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                      3: \section      {The White Pages Service}
                      4: A natural function of computer networks is to form the {\em infrastructure\/}
                      5: between the users they interconnect.
                      6: For example,
                      7: the electronic mail service offered by computer networks provides a means for
                      8: users to collaborate towards some common goal.
                      9: In the simplest cases,
                     10: this collaboration may be solely for the dissemination of information.
                     11: In other cases,
                     12: two users may work on joint research project,
                     13: using electronic mail as their primary means of communication.
                     14: 
                     15: Most network services are based on the implicit assumption that each user can
                     16: supply {\em infrastructural information} to 
                     17: facilitate information transfers through the network.
                     18: For example,
                     19: electronic mail services expect that an originator can supply 
                     20: addressing information 
                     21: for all the intended recipients.
                     22: It is not necessarily the task of electronic mail, per se,
                     23: to provide this infrastructural information to the user.
                     24: 
                     25: This model works fine in small environments,
                     26: particularly those where infrastructural information is not difficult to 
                     27: obtain and remember.
                     28: However,
                     29: the model does not scale well.
                     30: Consider the case when the membership of a network consists of hundreds of
                     31: thousands of users belonging to thousands of organizations.
                     32: It is no longer reasonable for a single user to provide this information,
                     33: except in very limited circumstances.
                     34: Further,
                     35: it is likely that some of the information changes frequently,
                     36: due to personnel and other resource movement.
                     37: The goal of a {\em white pages\/} service is to 
                     38: provide the necessary information, and to mask the complexity of the
                     39: infrastructural information.
                     40: 
                     41: From the user's perspective,
                     42: the NYSERNet/PSI White Pages Pilot Project focuses solely on providing
                     43: infrastructural information dealing with human users.%
                     44: \footnote{The white pages service is perfectly capable of managing other kinds
                     45: of information,
                     46: e.g.,
                     47: keeping track of machine-related infrastructural information;
                     48: however,
                     49: this is beyond the scope of the pilot.}
                     50: 
                     51: Naturally,
                     52: this raises questions as to the underlying technology which provides the
                     53: white pages service.

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