At the last RIPE meeting in Amsterdam, we have extensively discussed the need for a metainformation service about network resources and accessible services at european level. The result of the discussion has been the founding of the NIDUS WG. Network Metainformation Server ============================== The general feeling was that the RIPE User Information Service (if defined and set up) should act as a starting point for further search. It shouldn't (in most areas) store the information itself but rather pointers to other information sources and network resources and even pointers to pointers. Lets call this function the Network Metainformation Server (because I want it to cover a wider area than that covered by the current NIC's). 1. In order to implement a NMS we need first to study the overall structure of the information and resources accessible today and in the near future by the network and to define how the information in the NMS should be ORGANIZED. 2. Then we have to define tools which would be suitable to support the type of data organization required (access tools, maintenance and update tools) 3. Then we must define the mechanisms (algorithms & responsabilities) to maintain the NMS up to date - links to other such activities on the network (formal and automated) At the last RIPE meeting in the NIDUS WG I have proposed to study a little bit what a structure of a RIPE metainformation server could be. This has lead me directly to reflections about how could the information about existing and future network resources be organized. Many things in many different ways are being done on many places in the area of network resource registry/discovery. One can easily be wrong because of incompleteness, wrong tools used, insufficient availability etc. Nevertheless a european resource registry is a reasonable need, the RIPE community is probably one of the best places to start such an activity and the RIPE NCC is a reasonable place to do it. That's why I propose to use the well established RIPE database mechanism to register available network resources in the european IP [CLNP] network. RIPE has succeeded in implementing a pan-european data collection and maintenance machanism which I find really suitable for the purpose of creating a pan-european network resource registry. Using the RIPE database framework would bring elements of solution to all tasks 1.-3. stated above. If there is enough interest in this topic I think it should be discussed during the next RIPE meeting in Paris in the NIDUS and the DB WG's. I will be happy to receive your comments before the meeting to be able to prepare a more detailed proposal (or to withdraw it if it doesn't make sense). Follows a proposal of a template of the new "resource" object of the RIPE database. ================================================== Description of the "resource" RIPE database object ================================================== resname: Resource name in human Mandatory admin-c: Name of administrative contact person Format : <firstname> <initials> <lastname> Mandatory tech-c: Name of the technical contact person Format : <firstname> <initials> <lastname> Mandatory restype: Type of the resource Describes in one word the nature of the resource (the list of the most common should be agreed upon at RIPE) Format : one of the strings listed bellow meta = server of servers library = library catalogue docs = document store database = structured data base local = local information system (e.g. university information system) archive = specific data objects archive (e.g. public domain software) super = supercomputer facility Mandatory acc-method: Access protocol to the service This should be the name of the IP [CLNP] service which allows to access the server Format: sequence of bellow listed strings separated by space telnet | ftp | ftam | wais | gopher | www | e-mail | prospero | archie | ... Mandatory acc-key: Access info necessary to access the first level service (e.g. login name for public telnet sessions or port number and database name for wais servers) Format: depends on the access protocol acc-right: Access rights to the resource Format : sequence of strings bellow separated by space ANY | see connect attribute in network object | LIMITED Mandatory topics: Keyword description of the topics covered by the resource Each topic should be mentioned in a new topic attribute. e.g. economy, mollecular biology, computer networks, software Mandatory description: Short description of the resource Postal address is not needed, it can be found via the contacts host: List of hosts for this resource Format: fully qualified domainname without trailing "." Mandatory media: Type of data stored on the server Format: sequence of strings bellow separated by space ascii = ascii texts text = other textual data (e.g. in native language or various text processing formats - PostScript) struct = record oriented data graphics = graphical data (images) sound = self explanatory video = dtto binaries = computer programs in binary form sources = computer program sources etc. ================================================================== Other open issues : - description of CLNP services - description of other services (accessible via other network protocols) -- ====================================================================== Prague School of Economics e-mail : Milan.Sterba@vse.cs Computing Center tel : +42 2 21 25 704 nam. W. Churchilla 4 home: +42 2 823 78 59 130 67 Praha 3 fax : +42 2 235 85 09 Czechoslovakia =======================================================================