Information Technologies and Services                            
UF Request For Comments : 0-B                                    
Council Endorsement: May 7, 1992                First Submission:
OITS Adopted: May 7, 1992                          Last Revision:


TITLE:  E-mail Directories and Gateways


PREFERRED PRACTICES:
SMTP  (the  Internet  standard) is the University  of  Florida
preferred practice for e-mail exchange; e-mail agents must  be
able to communicate with other agents via SMTP (protocol).

STATEMENTS OF DIRECTION:
1]  The  University intends to provide a version of  the  "PH"
directory   system,  currently  implemented   by   Engineering
Computing  Services, for the Internet users on campus.   Until
other  issues  (e.g. privacy) can be addressed satisfactorily,
the  officially supported PH services shall be  restricted  to
University-specific  information  only   (i.e.,   home   phone
numbers, addresses shall be omitted).

2]  The  telephone directory which is currently  on  the  CICS
"Dean's Menu" is to be expanded to include e-mail addresses.

3]   The  University  intends  to  provide  CICS  users   with
convenient access to an e-mail system which includes  an  SMTP
gateway that is not dependent upon off-campus hardware  and/or
software.

Background and Comment
  General - The Preferred Practice and Statements of Direction
  given  here  were  adopted  by the  Council  on  Information
  Technologies  and Services on 7 May 1992  on  the  basis  of
  joint recommendations from Council's Standing Committees  on
  Administrative    Computing   and    on    Networking    and
  Telecommunications.  This PP and the SOD's address technical
  issues  only, hence by design omit consideration  of  legal,
  privacy,  ownership,  etc.  matters.   The  intent  of   the
  Committee recommendations was to provide a portion of a much-
  needed  basic technical framework.  Therefore, to quote  the
  Committees' report, "the recommendations are not intended to
  prevent   the  University  from  moving  forward  to   newer
  technologies or other standards for the exchange  of  e-mail
  or  directory services in the future."  Also, it is not  the
  intent of this PP and the SOD's to diminish function.

Preferred Practice
  A"standard"  in this context means that e-mail  agents  must
  conform  if  their  users expect to have e-mail  interchange
  supported  on  campus.  The Committees' recommendation  made
  this  point  clear  via  its heading:  "On-Campus  technical
  support for E-mail Gateways."

Statements of Direction
  Direction  1]  By design, nothing is said about  where  this
  service shall be lodged nor about which agency shall operate
  it.  Direction 3] (a) At the date of adoption, a CICS e-mail
  system  is  in  place  which provides integration  into  the
  existing "Dean's menu" system and access to SMTP via  DISOSS
  running at the Northwest Regional Data Center and Softswitch
  running  at  the  Northeast Regional Data Center.   (b)  The
  Committees'  recommendations  did  not  envision  supporting
  exchange  of  messages among messaging services  (e.g.  CICS
  messaging, VM "TELL", etc.)