Steve,
I am totally confused by the string of messages you send. I will therefore
not try to react to them, because obviously I am missing the context.
Let me point out that the IETF does not and does not want to own X.500. The
IETF is working on standardising several things that are strongly related
however such as:
- Lightweight Internet protocols to replace DAP and DSP, like LDAP;
These will make the implementation of DUAs and specifically PEM a lot
easier.
- User Friendly Naming; That hopefully makes X.500 more transparant to the
user.
Furthermore the IETF works on various informational and experimental
documents/recommendations around using X.500 on the Internet, such as:
- Replication (until X.500(1993) is out and implemented)
- Using X.500 for storing Network Information
- Using X.500 for X.400 routing and RFC-1327 mapping
- Directory Services and Privacy issues
- Guidelines for operating a DSA, how to manage Data
- Naming Schema
Furthermore discussions are ongoing in IETF/RARE on:
- CAN
- Alternatives to CAN
And last but not least, it is certain that X.500 (even in it's Internet
form) is NOT going to be THE directory service on the Internet, but rather
One of ...... Deployment of X.500 has taken off much too slow to convincing
enough to dominate Internet Directory Services.
I am currently working on defining the Internet Directory. Of which X.500
will be an important part, but other protocols like WHOIS++ will also be
part of that. We will of course make sure that PEM can work with that,
although how I cannot say yet. In the mean time efforts are well under way
on several parts of the Internet to build a well maintained X.500
infrastructure, especially in Europe. This will certainly be used for PEM
within 12 months. It does not provide you with global connectivity (yet).
I hope this information will help you to get your facts straight in the
discussion you are pursuing, whatever that may be :-)
Erik