From jpr at uab.edu  Tue Jun 22 18:09:18 2004
From: jpr at uab.edu (John-Paul Robinson)
Date: Fri Jun 25 09:58:21 2004
Subject: [Mailman3-dev] mlist: mail list middleware integration project
Message-ID: <40D8AE0E.1060805@uab.edu>

Hi MM3 Developers,

I'm working on a middleware integration project for collaboration tools. 
This project includes mailing list software as one of the target 
applications.

I found your pages about the mm3 development effort very interesting and 
thought you might enjoy hearing about the work we are doing and seeing 
if there are any areas of mutual interest or potential for collaboration.

Part of our project is being supported by the Internet2 middleware 
integration effort:

   http://middleware.internet2.edu/mlist/

I'm also tracking my work related to the project here:

   http://lab.ac.uab.edu/project/mlist

The mlist effort at Internet2 is in the early stages.  Our goal is to 
identify and describe system interface points where mailing list 
management software can leverage existing middleware technologies (user 
databases, attribute stores, etc) in order to make it easier to 
integrate these tools into existing environments.

For example, universities typically have central user directories which 
are leveraged for authentication and other data needs.  Having software 
that can leverage these databases makes integration into those 
environments easier. This is desirable for any organization, however, 
especially if they are building systems that use best-of-breed 
applications for specific components.

One of the other mailing list tools we are looking at is Sympa 
(http://www.sympa.org).  They have already made a significant effort to 
integrate their tools with middleware technologies for authn and authz. 
  An informative document about their development efforts in this space 
can be found here:

   http://www.sympa.org/documentation/AA-in-Sympa/

These are complex solutions to support and there is no one correct 
solution. The mlist group's goal is to provide information that can be 
used to help build these interfaces into existing systems.

I'd be happy to hear your thoughts on this topic and would enjoy sharing 
any information I have that is of interest to you.

Thanks for your time,

~jpr

John-Paul Robinson
System Programmer
Advanced Technology Lab, UAB