vCard KIND:application
RFC 6473

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Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                    P. Saint-Andre
Request for Comments: 6473                                         Cisco
Category: Standards Track                                  December 2011
ISSN: 2070-1721

                         vCard KIND:application

Abstract

   This document defines a value of "application" for the vCard KIND
   property so that vCards can be used to represent software
   applications.

Status of This Memo

   This is an Internet Standards Track document.

   This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
   (IETF).  It represents the consensus of the IETF community.  It has
   received public review and has been approved for publication by the
   Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).  Further information on
   Internet Standards is available in Section 2 of RFC 5741.

   Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
   and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
   http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6473.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2011 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

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RFC 6473                 vCard KIND:application            December 2011

Table of Contents

   1. Introduction ....................................................2
   2. Meaning .........................................................2
   3. Example .........................................................4
   4. IANA Considerations .............................................4
   5. Security Considerations .........................................4
   6. Acknowledgements ................................................5
   7. References ......................................................5
      7.1. Normative References .......................................5
      7.2. Informative References .....................................5

1.  Introduction

   Version 4 of the vCard specification [RFC6350] defines a new KIND
   property to specify the type of entity that a vCard represents.
   During its work on the base vCard4 specification, the VCARDDAV
   Working Group defined values of "individual", "organization",
   "group", and "location" for the KIND property.  The working group
   considered but then removed a value of "thing" to represent any type
   of physical entity, machine, software application, etc., with the
   expectation that such a value might be defined in a vCard extension.
   This document does not define a generic "thing" value but instead
   defines a more narrow "application" value so that vCards can be used
   to represent software applications.

2.  Meaning

   When the KIND property has a value of "application", the vCard
   represents a software application such as a server, an online service
   (e.g., a chat room), or an automated software bot.  More formally, an
   "application" is functionally equivalent to the 'applicationProcess'
   object class used in the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
   [RFC4519] as derived from the Open Systems Interconnection model
   [X.521] [X.200].  As one example of the "application" KIND, vCards
   are currently used in the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol
   [RFC6120] to represent instant messaging servers that are deployed on
   the network.

   The properties included in an application's vCard apply to one of the
   following:

   o  The application itself (e.g., the FN property might represent the
      friendly name of an application service, the URL property might
      represent a website that contains further information about the
      service, and the ADR, GEO, and TZ properties might represent the
      physical address, geographical location, and time zone of the
      machine where the service is hosted).

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RFC 6473                 vCard KIND:application            December 2011

   o  An organization or person that makes the application available on
      the network (e.g., the LOGO property might represent the corporate
      logo of a service provider).

   o  A person or role that maintains the application (e.g., the TEL,
      EMAIL, and IMPP properties might represent ways to contact a
      server administrator).

   When a property represents some aspect of the application itself, it