1. As a followup on a series of suggestions and messages I posted from Nov 93 to the DISANet cc:mail Bulletin Board, I suggest that DISA establish Internet World Wide Web (W3), Wide Area Information Service (WAIS), and Gopher servers and an anonymous FTP host to enable more effective and efficient informing, involving, coordinating, and collaborating actions with DISA, and between DISA and its customers and suppliers. Included in this suggestion is the criteria that the W3 capability of DISA support W3 Forms and SQL interfaces. I believe some recent W3 efforts in DISA have begun as a result of my cc:mail suggestions and messages bringing the Internet server issue into visibility.

1.1. I later made other suggestions along the same line to other DISA elements, including a suggestion that DDOCRS and DISO Business Development provide a Web Server as the core element of DISA Information Kiosks at DISA booths and displays at future trade shows, conventions, and such.

1.2. W3 (Internet's hypermedia Knowledge-Base), WAIS, (Internet's Index), and Gopher (Internet's File Directory), are tools for exploring (using the client software) the wealth of multimedia information available on the Internet, as well as displaying (using the server sofware) DISA's multimedia information. Each allows the explorers to make personal bookmarks in the Internet space, allowing them to create a customized menu to quickly, easily, and regularly access the information items that interest them.

1.3. The W3 client also allows the explorers to order products and services over the Internet fill out questionnaires and surveys, post transactions, process queries, etc., giving our members, customers and suppliers access to the DISA's goods, services, publications, and reports of all types. The delivery of these products can then take place through electronic or physical transport.

1.4. Since the W3, WAIS and Gopher server and client software is public domain, DISA need only to acquire, install, populate, and operate the server software on underutilized or new processors and DISA-IS segments, behind appropriate security measures such as Firewalls and W3 proxies. Servers are available for Unix

1.5. All of these services could be accessed through one single DISA W3 "Home Page" with Internet links to Home Pages of other DISA, DoD, supplier, and customer organizations.

2. I also suggest that DISA established or outsource an Internet Online Conference (OC) service, assessible though the above DISA W3 server for all DISA members, suppliers and customers, and a hierarchy of additional Online Conferences for those same people, categorized by the location, organization, function, process, product (goods/service) and resource "objects" they're associated with. I propose that DISA operate the conferences using "Caucus", by Camber-Roth, or comparable software. Caucus, providing both synchoronous and asynchronous participation in online discussions, has been operating as the principle Unix and Internet conference application for over a decade, and as such, was probably the original "Groupware" application. Online conferencing is significantly different from other DISA groupware capabilities.

3. I further suggest that DISA use the W3 Form and SQL capabilities to process and respond to supplier, member, and customer queries and transactions from the Dynamic Enterprise MIS (DEMIS) described in DISA Suggestion 93-14. Note that DEMIS is currently being partially implemented as the "object warehouse" of the DISA Quality Management Information System, which I've designed and prototyped for the DISA Quality Management Office, Code AV.

4. All of these suggested capabilities can be added as components of the DISA-IS. As upgrades, DISA can provide Online Conferences for limited duration, limited access conferences for customer support, requirments analysis and definition, project management, workshops, seminars, collaborative research and writing, online meetings (action-oriented, informational, or combined), and online training. A organization or individual can provide announcements and services to other Internet users through the combination of the conferencing, the information servers (W3, WAIS, Gopher and TP), and the DEMIS.

5. DISA can, as necessary, upgrade the primary conference capability with additional conference sessions on a very rapid basis. User demand, the potential conference's audience size, and the availability of facilitators determines the conference practicality. To request activation of a conference, interested parties can send the conference director an email, thereby accumulating demand for the conference. As soon as there is sufficient demand and the requisite facilitator and network support has been arranged, the conference can be activated interested parties notifed to join.. The training for each conference facilitator takes less that one day. Network support for the conference software requires a working knowledge of Unix.

6. The W3 server would provide DISA organizations and individuals a worldwide multimedia display of their relevant electronic information holdings. This can include unclassified official and unofficial information, including public domain, with appropriate Firewall and W3 proxie servers to block unauthized access to the DISA-IS. This information can include catalogs, product descriptions, reports, lists, directories, policy, procedure, standards, etc.

