Ella Gardner was kind enough to provide the folliwng information:
FIPS PUB 5-2 is available from the National Technical Information Service,
US Dept of Commerce, Springfield, VA 22161.
There's also a change notice that says that says that the Postal Service
abbrevations are the eame except for the U. S. Minor Outlying Islands which
are routed to indirectly!
The title is, "Codes of the Identification of the States, the District of
Columbia and the Outlying Areas of the United States, and Associated Areas."
There's also a FIPS for localities. Marshall Rose at one point got the
tape. The paper FIPS describes what's on the tape. One problem for
localities is that some states have multiple units with the same name.
"Guideline: Codes for Named Populated Places, Primary Country Divisions,
and Other Locational Entities of the United States and Outlying Areas",
FIPS (PUB 55-2). I believe that the NADF references this as well.
I appreciate the information. Looks like trying to understand the vagaries
of the US location naming scheme could become a career. I've had
associates volunteer information on how to address mail to the Peace Core,
issues of US trust territories and possessions, strips of land that are
part of the US and continguous with Canada but can only be reached by
water or air from the US, etc., etc. I can only imagine who much more
complicated these issues will become on an international scope, what
with nations being torn apart and put back together again, geographical
regions (e.g. the Faukland islands/Maldives) that are claimed by two
countries, etc. I've gone about as far as I want to go down this path!
In response to these considerations, I would propose the following
as a guideline to PCAs and CAs, particularly those involved with
residential persons within the US and its territories and possessions:
1. Use FIPS PUB 5-2 as the primary reference to states, and presumably
to US territories and possessions as well. Without having read it yet, I would
assume that the following would be considered legitimate:
C=US, stateOrProvince="Territory of Guam", locality=Agana (the capital)
C=US, stateOrProvince="U.S. Trust Territory of the Pacific",
locality="Marshall Islands"
(My secretary, a former Hawaiian, informs me that the U.S. Trust Territory of
the
Pacific went independent a few years ago, so this may not be correct. I also
understand that Guam is a part of the Marianas Islands, which is a "US
administered island group," (protectorate?), but that Guam itself is a US
territory.
I don't want to offend anyone's sense of national identity, so I will say
that I frankly don't know the status of Puerto Rico, which my 1976 dictionary
calls "a self-governing commonwealth of the United States." I don't think
that they have ambassadors or membership in the UN, but I also think
that they think of themselves as a country. I know that there is a CCITT
document that lists the various countries, but I don't have it. If it is not
a country, then PRESUMABLY it would be described as
C=US, stateOrProvince="Commonwealth of Puerto Rico", locality="San Juan"
Come to think of it, I'm not sure exactly what forms the common state names
should take. Should we refer to the stateOrProvince="Commonwealth of
Massachusetts" (or Kentucky, Maryland, Virginia, or Pennsylvania)? Does
the difference between the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico matter in this context?
At first this sounds like a trivial issue, but if X.509 certificates contain
Distinguished
Names AND those DNs are supposed to be IDENTICAL to the DNs under which
the X.509 certificates are stored as attributes in an X.500 directory, then the
precise spelling of the state DOES MATTER.
If someone has access to FIPS PUB 5-2, perhaps they can resolve this
question: I assume, but I do not know, that the stateOrProvince name should
be spelled out in full, rather than abbreviated, although "state of
California",
"Commonwealth of Massachusetts" "District of Columbia", "Province of Quebec"
"Prince Edward Island", "British Columbia", etc. are a bit long, especially
for
convenient searching and browsing. I would assume that aliases will be create
in the X.500 directory for the "Massachusetts" and "MA" forms, but
I believe that X.509 certificates should contain real DNs, not aliases, and
therefore should probably list a state or province's name in its full legal
glory.
2. Use FIPS PUB 55-2 (the tape) as the official list of US localities.
For those localities defined in FIPS PUB 55-2 that are not globally unique
within a state (why a civilized society permits such nonsense is beyond me),
the postalCode MUST be used to disambiguate the name, not the county or
some other designation. Using the postalCode in addition to the state and
locality
is a little bit of an overkill, but is recommended as a routine practice for
both
mail addressing purposes and to ensure unambiguous references to streets.
3. The use of the pseudo-state designations AA, AP, and AE and the pseudo-
localities of APO and FPO, together with the MANDATORY 5 or 9 digit
postalCode attribute are recommended for overseas mail to US military
personnel, in accordance with existing Post Office practice.
4. People who routinely send and recieve mail via the US postal system to be
forwarded or carried by diplomatic pouch or other official courier to or via
embassies, consulates, or US missions should use whatever US forwarding
address is specified by the Department of State or the relevant agency.
5. PCAs and CAs operating in foreign countries should by guided by and enforce
as much as possible the equivalent conventions in their country. PCAs
supporting
CAs in multiple countries, the European Community, etc., are on their own,
with
my condolences!
Bob