BCN

Technical Advisory Committee
Thursday, September 2nd 1999

PROPOSED MINUTES

IN ATTENDANCE

Joelle Bonnett
Jim Harrington
Neal McBurnett nealmcb@bell-labs.com
Ernie Stiltner
Jim Waterman

AGENDA

Review, Revise & Accept Agenda

Review, Revise & Accept previous meeting minutes

Update & Revise Previous Action Items from

1999-6-3

1999-7-1

1999-8-5

1. Domain Name Policy Document- update

Neal & Jim W.

2. Conferencing / Chat Software for BCN- discussion & revisit decision

3. Apache Parsing -discussion

4. TekCycyle - introduction

10 minutes

Jim

PROPOSED MINUTES

ACTION ITEMS

1. JIM H. Will write a volunteer descriotion and coordinate the task of collecting the URL addresses and contact information for every nonprofit BCN hosts. Will look for volunteer. Maybe Toni towork with Paul T. on.

2. JIM W Will send Jim H. and Paul T. a DIPP listing of all the URLs in its database

3. NEAL - FAQ / Review of Jim Ws document is coming

http://bcn.boulder.co.us/faq/domain.html

4. NEAL, JIM W, JOHN P. & ERNIE Will assess how bad of a problem are CGI scripts on BCN server. John P will be looking at logs on CGI scripts after his one week vacation. Brenda gave him access on BCN.

5. PAUL T. Will use the DIPP URL information to search for other sites on BCN using a program that maps out the BCN site hierarchy.

6. ROY OLSEN - will research Glimpse, Webbot and evaluate in general search engines for BCN to use

7. JIM H will ask Troy to create a TekCycle web site.

DOMAIN NAME RELATED ACTION ITEMS

FYI- www.septemberschool.org goes to:
http://bcn.boulder.co.us/univ_school/september/\

PROCESS IS STALLED. JIM H. OR JOELLE WILL WORK WITH MIKE TO GET IT STRATED AGAIN

1. MIKE LEWINSKI -will write up a web page answering these questions and a MEMO on how they deal with older browsers.

BRENDA E-MAILED MIKE AND HAS GOTTEN NO RESPONSE

2. Jim W. will review this page when done

3. JimW. & Mike will connect with @ SMTP and the adding of SMTP script alias

4. Jim Y. to do a how to redirect your own server document to be sharedwithin the technical community. BCN tools page will link to his server for this document

5. Jim Y is doing a document on how to set up on your own server

6. NEAL --FAQ / Review of Jim Ws document is coming

PROGRESS IS BEING MADE AT http://bcn.boulder.co.us/faq/domain.html

7.BRENDA will meet with Joelle to go over the memo of understanding BCN should have with ISPs providing a domain name host for web sites on BCN

1. DOMAIN NAME POLICY DOCUMENT UPDATE

UPDATE

DO YOU WANT A DOMAIN?

Paragraph to describe it

BCN does not do this but others do and this is how they can do it our way)

STEP ONE - See if the domain name is available and cost to acquire and register

STEP TWO - If you want to pursue options check out BCNs approved ISP domain name host & redirect providers

xwebco/ rockynet

Indra??

Yonan

IF YOU ARE A INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER and want to provide redirects to BCN pages check out (Process by which other ISPs may join the list)

QUALIFICATIONs to be an approved ISP domain name host and redirect provider

MODEL HOW IT CAN BE DONE

CONCERNS were raised about how to deal with older browsers that can not be redirected:

internet explorer 2, mosiac, Netscape 2 WEBCO has proposed doing an index page from which older browsers can get to where they want to go

OTHER QUESTIONS

bookmarks

why do they say BCN instead of www.nonprofit.org

why BCN doesnt host domain names ect

BCN CUSTOMERS SHOULD ASK THESE QUESTION AND THE ISP SHOULD ANSWER NOT HAVING ANSWERS TO THESE QUESTIONS COULD HURT BCN IN THE ENSUING HASSLES BCN WILL HAVE TO DEAL WITH

1. How to register with Internic making VERY sure ownership of the name and the administrative contact be at an e-mail address and account different from the ISP address that is hosting and redirecting the domain name

2. contact info at the ISP. Who is the technical person?

3. Variations on name standards

4. for e-mail, FTP and other protocols

are these services supported by the ISP?

what is the charge?

where will webmaster for domain name e-mail go?

BCN clients can do a TekMatch project if they need help following these instructions

At end of BCN hosted web page have Brought to you by BCN Pleasesend comments to XXXX / not BCN

AN ISP MUST accept mail under the domain name and not send/bounce the mail to BCN

MEMO OF UNDERSTANDING WITH ISP

Technical concerns

E-mail FTP protocols

ISP answers all domain name questions

if ISP stops hosting they need to let client know not just BCN

BCN is outlining a process for a third party to do Domain names

BCN does not do DNS

BCN does not do IP allocation

ADDITIONAL DOMAIN NAME COMMENTS

Please review these documents. The reason BCN doesnt do domain name hosting is that we dont want a lot of questions.

What do you do if this document doesnt answer your questions

If you have further questions DONT ask BCN for a personal answer.

PLEASE do give comments if you thin they will help others understand the process as well BCN should list who can help them

Multi domain SMTP

Jim W. reports if they don't configure it the real host NOT BCN gets the mail

2. CONFERENCING CHAT SOFTWARE FOR BCN - - discussion

Joelle was updated on previous TAC discussions and concerns. Don is welcome to bring further suggestions for and discussions about conferencing chat software to TAC.