6.1. This includes the capability to create and display organization or individual W3 "Home Pages" providing multimedia information about DISA .

6.1.1. Individual and organizations could post an interest-profile or resume in their W3 Home Page, displaying their skills, knowledge, abilities, and experience, along with pictures and some examples of their written or spoken work, along with an option for the reader to send them email from within the Home Page.

6.1.2. Organizations could display their calendars, programs, maps to their locations, written material, pictures of events and people, history, catalogs, online order or transaction forms for products, project/program status, announcements, etc., not only for the use of their local networked organization, but also for their entire supplier and customer base.

6.1.3. There are commercial services available to assist DISA organizations and individuals in preparing their Home Page. For those interested in preparing their own Home Page, there is free W3 Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) software for Windows (available on the HQs Hallway), MacIntosh, and Unix for this process, which is a relatively simple variation of formatting a word processing document. Anyone who has formatted a publication, flyer, brochure, or compound document with a word processor or desktop publishing software, has the skills to prepare a comprehensive Home Page.

6.2. The W3 server would be is accessible through Internet, meaning conference participants could access it directly from within their conferences, as well as being accessible by the general DISA and Internet audiences, extending their informing, involving, coordinating, and collaborating ability to all of DISA and their worldwide suppliers and customers.

6.3. The cost of operating this service is based on the type of server used, the volume of material provided by DISA organizations and individual, and the amount of information which the Internet audience utilizes. A commercial Caucus conference costs approximately $50 to establish and $25 a month to maintain, including access for the conference organizer. Each additional conference participant costs approximately $25 for account establishment, and $15 a month for more than 30 participants. If DISA was operating with its own Caucus or comparable conference software on a DISA host, then the costs would be derived from the conferencing software license.

6.4. All the participant requires is Internet Telnet or local dialup access to the host computer. This gives them access to their object-specific conferences, as well as the general DISA conference, and other general conferences as they arise. Worldwide participation in the conferences is accessible through the Internet Telnet capability. Telnet is available from:

DoD, federal, state, and local governmen, networks;

networks of supporting suppliers/contractors;

several Commercial Network Service providers such as Delphi;

free Internet access providers such as local schools, colleges and universities, public libraries, freenets; and

commercial Internet access providers, such as Alternet, Netcom, PSI, ANS, etc.

7. Members of these confereces join a continuous, online, facilitated, text-based forum on any subject that they want to discuss online.

7.1. Operationally, the conference organizer originates and controls access to the electronic conference and set the scope by a brief introduction and greeting. Then "Items" are entered, with the first few Items covering Conference Administration. From that point on, The organizer facilitates the conference process with little contribution of content. Subsequent Items, created by individual conference participants, cover whatever subjects or issues they might like to discuss.

7.2. The discussion takes the form of sequential "Responses" within an Item, which are prepared over time, as the participant joins the conference (asynchronous participation), or simultaneously within the real timeframe of the discussion (synchronous participation). It works much like a real-world conference, with its seminars, discussions, and side conversations. All Items and Responses provided by a member can be edited by them before or after posting, and also deleted by them.

7.3. The conference software keeps a running list of responses per item per conference as one file. When a person does their logon, they are immediatly carried to a "home" conference of their choice and informed how many new items and responses have been added to the conference since they were last present. The can also check and see how many other new items or responses have been added to other conferences in which they participate.

7.4. Access to the conferences is controlled, and the conferences are facilitated or moderated, with the intent of increasing the participants' comfort with participation in the discussion. Access is controlled so that the only people who can come into a specific conference are those whom are identified as associated with that object of interest, as validated by the corporate directory capability identified in DISA Suggestion #93-14. A Facilitator monitors and intervenes to keep the conference flowing smoothly, without contributing significantly to the content of the conference. A moderator monitors and intervenes, while participating in the content discussion.

