RFC 584

RFC 584: Charter for Arpanet Users Interest Working Group 🎀

Okay bestie, this is RFC 584 and it's the charter for the Arpanet Users Interest Working Group ✨ It was written by J. Iseli (MITRE-TIP), D. Crocker (UCLA-NMC), and N. Neigus (BBN-NET), dated 6 November 1973. It's filed under the category Users, it's USING Note 6, and the NIC idents are 19025 and 20049. The header doesn't list anything it obsoletes or updates 💅

Background 🌈

Okay so the ARPANET Users Interest Working Group (NIC Ident = USING) got started at a meeting of 15 network people on May 23, 1973 🫶 The whole goal was to make the Network a better place to work for users. USING is here to represent what users actually need, so the people building things know what matters and provide the services that are needed 🔥 The group's take is that the network is moving past just pouring resources into self-perpetuating research and development. It's becoming a service, and whether it survives as one depends on users being happy 😭

There's also a second group, the ARPANET Users Group (NIC Ident = USERS). This one's a forum where users can share their wishes and complaints 💬 USING acts as the steering committee and lobbyist for them, and passes their ideas along to the appropriate centers 👑

Membership 💖

Joining USING is open to people who are interested in improving Network user support, and who are able and willing to make real, meaningful contributions to what USING does 🎀

Joining USERS is open to anybody who's interested 🦋

Scope 🌸

USING's scope covers the parts of Network activity that affect how services get provided to users. That includes whether resources are available, how reliable they are, and how easy they are to use 💅

Goals 👑

USING's big overall goal is for the ARPANET to become a coherent system where users can shape their own working environment. It should match their experience level and how much transparency they want about the system's quirks 🫶 System resources should be self-documenting, and every level of assistance, on-line and off-line, should be available, again, with the user in control of it ✨

Short Term Objectives, for the initial 6-12 months 🧚

1. Specification of a user-level Common Command Language (CCL) 💜
2. Specification of a Network Editor for CCL 🍓
3. Further definition and focusing of User Issues 🔥
4. Encouraging establishment of a User's consulting service 🫶
5. Publication of a New-Users Handbook 🌈

Long Term Activities 🌟

1. Monitor and/or provide impetus for user-oriented Network development efforts, including resource directories, tutorials [static and dynamic], training courses and referral services 💖
2. Provide mechanisms to encourage, analyze, and respond to user feedback 🦋
3. Develop profile information relative to users' requirements, types, usage attributes, and affiliations 📊
4. Stimulate mechanisms to facilitate entry of new users to the ARPANET 🚀
5. Sponsor user seminars and encourage formation of viable user working groups where appropriate 🎀

[ This RFC was put into machine readable form for entry into the online RFC archives by Alex McKenzie with support from GTE, formerly BBN Corp. 10/99 ] 💕