Minutes: MACE-Dir call 12-Sep-05

*Attendees*

Keith Hazelton, U. Wisconsin - Madison (chair)
Tom Barton, U. Chicago
Brendan Bellina, USC
RL "Bob" Morgan, U. Washington
Todd Piket, Michigan Tech U.
Renee Frost, Internet2
Steve Olshansky, Internet2
Ann West, EDUCAUSE/Internet2
Katherine Strojny, Internet2 (scribe)

*Action Items*

[AI] {Group} Review HEP document and in particular, comment on the treatment of the standard attributes (Section 6.12): Should 6.12 stand as it is or should it be reduced to a table of standard attributes?

*Discussion*

Major items for discussion were the upcoming Internet2 Fall 2005 Member Meeting and continued review of the draft Higher Education Person (HEP) draft. Minutes from the last call were approved.

Fall Member Meeting:

Discussion touched on final preparation details for the upcoming fall member meeting, in Philadelphia September 19-22. http://events.internet2.edu/2005/fall-mm/

Reviewing HEP Draft:

SteveO created a symbolic link that will always point to the latest post Higher Education Person Draft: So that web crawlers don't start picking it up, the link has only been posted to the MACE-Dir mailing list, and it will be added to the MACE-Dir web page once the document is developed a little more. http://middleware.internet2.edu/dir/docs/draft-internet2-mace-dir-higher-ed-person-analysis-latest.htm

Brendan added the OID (Object Identifier) numbers in the latest revision.

The group reviewed new material in sections 6.7 through 6.12, which focused on attributes. Discussion included scope of the document: Into how much depth should the document go, for attribute descriptions? The document is meant to reflect the common attributes, designed by collaborative groups, not those designed by individual institutions for their own use.  As such, detailed attribute descriptions can be found elsewhere. Members of the group voiced positive feedback on the utility of the sections reviewed and of the document as a whole, as a survey of common attributes that can be used for directory design.

In section 6.12 (Standard Attributes), debate focused on the question of whether to summarize the collective definitions for standard attributes because it would be useful to the reader, providing linkages back to other documents, or to point to other documents, which may have slightly varying descriptions for attributes of the same name. One suggestion was to reduce section 6.12 to a list of attributes without any accompanying text and include a list of RFCs. The discussion was tabled for the DirT call on Wednesday. [AI] {Group} Review HEP document and comment on the treatment of the standard attributes (Section 6.12): Should 6.12 stand as it is or should it be reduced to a table of standard attributes?

Next call will be Monday 26-September at 4:30 ET. Agenda and phone bridge will go out to this list in advance of the call.