Group Communications

There is a lot of work being done in the standards area now. Most of it seems to be defining models etc. Some of the people involved have been involved in developing WORKING pre OSI group comms systems (Jacob Palme: Kom, PortaKom, EuroKom, SuperKom; Muray Turoff: Eies and Eies2 (distributed version of the electronic information exchange system, etc.) This area is of interest to me. I'm not sure whether this is something WG1 or WG3 would consider taking on as a workitem (to track the standard and to provide comment and input to that group.) I would certainly like the group to recommend to the RARE REC/COA that such a work item be taken on by RARE - but that is something for the group to decide. Steve Benford has made some of the papers available in RTF format for Word 4 on the Mac. These are LARGE. They are available from Mailbase at Newcastle: [Note : I'm still waiting for the X.GC doc from Steve. I'll mail the list when I have it.] How to get them.... send a mail message to: mailbase@newcastle.ac.uk with the text: send rare-wg3-usis x.acc.v8.rtf send rare-wg3-usis x.gc.v8.rtf These docs are: TITLE: Asynchronous Computer Conferencing Working Document X.acc FILE NAME: X.acc.v8.rtf TITLE: Group Communication Working Document X.gc FILE NAME: X.gc.v8.rtf TITLE: Asynchronous Computer Conferencing Working Document X.acc I include below extracts from these docs (Contents + Glossary of terms) to give you a flavour of what they are about. (This may be all you need in fact.) The Group Communication System provides a distributed conferencing facility. Much of the model looks very like that for a distributed directory service of course, but has much more built in. It has the idea of roles: member, moderator, group owner and system manager. Jill =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Asynchronous Computer Conferencing Working Document ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 18/WG 4 Version 8, June 1991, Printed 22/8/91:4:51 pm CCITT Study Group VII/Q.18 SOURCE: Joint ISO/IEC/CCITT Group Communication Subgroup at the co-located meeting of CCITT Study Group I/Q.15, VII/Q.18 and ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 18/WG 4 SPW Messaging Part 1: Introduction iv 1 Overview 1 2 Scope and Field of Application 1 3 References 1 4 Definitions 2 5 Abbreviations 2 6 Conventions 3 7 Part 2: Asynchronous Computer Conferencing Model and Abstract Service 3 7.1 Introduction 3 7.2 Asynchronous Computer Conferencing Terminology 4 7.3 Asynchronous Conferencing Abstract Service Definition 7 7.3.1 Ports and Operations 7 7.3.2 Member port 8 7.3.3 Moderator port 12 7.3.4 Conference Management Port 12 7.3.5 Possible extensions 13 7.3.6 Notification handling 13 7.3.7 Issues for further study: 14 8 Part 3: Distributed realisation of the computer conferencing model 15 8.1 Partitioning 15 8.2 Operational procedure 15 8.3 Navigation 16 8.4 Execution 16 8.5 Communication between CCSA-s 17 8.6 Distribution of new contributions 18 8.7 Varying real implementations 19 8.8 Mapping CCAP operations on distributed operations 21 8.9 For further study 23 Annex A: Glossary of Terms 23 Annex B: Security Overview 24 1 Introduction 25 2 Vulnerabilities 25 3 Vulnerability analysis 25 4 Security services 25 1 Overview Part 2 of this document presents a basic asynchronous computer conferencing application. Part 3 describes a possible distributed realisation of the computer conferencing application. 2 Scope and Field of Application This Recommendation defines the overall system and service of Asynchronous Computer Conferencing. Other aspects of Message Handling Systems and Services are defined in other Recommendations. 