RFC 585

Arpanet Users Interest Working Group Meeting ✨

okay bestie, this is RFC 585 📄 and it's giving 1973 Arpanet vibes 🦋 Here's the title block so you know who's behind it:

• Authors: D. Crocker (UCLA-NMC), N. Neigus (BBN-NET), J. Feinler (SRI-ARC), and J. Iseli (MITRE-TIP) 💜
• Category: Users
• NIC number: 18259
• Date: 6-Nov-73
• Obsoletes/Updates: the header doesn't list anything it obsoletes or updates, so this one stands on its own 🌸

The Network Working Group is the crew that wrote it, and it's the Users category, which means it's all about the people actually clicking around the network 🫶

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Okay so, the USING group (Arpanet Users Interest Working Group) is basically what came out of a meeting in Boston on May 22-23, 1973. It was cochaired by Dave Crocker from UCLA-NMC and Nancy Neigus from BBN, and it happened right after BBN's Resource Sharing Workshop 🎀

PURPOSE

The USING meeting was a place where Network users could vent their complaints, swap info, voice what they want, and bring real proposals for designing and building user-focused Network features 💅 Honestly, the members were all about having a forum for that.

The group is going to do a few things: lobby for user interests, promote and make resource sharing easier, improve user interfaces (support), and look into standardization 🔥 The big dream? Users should be able to find whatever resources are on the Network they might want to use, and get to them easily 🌈

Neigus, Crocker, and Iseli of MITRE were picked to flesh out USING's objectives and goals in more detail. They'll share that discussion in a later publication ✨

ATTENDEES

• Dave Crocker, UCLA-NMC, Co-Chairperson 👑
• Nancy Neigus, BBN, Co-Chairperson 👑
• Ken Bowles, UCSD-CC
• Frank Brignoli, NSRDC
• Jim Calvin, CASE-10
• Jake Feinler, NIC
• Wayne Hathaway, NASA-AMES
• Jean Iseli, MITRE
• Mike Kudlick, NIC
• Mike Padlipsky, MIT-MULTICS
• Lee Richardson, USC-ISI
• Ron Stoughton, UCSB
• Jim White, NIC
• Steve Wolf, UCLA-CCN
• Joe Wyatt, Harvard

CATEGORIES OF CONCERN

Okay this part is the tea ☕ The meeting started by trying to make a pretty complete list of topics that matter directly to users. The plan was to dig into some of those categories afterward. Each category below comes with a quick outline of the discussion and the recommendations tied to it. Not everything got fully discussed because time ran out 💀 People also admitted some recommendations were super extensive, but they still got mentioned, even though they'd be a long way off to actually build 🧚

1. Online and Offline Documentation, Information Sharing, and Consulting

• a. The general vibe is that both online and offline docs need a glow-up: better quality, more technical accuracy, faster updates, better distribution, and better format 💖
• b. Docs should skip the "buzz" words (jargon) and follow easy-to-understand syntax conventions, abbreviation standards, reference citation rules, and so on 🙈 That said, there probably can't be one standard format for writing documentation.
• c. Offline docs should be well indexed, have a good table of contents, and be easy to browse 📚 Online docs should have a browse mode with clearly labeled categories of info, plus keyword search 🔍
• d. Docs should carry date, author, and version info, especially big online ones 🗓️ That way it's easier to tell which version is the newest, and to find the author if something's wrong with the docs.
• e. Network news needs to be collected and distributed smartly to users (Network PR) 📣
• f. Users need several levels and styles of access to docs, online or offline, depending on their experience, interests, and preferences 🌸
• g. Every server site should offer some level of variety in online "help" mechanisms, tailored to different kinds of users and their experience 🫶

Also, typing "Help" from the EXEC level of a system should point a user to ALL the procedural-type info 💅

• h. New users should be introduced to the Network carefully through a New Users Packet (NUP) 🎀 Since MITRE-TIP is the official contact for new users, they should design the packet and fold in suggestions from USING.

