Standards Review and Recommendation Publication
SRRPUB10
Electronic Mail (E-Mail) Personal Naming Convention
Revised February 10, 2005 Version 3
Standards Review and Recommendations Publications (SRRPUB)
are issued by the Department of Information Resources (DIR).
They are intended to be used as guidance by Texas state agencies
and institutions of higher education and do not mandate any
particular action.
Introduction
As a result of actions taken by the 75th Legislature, state
agencies and institutions of higher education will be required
to establish and maintain Internet electronic mail (e-mail)
addresses. Agencies and institutions are encouraged to publish
the addresses and use e-mail to communicate with the public.
The new provisions appear in
House Bill 1556 (effective May 31, 1997),
Senate Bill 365 (effective September 1, 1997), and Article
IX, Section 170 of the General Appropriations Act (calling
for agencies institutions to establish, maintain and publicize
an Internet e-mail address no later than September 1, 1998).
In 1995, the Department of Information Resources (DIR) published
SRRPUB7, Internet Domain Names
for State Agencies. This paper builds on the issues addressed
in SRRPUB7, and specifically addresses a "Personal Naming
Convention" that will facilitate agency-to-agency communications
and public access initiatives by state, local and tribal government
entities.
In April 1996, representatives from the Worldwide Electronic
Messaging Associations (WEMA) met to discuss global cooperation
on a number of issues. The first issue put forth for endorsement
on a global scale by the individual WEMA is the X.400/Internet
Personal Naming Recommendation. The recommendation has been
forwarded to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) for
consideration as an Internet RFC.
The "Personal Naming Convention" follows the WEMA recommendation
as it relates to the use of Internet Protocols (as required
by DIR rule), and defines a uniform naming format that allows
users to be addressable by a minimum set of address elements.
Every electronic messaging user should be addressable by at
least their Given Name, Initials and Family Name irrespective
of the messaging system they are using. The "Personal Naming
Convention" is based on the existing standards for EMail
exchange and directories (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)
and Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) or X.500
Directory Services).
Given Name: Maximum of 16 characters. The allowed
ones are:
- Alphabetic upper and lower case characters without spaces.
- Periods or hyphens may be used to join multipart
names in the form that the person prefers to be addressed.
It is highly desirable to include the given name, to assist
other people in being able to differentiate users with the
same surname.
Initials: (Optional): Maximum of 3 characters. The allowed ones are:
Alphabetic upper case without spaces, hyphens, or periods.
Use the minimum number of initials that uniquely identify
the person. Where the combination of surname and given name
is unique then no initials need be specified. If this field
is used it is normal to specify only the initials of middle
name(s).
Surname: Maximum of 40 characters. The allowed ones
are:
Alphabetic upper and lower case characters without spaces
(NB Space is not allowed as it would prohibit mail reaching
these users, or being sent by these users, to or from non
X.400 compliant mail systems e.g., Internet). Hyphens
may be used to join multipart names. The leading character
of the first part of a hyphenated surname may be in upper
case. The leading character of other parts may be in upper
or lower case at the user's discretion.
Examples
Givenname.Surname@agency.state.tx.us
Given-name.ini.Surname@agency.state.tx.us
Recommendations
1. DIR recommends that all Texas state government agencies
begin the transition to the standard personal naming convention
as soon as possible.
2. As a transition tool, existing systems should have a primary
registration using the personal naming convention and the
"state.tx.us" Domain name (see SRRPUB7)
along with an alias entry for the non-standard name. This
will insure that existing usage of the historic names will
continue to function properly.
3. All publications that include the E-Mail addresses of
individuals should be republished using the personal naming
convention as soon as possible. Existing supplies of publications
should be used until exhausted.
Other Information
WEMA members include the following organizations: Asia Oceania
Electronic Messaging Association (AOEMA), Brasilian Society
for Open Systems Interconnection (BRISA), Electronic Commerce
Australia (ECA), European Electronic Messaging Association
(EEMA), Japan Electronic Messaging Association (JEMA), and
United States Electronic Messaging Association (EMA).
Address questions about the Texas Information Technology
Standards Web pages to:
DIR Standards and Architecture
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