5 Abbreviations DL Distribution List FFS For Further Study GCE Group Communication Environment GCS Group Communication Service GCSA Group Communication Service Agent GCUA Group Communication User Agent GCAP Group Communication Access Protocol, the protocol between a GCUA and a GCSA CCSP Computer Conferencing Service Protocol, the protocol between two CCSA-s CCS Computer Conferencing Service CCSA Computer Conferencing Service Agent CCUA Computer Conferencing User Agent CCAP Computer Conferencing Access Protocol, the protocol between a CCUA and a CCSA CCSP Computer Conferencing Service Protocol, the protocol between two CCSA-s IPM Inter-Personal Messaging IPMS Inter-Personal Messaging Service IPMUA Inter-Personal User Agent MTS Message Transfer Service DS Directory System DUA Directory System User Agent DAP Directory Access Protocol, the protocol between a DUA and a DSA DSP Directory System Protocol, the protocol between two DSA-s DFRS Document Filing and Retrieval Service DFRUA Document Filing and Retrieval User Agent DFRSA Document Filing and Retrieval Service Agent DFRAP DFR Access Protocol, The protocol between a DFRUA and a DFRSA =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= TITLE: Group Communication Working Document X.gc Group Communication Working Document ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 18/WG 4 Version 8, June 1991, Printed 22/8/91:4:48 pm 1 Part 1: Introduction v 2 Overview 1 3 Scope and Field of Application 1 4 References 1 5 Definitions 1 6 Abbreviations 2 7 Conventions 3 8 Part 2: General Group Communication Model 4 8.1 Goals 4 8.2 Requirements 4 8.3 Approach 5 8.4 The Group Communication Service 5 8.4.1 Introduction 5 8.4.2 The Group Communication Environment 5 8.4.3 Group Communication User 6 8.4.4 Group Communication User Agents and Group Communication Service 6 8.4.5 The GC Service is distributed 7 8.4.6 The GC System contains data objects 8 8.5 The Group Communication Information Model 9 8.5.1 Objects 9 8.5.2 Item 10 8.5.3 Entity 10 8.5.4 Domain 10 8.5.5 Index 11 8.5.6 Attributes 11 8.5.7 Links 11 8.5.8 Distinguished Names 12 8.5.9 Free-Form Names 12 8.6 Abstract Service Definition 12 8.6.1 Overview 12 8.6.2 Searching 14 8.6.2.1 Examples 15 8.6.2.2 ASN.1 for Search 16 8.6.3 ASN.1 for the Group Communication Abstract Service 17 8.6.3.1 The Group Communication Environment 18 8.7 Items for further study 30 9 Part 3: Mapping the Computer Conferencing Model on the general Group Communication Model 31 9.1 Introduction 31 9.2 Objects 31 9.3 Attributes 34 9.4 Links 35 9.5 Mapping Operations 35 9.6 Initialisation 35 9.7 Manager port 36 9.7.1 Create group activity 36 9.7.1. Announce group activity 36 9.7.3 Suspend group activity 36 9.7.4 Delete group activity 36 9.7.5 Add member 36 9.7.6 Remove member 36 9.7.7 Reject subscription request 37 9.7.8 Register participant 37 9.7.1. Unregister participant 37 9.7.10 Modify group activity 37 9.8 Member port 37 9.8.1 Find-group activities 37 9.8.2 Find subscribed group activities 37 9.8.3 Describe group activity 38 9.8.4 Subscribe request 38 9.8.5 Unsubscribe 38 9.8.6 List news 38 9.8.7 Find contributions 38 9.8.8 Find notifications 38 9.8.9 Read item 39 9.8.10 Mark 39 9.8.11 Submit-contribution 39 9.8.12 Personal-reply 39 9.8.13 Modify-contribution 40 9.8.14 Remove-item 40 9.8.15 Delete-item 40 9.8.17 Describe-participant 40 9.8.16 Find-members 40 9.8.18 Modify-profile 40 9.8.19 Download news 40 9.9 Moderator Port 41 9.9.1 Find-submissions 41 9.9.2 Accept 41 9.9.3 Reject 41 Annex A: Glossary of Terms 41 Annex B: Security Overview 42 1 Introduction 43 2 Vulnerabilities 43 3 Vulnerability analysis 43 4 Security services 43