jromine@beanie.ICS.UCI.EDU (John Romine) (04/14/90)
The White Pages is an implementation of the OSI Directory Service
(X.500) -- that is, a distributed database for information about
computer users, including such things as a user's computer mail
address and favorite beverage.
Internet sites can now use MH 6.7 to access the White Pages for e-mail
address lookups. For those of you interested in getting WP, here's an
announcement about what you need to have to use it, and how to get it.
------- Forwarded Message
Date: Thu, 12 Apr 90 21:02:09 -0700
From: Marshall Rose <mrose@cheetah.nyser.NET>
Subject: Re: The White Pages service.
You can forward this to the MH list if you like:
Back in July, NYSERNet started a White Pages Pilot Project using X.500
over TCP/IP as the underlying technology. At the three month mark last
October, we hit nearly 100K entries at approximately 30 sites, about
half of these were NYSERNet sites. During the last three months, we
(NYSERNet and University College London) have spent a lot of effort
making the software more robust, performant, and usable, based on our
initial experiences. Well, as we enter the next three months, I'd like
to extend an invitation to Internet sites in the US and CA to join our
pilot. Here are the details:
1. You will need to run your own Directory Service Agent (DSA). This should
run on just about any 4BSD-derived platform, although the recommended
platform is a Sun-3 or Sun-4. You will need 30MB free disk for sources
and executables. In addition, for each person you intend to have
registered, the DSA will require approximately 1K of primary memory.
(Yes, the DSA keeps entries resident in core, does its own memory management,
etc., etc., there are obscure technical reasons for this.) I'm the
first to admit that the memory requirement is "noteworthy", but just think
of it as the price of admission.
2. The machine you run your DSA on will have to be on the Internet
(direct IP access) and your organization must reside in the United
States or Canada. The Canadian DMD (Directory Management Domain) is
still being set-up at the University of Toronto, but should be
operational before year's end. If there is an IP-connected site in
Mexico, contact me: I'd like to get c=MX up and running sometime. It
would be nice to offer White Pages over dial-up or something, but no
dice. Think of the IP-connectivity requirement as another price of admission.
3. You will need to be able to devote time to installing the software
and maintaining it. You will also need to check on your DSA regularly
(i.e., once each morning) just to see that things are fine. In
addition, if users at your site need help, you will be the first point
of contact. This really isn't such a drain, considering that if you're
the PostMaster at this site, you perform the exact same functions already.
So, after comitting all this what do you get?
Well, if you want a "hype" answer:
- you get to join a large distributed information service which is
administered by different organizations;
- you get to take part in the first production-quality field test of
the OSI Directory (X.500);
- you get to take part in the first large scale production application of
OSI technology on top of the TCP/IP suite of protocols; and,
- you get to add this experience to your resume, which will look
quite good.
But, if you want the real answer:
You get to offer an exciting new service to your users. White Pages
is just one of many applications you can host on top of the OSI
Directory. By getting the Directory installed at your site, you are
bootstrapping yourself to support the next generation of applications
which need Directory Service, e.g., MHS (X.400).
Besides, it's fun to run the White Pages software to track people down,
display their photos, find out their favorite drink, etc.
For more information, use anonymous FTP to host nisc.nyser.net, and
retrieve the file
pilot/src/pilot-ps.tar.Z
in BINARY mode. This contains a compressed tar image of several
postscript files containing four documents: an introduction, an Admin
Guide, a User Manual, and a presentation. Print these. The Admin Guide
says how to get the software.
/mtr
ps: if you can't use FTP, then you don't have IP-connectivity (and can't
participate anyway). Be kind to the WPP manager and don't send messages
asking for these documents. Wait until the next release of the ISODE
(next month), which will contain them, and you can print them yourself.
Thanks!
/mtr
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