8. What does DISA and its members gain by joining their Online Conference? All conferences, regardless of provider, includes several capabilities. Participants gain access to a worldwide Forum of their peers and mentors for:

building a personal network of contacts for keeping each other informed, involved, coordinated, and collaborative;

open discussion on topics of interest which they originate;

an easy and discrete way to seek assistance and advice;

coordination on short-term and long term projects, jobs, and opportunities;

exchange of private messages outside of the recorded conference format;

unrecorded quick contacts for online chatting and such;

building an online community; and

a "Library" of shared files; and

where they can create a personal index in each conference;

with the ability to quickly see who is participating in which discussions in a conference, and what they've said; and

with the ability to follow the chronological sequence of a discussion among the various conference participants, thus observing the flow of interaction.

8.1. Any DISA member, supplier, or customer who has access to DISANet or Internet Telnet, from anywhere in the world, can participate, with access permissions managed by the DEMIS dynamic directory.

8.2. The library is a space for uploading and downloading files of interest. These files can be text or any of the variety of binary files (e.g., word-processor, spreadsheet, database, pictures, drawings, facsimiles, sound, video, computer applications, etc.) for a variety of computers (MS-DOS/Windows, Mac, Unix, etc.).

9. If outsourcing the conferences to a commercial vendor, recommending Meta Design Systems, of Arlington, VA, then membership in the specific conferences also provides several additional functions at no additional cost.

9.1. This includes access to the Meta Network (Metanet) Open Conferences, a common meeting ground for all the members of Metanet. Besides the Open Conferences Metanet has several dozen private conferences running for a variety of commercial, educational, government, non-profit, and other organizations. Examples are: NetResults (an open conference implemeting Vice President Gore's Reinventing Government Initiative), American Bar Association, Arts Wire network for artist and art organizations, Kennedy Center Arts Education Information Network, National Endowment for the Arts, Iris Network for Teachers, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Federal Aviation Administration, The Chaos Network (an open conference), Council for Excellence in Government, The Aspen Institute, Institute for Transpersonal Psychology, and the Omega Institute. Metanet has thousand of members from all backgrounds. Metanet provides what is considered one of the most civil and considerate of online forums. The management of Metanet are all highly qualified and experienced facilitators, trainers, and management consultants.

9.2. Access to a Metanet Shell account (an Internet Home Base), providing a personal directory on the Metanet computer for uploading and downloading of files to and from their local computer and other Internet computers, as well as creation and use of their own files and programs using Metanet's basic operating system (Unix), applications and tools.

9.3. Access to a variety of Internet tools and capabilities such as text-based clients for W3 and Gopher, and the Metanet Gopher server.

9.4. Access to a variety of Internet tools and capabilities.

9.4.1. File transfers between a variety of Internet storage sites via Anonymous File Transfer Protocol (FTP). This includes the ability to save those files in the Metanet personal directory (accessible through the Shell) or transfer to your own local computer via the major microcomputer communication protocols (Zmodem, Xmodem, Kermit, etc.).

9.4.2. Internet searches using a variety of tools, such as Archie for FTP sites, Veronica for Gopher Sites, and WAIS.

9.4.4. Internet White Pages for finding a person on the Internet, and Yellow Pages for finding an organization or subject. White Page tools include Finger, Knowbot, Gopher Directories, InterNic and Organization Whois Directories, Fred and X500 Directories, Usenet Address Service, and Netfind. Yellow Page tools include FTP Subject Lists, Gopher Subject

Lists, and WAIS Subject Lists, as well and the InterNic List of Internet Domains and Users.

9.4.5. Alternate Networks accessible throught Internet such as Usenet, Bitnet, and Clarinet. Usenet provides thousands of topical discussion groups. Bitnet provides list services providing information papers and comments on a variety of subjects. Clarinet provides worldwide, regional, local, and subject-specific news and announcements.

10. For information or assistance or demonstration relating to this suggestion call Roy Roebuck at 703-285-5193 or email RoebuckR@cc.ims.disa.mil.

11. Meta Network

Email Address: info@tmn.com

Meta Network's US Mail Address:

Metasystems Design Group, Inc.

2000 North 15th Street, Suite 103

Arlington, Virginia 22201 U.S.A.

Phone: 703-243-6622.