RFC 2218 (rfc2218) - Page 2 of 8

A Common Schema for the Internet White Pages Service

RFC 2218                 Common Schema for IWPS             October 1997


   This document will focus only on common information modeling issues
   to which all IWPS providers must conform.

2.0     Scope

   This document establishes the set of attributes that specify the
   Common User Information Object for the IWPS.  It does not attempt to
   be an exhaustive specification of all objects that may be stored in
   the IWPS. The process used by this document to define the user object
   is recommended to be used to define other information objects used in
   the IWPS.

   All conforming implementations must support at the minimum, the core
   attributes listed in Section 5.0. Implementations may include local
   attributes in addition to the core set and still be considered "in
   conformance".

   This document will not specify rules with respect to information
   privacy.  Each country has its own set of laws and practices.
   Previous work covering this area has been done by the North American
   Directory Forum (NADF), whose publication [NADF92] contain
   recommendations for registrants' rights in both the USA and Canada.

   This document does not specify a Directory access protocol (i.e.
   whois++, LDAP, DAP, etc.).

3.0     IWPS Schema Considerations

   The description of the IWPS information object consists of the
   following requirements:

              1. Syntax for definition/representation of information
                 object templates.
              2. Publication of information object templates, etc.
              3. Database structure or schema.

   Items 1 and 2 will be covered in this document.  Because database
   structure can potentially restrict implementations (i.e. X.500 schema
   based versus DNS schema based) it will be treated as a separate
   research topic and will not be defined in this paper.

4.0     Syntax for Definition/Representation of Information Object
        Templates

   A clear, precise, and consistent method must be used when discussing
   information object templates and their associated attributes.
   Therefore, this document makes uses of the previously defined syntax
   used by LDAP.  To avoid restrictions on implementations of the IWPS,



Genovese & Jennings        Standards Track