3. Apache Parsing - discussion regarding date stamping of files

FROM PAUL V

At the last tech-advisory meeting we were talking about problems with having Apache parse every page which is served.

Apache includes an optional module called xbithack which allows you to use the user 'x' permission bit as an indicator to tell apache to parse pages with ".html" suffix. This has the benefit of not changing the file name to .shtml which would break links from other pages.

I mentioned this to Jim at the BASIN meeting and we were speculating about DIPP implications. Since this would only impact files ending in html or htm, I don't think it would provide a way to "leak" CGI scripts under DIPP (I assume that CGI scripts outside of /cgi-bin need a .cgi suffix). May need DIPP to change to keep permissions when files are replaced. Jim certainly knows the DIPP issues - there may be other issues.

DISCUSSION

How does Apache parse every page uising the optional module called xbithack? How does xbithack deal with symbolic links?

preindex.htm[l]

as

index.html

Server side include functions are like:

last modified date commands

footers and headers

FYI- Every page on BASIN has server side include functions. BASIN pages are not updated using DIPP

Currently DIPP moves files. Jim W. puts in alot of volunteer time maintaining DIPP as what it does now. Using Apache would require DIPP to not only move files but also open each file and look for the executable bit. Adding this functionality to DIPP can be done but it will require more and more system administration time JimW and staff do not have. Further instead of tweaking DIPP to do a little bit more here and there again and again it may be better to look at finding a magic tool that can do all these things and more instead of DIPP.

Alternatives to DIPP is to use FTP and configure in a way that provides for staff convenience and addresses security issues. How will the authority mechanism work if BCN givs out FTP accounts. We do not want anonymous FTP to have read access to the site. No individual FTP account should be able to read any other individual FTP account

WUFTP (Washington Uninversity FTP)

expansion feature is the guest account- view into the individual directory and below. We can set the root command limiting the top part of the directory from the user

If we are contemplating a change from DIPP to a version of FTP CU ITS staff will need to weigh in on the decision

4. TekCycyle - introduction

High-Tech Computer Junk: Where Does It Go? - Jim

http://bcn.boulder.co.us/bcn/tac/minutes/businessresponsibility.htm

introduced computer recycling and disposal issues. Agreement that BCN should share this information. Create web site (Troy?) Get links for information from others and add to site. Research more information about those companies that do have a Take Back program as in Europe .

FUTURE TAC AGENDA ITEMS

Review & update action items

1. Domain Name Policy Documents - Updat- Neal & Jim W.

2. Indexing searching BCN -update - Roy

How do we want searches on the BCN server to work?

What method do we want to use to find things?

How can we help people to quickly find the meat of the BCN

website / commmunity?

3. Accessibility Standards for BCN - discussion-Pierre

WHAT ARE THE TECHNICAL CONCERNS AND WEB SITE STANDARDS BCN SHOULD HAVE TO MEET THE NEW ADA STANDARDS?

All web sites associated with the federal government (and an increasing number of states) will need to comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act by early next year. This will affect web publications, software development, and hardware and software procurement standards.

http://aware.hwg.org/

http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2243282,00.html

http://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/Design_Arts/Graphic_Design/Web_Page_Design_and_Layout/

Accessibility/

http://www.w3.org/WAI/

http://evolt.org/index.cfm?menu=8&catid=20&cid=381

http://www.knowbility.org/

My recollection of previous discussions on this issue is that we should wait until the federal government officially releases its standards before making this a TAC / Center Developer priority. While we wait do some preliminary work assessing the BCN site with Bobbie I have some concerns about BASIN and Virtual Chautauqua as federal grant funded sites being developed under cuurent standards but deliverd to the government when these new standards are in effect. (Jim H.)

4. XML- introduction & discussion

Pierre

http://www.w3.org/XML/

http://www.ucc.ie/xml/

5. TAC War Room- introduction & brainstorm - Neal & Jim H.

BCN needs a clubhouse of multiple computers large enough where a couple small groups can be working on a project during a meeting. Can turn TAC meetings into brain intensive work sessions to get things done - Neal

6. Flash/SWF "open(?) format" for web vector graphics

Neal

I've long wanted an efficient way to offer resolution-independent vector graphics over the web, as an alternative to bulky gif images that look lousy when printed or viewed at a different size than the author intended.

I just heard about Shockwave's Flash format. But I have an instinctive suspicion when companies try to make their own work into an "open standard".

They claim that the spec is open, but in my definition that means that revision control of the spec is owned by a standards body. E.g. this prevents them from always being ahead of everyone else when they putout a new version.

They claim that they are soon going to release the source code for the "flash player" (it is used for both vector graphics and animations) for free, but there are lots of licensing restrictions it doesn't look like people will be able to share their code modifications with others. E.g. the code is "confidential and contains trade secrets".

But I would really like to see a good vector graphics format that was widely supported, and theirs seems to be closest to an "industry standard" position.

Is it a good format?

Does the Linux player work well?

Are there alternatives I haven't heard of?

Are there any open-source projects seeking to produce and/or read the flash format?

Should we go with this one despite the problems?

Spec: http://www.macromedia.com/software/flash/open/spec/toc1_4.html

FAQ: http://www.macromedia.com/software/flash/open/faq/contents.html

for fun see:

www.leopard.com

www.eue4u.com

Review New Action Items, Decisions, Meeting