service.  Following the what and why sections is  a
description  of one or more commonly used options to provide
this aspect of service.  If there are many options they will
be categorised as minimal, common or maximal solutions wher-
ever possible in order to provide some guidance on the rela-
tive  completeness  and  service  quality  of  the different
options.  Wherever the choice of an  option  may  depend  on
other  issues  such  as  geographic  location  this  will be
flagged as well.  Following the options if  there  is  addi-
tional  documentation  of  relevance  a see also  section is
provided.  An optional SOAP BOX  section  is  available  for
controversial  but relevant items to the aspect.  There is a
references section will provide pointers to  relevant  docu-
ments Finally the contributors section will list the contri-
butors to the particular service aspect description.

6)   So what does the GISD structure look like ?

So the general structure of GISD is:















                      October 26, 1993





                           - 3 -



GISD
        Area
                Aspect
                        What
                        Why
                        Options
                                (Minimal)
                                (Common)
                                (Maximal)
                                (Regional)
                        See Also
                        Soap Box
                        References
                        Contributors
                ...
        ...


7)   What does GISD not cover ?

GISD does not cover any details relevant to  cost.  It  does
not  as  has  been  done in other document provide a list of
Internet service providers. It does not give any guidance as
to how you may wish to choose a service provider.

8)   What are the areas of GISD ?

The areas of GISD try to encompass as much as  possible  all
the  relevant  areas  of  Internet  Service.  Each  area  is
categorised with  a  conscious  effort  to  align  with  the
natural  way in which one should consider Internet Services.
There are currently six areas in GISS.  They are as follows:

    1)   Access.

    2)   Generic Services.

    3)   Connectivity.

    4)   Operations.

    5)   Information Provision and Coordination.

    6)   Security.

For a more detailed look at the areas you will have to  con-
sult the GISD draft.

9)   Who can contribute to GISD ?

Anyone. In fact, the goal is to make it easy for members  of
the  community to contribute their knowledge and experiences
while  receiving  proper  credit.   The  more  people   that



                      October 26, 1993





                           - 4 -


contribute  to  GISD  the  better  the  description  will be
become. Some editorial control is  exercised  just  to  keep
GISD manageable. Currently that control lies with the chairs
of the GISD IETF working group.

10)  How can I help with GISD ?

Currently there are many outstanding aspects that need to be
contributed for the first draft. Pick an aspect, send a mail
to the list telling the authors you plan to submit an aspect
and let's get it written.

11)  Why does GISD have an IETF working group ?

The Internet Engineering Task  force  is  a  good  place  to
interact  with  many  of todays service providers. By making
use of two previous BOFs the scope,  structure  and  initial
areas and aspects were mapped out.

12)  What is the goal of the IETF GISD working group ?

Basically to get a first completed GISD  document  out.  The
charter for the group can be found on:

ftp.ripe.net:ietf/gisd/gisd-charter.txt

13)  What is the current status of the GISD document ?

The document is far from complete. Many aspects  still  need
to  be completed.  However, the current version of the docu-
ment can be found on:

ftp.ripe.net:ripe/docs/ripe-drafts/giss.{txt,ps}

14)  Does GISD have a mailing list ?

Yes, it is all automatic so you  can  subscribe  and  unsub-
scribe  as  much as you like. This is done by sending a mail
to:

majordomo@localhost

With the following in the text:

subscribe gisd-wg

15)  Is the list archived ?

Yes, and this can be retrieved via e-mail by sending a  mail
to:

majordomo@localhost

With the following in the text:



                      October 26, 1993





                           - 5 -


index gisd-wg

16)  Where did the idea for GISD come from ?

GISD arises from a joint RARE/RIPE project funded by SURFnet
originally  known as GISS. For details of this see the final
project report. This can be found on:

ftp.ripe.net:ripe/docs/ripe-docs/ripe-094.ps
















































                      October 26, 1993





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