<title>The 24th Internet Engineering Task Force: Trip report</title>
<h1>At the IETF</h1>
I attended only the first two days of the IETF in Boston
(or rather, Cambridge).
On the Monday I chaired a "BOF" on "Universal Document Identifiers"
or "Uniform Resource Locators" as they came to be called.
See the <a href=UDI_BOF_Minutes.html>minutes</a> for details.
<p>
It seemed to be agreed afterward that the meeting had been focussed and
productive, with agreement on the goals and that most of the technical
details were boring, but important.
The attendance was small but almost everyone had read the background document,
and understood the issues.
This needs some homework by me and some discussion on the mailing list,
and then we will have an essential elemmnt of interworking of information
systems nailed down.
<p>
There was a strong Networked Information Retrieval (NIR) presence
at teh IETF, including Jill Foster and George Brett who are trying
to coordinate NIR services in Europe and the US respectively,
Simon Spero, the WAIS programmer who is working on a Z39.50-1992
implementation, and some regulars such as Cliffs Neuman (ISI)
 and Lynch (CNI), Peter Deutch and Alan Emtage, now Bunyip
(Bunny-IP?) Ltd (the archie pair), John Curran and a bunch more.
Brewster Kahle turned up at the bar afterward.
<p>
I missed the NIR BOF on Tuesday night as I had to leave during the afternoon.
 

