(Message dg:129) Return-Path: Received: from uk.ac.rutherford.gec-b by bells.cs.ucl.ac.uk via JANET with NIFTP id aa14909; Tue, 1 May 90 10:38:55 +0000 Via: [+JANET.00000511120050.FTP.MAILE]; Tue, 1 May 90 11:39 GMT (V39 at UK.AC.RUTHERFORD.GEC-B) To: Directory-Pilot@uk.ac.rutherford From: Adrian Barker (on GEC 4190 Rim-B at UCL) Date: Tue, 1 May 90 10:42 Message-Id: <01 MAY 1990 10:45:56 CCAAARB@UK.AC.UCL.EUCLID> Comments: The following is an article submitted to UCL News, which is a glossy magazine circulated to all staff. I was told to remove all the technical content. The Central Computing Service Directory Service (Adrian Barker, Systems Development Division, Bloomsbury Computing Consortium) The Directory Service is a new service offered by the UCL Central Computing Service, with the aim of facilitating communication by phone and electronic mail, both within the College and external to it. The service is initially based on the UCL phone directory and provides online access to the information from any computer terminal connected to the College network. It also includes the electronic mail addresses of some members of staff - more will be added in due course. In addition the service provides access to similar services offered by other universities, as part of a project funded by the Computer Board's Joint Network Team to investigate their use. The project is also exploring other uses of the directory, for example a thesis database. It is planned to extend the service to all universities within three years. The UCL Directory Service is a joint project involving staff of the Bloomsbury Computing Consortium and the UCL Computer Science Department, with cooperation from the Administration and the Telephone Exchange. International Standards The Directory Service uses a new international standard for computer communications called X.500, which has been developed by the International Standards Organisation. At present it can be quite difficult to find out a person's electronic mail address or phone number, particularly if they are not in the UK. X.500 is designed to make this easier by allowing enquiries to be made to any other organisation (in the world) that is also running an X.500 service and that can be reached over the network. This is analogous to calling the local operator enquiries with a request for an international number. Enquiries are automatically forwarded to the appropriate organisation. As it is an international standard, it is expected to be widely adopted over the next few years. There is an EEC initiative to support X.500 directory services for research workers in the EEC and projects in various other countries. The Computer Science Department at UCL has been closely involved with the development of the X.500 international standard and is the leading department in the UK for research into directory services. In addition, it has been involved in writing the software as part of an ESPRIT project. Data and Privacy A major issue with the directory service is the question of privacy and access control. The initial service is based on the printed phone directory, so internal phone numbers that are ex-directory are not held in the directory service. There are plans to add electronic mail addresses and information specific to each department, including the fax number, the location and a phone number for general enquiries. All this information is seen as being in the public domain and will be publicly readable. Personal information, such as home addresses and phone numbers, will not be stored in the directory. In the longer term, facilities will be provided which will allow people to put this information in the directory if they wish. Other information, which would also be optional and entered by the person concerned, could include research interests and publications. These issues have been discussed with the Data Protection Registrar and the College Data Protection Coordinator. Accessing the Directory Service The Directory Service will be available from the 1st May. It will be accessible from any terminal connected to the College Data Exchange by requesting the service 'dir'. Once connected, there will be a choice of two interfaces - 'easy' or 'advanced'. The 'easy' interface prompts for the surname, and optionally a department, and returns the matching entries. If a department is not specified, all UCL is searched. A complete name is not required - the initial few characters can be supplied. The directory can also be searched for the phone numbers of rooms, laboratories, departmental secretaries and organisational roles. Further details can be obtained from the help system. There will be times when the service is not available, for example when the data is being updated, although whenever possible this will be done outside normal working hours. In addition, it is a new, experimental service and so will be subject to change and development. The internal telephone numbers are obtained from the College telephone directory used by the switchboard operators. Therefore any changes to the directory (such as staff leaving or joining the College) should be reported to the Telephone Supervisor. The Services Department is planning shortly to circulate departments with a request to update directory information.