This packet should eventually cover things like:

• a definition of, and introduction to, the Network
• a list of sites
• step-by-step scenarios for accessing functional documents and related online items
• a definition of who can get on the Network
• some quick-reference charts showing the Network services available to new users
• an introduction to Network groups, including USING, plus the names of Network consultants, assistants, and the like 🧚

• i. Users should get information-accessing mechanisms, like interactive tutorials, user scenarios, and other training tools 🦋
• j. A Network-wide "who, what, where and when" information system should be built. (This got the nickname Network Yellow Pages 💛) Talk about supporting it centered on finding some kind of central funding 💰
• k. The idea of `Regional Agents' for collecting info for the Resource Notebook came up 🗂️

Several people felt what was really needed was a `rebirth' of the original Technical Liaison concept, where that person feeds info to the NIC and gives technical help to users 💖

There was also worry about how many people were collecting info and how much redundant asking sites were getting 😩

And people wondered what incentives there are (or should be, or could be) for Liaisons to do their job well by keeping info truly up to date and complete. Basically, carrot vs. stick 🥕

• l. Server Sites should offer a variety of consulting services to back up "help" and general info services 🌈 Consultants could represent the whole Network, a group of sites, one site, general areas like software, or specific application processes. This could fit into the workings of the Network Servers Group ✨

Okay that's the end of part 1 bestie, the big categories pick up from here 💜

b. Okay, so a method for work flow management is needed 🧠. It lets a user set up a sequence of computer tasks that are contingent upon one another, aka each step depends on the one before it. The user should be able to describe this sequence interactively and then detach and continue with other work while the sequence of tasks is being carried out 💅✨

7. Personal Information Management System 📬

a. Users need a system for managing all types of machine-based contacts such as mail, links, journal items, etc. 💌

Such a system should `log' what has been received and allow the user to keep a copy, if desired 📥

It should also provide the user with options for organizing his personal information 🗂️

b. A personal `calendar' or reminder system would be handy 🗓️, especially if it allowed one to look ahead to coming events as well as to check events for the current day or week 🔮

c. A `return to sender' feature is needed in the Network-wide mail address system 📮

d. (Discussion of the current work on the Mail Protocol indicated that some of these ideas are already being considered) 🙌

8. Uniform Accounting Procedures and Online Status of Accounts 💸

a. This topic was covered in detail by sections of the Resource Sharing Workshop. It is mentioned here only because it is a problem of real concern to users 😭

9. Trial Usage and Browsing 🛍️

a. Ideally, users should be allowed some `free' sampling of systems and features available at each site. Practically, this presents problems of space allocation, accounting, consulting, etc. Although none of these problems are easy to solve equitably, an attempt should still be made to provide some free usage to everyone 🎁

b. Several types of trial usage should be considered, such as for those who will make an immediate commitment and those who wish merely to sample, without making any commitment 🦋

10. Prelogon Facilities 🚪

a. Some facilities should be available as prelogon facilities, so that any user can access them whether or not he has an account, directory, etc., at a given site. Some sites will not be able to support many of these functions, so a required set must be kept to a minimum 🧚

11. Remote User Facilitation 🧑‍💻

a. Users not only need help with actual use of systems from a remote site, but they also need facilitation of administrative tasks. Station Agents should be able to handle most of these problems or transfer the user to the proper person. System access requirements, account and billing problems, and document acquisition need particular attention 🫶

b. There should be a simple mechanism for users to acquire/update information in functional documents such as the Resource Notebook and in files such as identification files. Publications or files of this sort should combine the collective input of all the users 📚

12. Transportability of Resources and Information 🚚

a. Users should be able to easily transfer information, such as files, memos, mail, online documentation, (programs?!?) etc., from one site to another 📦💜

13. Network Utilities 🌐

a. Should distributed data banks and similar features be considered Network utilities that can be used by all? 🤔

The idea of "Network Utilities" was recognized as an interesting one by the group, but there was little agreement as to what constitutes Network utilities or how they should be supported 🤷‍♀️

CURRENT PLANS 🗓️✨

1. Neigus, Crocker, and Iseli will draft the scope, objectives, goals, and priorities of USING and will submit their recommendations for approval by the members 📝
2. MITRE will design a New User's Packet incorporating ideas from USING 🎀
3. Bowles, Hathaway, and Stoughton will write preliminary specs for a Network Common Command Language Protocol. All members should suggest a list of commands for consideration 💬
4. Padlipsky will produce specifications for a simple, standard editor (NETED) which could easily be implemented by server hosts 🖥️
5. A general Users Group (NIC ident = USERS) will be formed, to allow any interested person to monitor user-oriented activities, especially those of USING. Anyone interested in being in USERS should contact Dave Crocker (DHC) 👑
6. Activities of the group will be reported in the ARPAnet News, and a user's forum column will be made available for user's comments 📰
7. The group will meet again in the Fall of 1973 at the Network Information Center in Menlo Park, California 🌸

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