THE AIM MAIL SYSTEM AT THE CIA AUTOMATING THE BUREAUCRACY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 40
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 7, 2010
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: February 23, 1983
• Content Type: REPORT

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
The AIM Mall System at the CIA
Automating the Bureaucracy
Central inteNgence Agency
Office of Data Processing
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
02/24/63
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
The AIM Mail System at the CIA
Disclaimer
My remarks do not necessarily reflect official positions of the
Central Intelligence Agency or the United States Government.
Central Intelligence Agency
Office of Data Processing
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
02/23/83
A1141-01
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
The AIM Mail System at the CIA
This presentation is not
A pitch for office automation
A tutorial in how to do it yourself
A comparison of electronic mail systems
Central intelligence Agency
Office of Data Processing
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
02/23/83
AIN-02
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
The AIM Mail System at the CIA
What I will describe
The way we did it
What our system does today
Pitfalls
Suggestions based upon our experiences
Central intelligence Agency
Office of Data Processing
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
02/23/83
AIM-03
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
The AIM Mail System at the CIA
The Intelligence Business
Essentially an information factory
- information arrives, usually in electronic form
- information is refined
- finished product is distributed to our customers
Computers are analagous to the assembly line
Central Intelligence Agency
Office of Data Processing
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
02/23/83
AIM-04
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
The AIM Mail System at the CIA
Computing Environment
General Timesharing Service
- two loosely-coupled VM/CMS systems
- over 5000 users
Other timesharing services
Interfaces to external telecommunications systems
Central Intelligence Agency
Office of Data Processing
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
02/23/85
AIM-05
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
The AIM Mail System at the CIA
Objectives
Simple and easy to use by "real people"
High performance
Extensible
Capable of handling official correspondence
Full support for smart glass teletypes
Secure
Central Intelligence Agency
Office of Data Processing
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
02/23/83
A114-06
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
The AIM Mail System at the CIA
Implementation Approach
Central database virtuals
User virtuals for document creation, editing, display
and management
Central Intelligence Agency
Office of Data Processing
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
02/23/83
AIM-07
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
The AIM Mail System at the CIA
PROC System
Facility to support development of complex, assembly language
system facilities
Macro and text libraries
- structured macros
- stack oriented
- multitasking
- interprocess communication (VMCF)
Available through Waterloo library
Central Intelligence Agency
Office of Data Processing
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
02/23/83
A11.4-08
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
The AIM Mail System at the CIA
'Folders
Identifer - name
Standard user folders
- INBOX incoming mail
- WORK work in process
- OUTBOX outgoing mail
User defined folders
Lettered "folders" - accessed minidisks
System folders
Folder sharing - GET, PUT and ALL accesses
Central Intelligence Agency
Office of Data Processing
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
02/23/83
AIM-09
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
The AIM Mail [)yntern at the CIA
Identifiers
- category (MEMO, LETTER, etc)
- nali10
- ordinal reference
Routing
- FROM originator other than creator
- THFIU individuals whose concurrence is required
? in sequence before document is released
- TO recipients of "action" copies
- CC recipients of "information" copies
Central Intelligence Agency
Office of Data Processing
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
02/23/83
AIM-10
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
The AIM Mail System at the CIA
Documents
Attributes set by user
- subject
- routing
- classification
- codewords
- user defined keywords
- EYES ONLY
- password
Attributes set by system
- sent / not sent
- seen / not seen
- various file system data elements, such as the date
the document was created, the number of records, etc.
Central Intelligence Agency
Office of Data Processing
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
02/23/83
AIM-II
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
The AIM Mail System at the CIA
Frequently Used Commands
LIST list documents or folders
DISPLAY view a document
PRINT print a document on an OS/6
EDIT create or alter a document using a local editor
- limited support for XEDIT
SEND send a new document
- create a new document using the model facility
if necessary
REPLY create a document in response to another
FORWARD route a document to the next addressee(s)
QUERY display the status of documents and the system
ERASE get rid of this copy of a document
MOVE copy a document from one folder to another
Central intelligence Agency
Office of Data Processing
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
02/25/83
ADA-12
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
R
Next 7 Page(s) In Document Denied
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
The AIM Mail System at the CIA
Other System Commands
CREATE create a new document or folder
COPY copy documents from one folder to another
DUPLICATE create a duplicate copy of a document in
another folder
USE logically group folders
MONITOR request notification when events occur
ACCESS designate search sequences for system folders
OPEN explicitly open a folder
CLOSE explicitly close a folder
FOLDER designate who may access a folder
HELP display online documentation
Central Intelligence Agency
Office of Data Processing
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
02/23/83
AIM-21
I.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
The AIM Mail System at the CIA
Simplicity vs. Flexibility
Models
- EXEC-like templates
Aliases
- nicknames
System folders
System Administrators
Central Intelligence Agency
Office of Data Processing
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
02/23/83
AIM-22
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
The AIM Mail System at the CIA
Data Integrity
File structure
Database backup
SEND recovery
Central Intelligence Agency
Office of Data Processing
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
02/23/83
AIM-24
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
The AIM Mail System at the CIA
Database
Initial approach
- CMS file system
- utterly breaks down with 20,000+ files/minidisk
Current technique
- block I/O
- CMS minidisks (formatted 1K) with all space reserved
disk I I block I
Central Intelligence Agency
Office of Data Processing
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
02/23/83
AIM-25
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
The AIM Mail System at the CIA
File Structure
Central Intelligence Agency
Office of Data Processing
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
02/23/83
AIM-26
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0 ?
The AIM Mail System at the CIA
Database Structure
Central Intelligence Agency
_ Office of Data Processing
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
02/23/83
AIM-27
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
The AIM Mail System at the CIA
File integrity
-....
.....
"....
...,
N
\
\
\
New # 2 \
New #3
(
I
/
/
New 0 4
I
Central Intelligence Agency
Office of Data Processing
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
02/23/83
AIM-28
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
The AIM Mail System at the CIA
File Handler
Requests
- GET / PUT
- file identifer (disk and block numbers)
Returns
- data to local queue
- data to user queue (blocked 4K)
Less than 5% of calls are writes
Central Intelligence Agency
Office of Data Processing
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
02/23/83
AIM-29
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
The AIM Mail System at the CIA
Backup
Transaction for complete data recovery
Dual database for quick recovery
Only database writes logged
Central Intelligence Agency
Office of Data Processing
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
02/23/83
A11.4-30
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
Central
Virtual
The AIM Mail System at the CIA
Backup Structure
Backup
Virtual
(
/
?
Central Intelligence Agency
Office of Data Processing
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
02/23/83
AIM-31
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
The AIM Mail System at the CIA
Database Virtual Task Structure
OPEN get a folder directory
GET read a document
PUT file a document
Other commands
Central Intelligence Agency
Office of Data Processing
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
02/23/83
AIM-32
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
The AIM Mail System at the CIA
User Virtual Task Structure
Main task process all commands
File handler GET / PUT files
IMACOM update directory
Central Intelligence Agency
Office of Data Processing
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
02/23/83
AIM-33
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
The AIM Mail System at the CIA
Interpreter
Variables
- simple: single line
- complex: multiple-line
Keywords recognized by system
Commands to interpreter
Central Intelligence Agency
Office of Data Processing
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
02/23/83
ADA-34
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
The AIM Mail System at the CIA
Interpreter Variables and Commands
SYSUSER SYSCMD SYSNAME SYSDOC
SYSDATE SYSMNTH SYSNDAY SYSYEAR
SYSNDAT SYSDAY SYSTIME SYSTI24
SYSDATI SYSJUL SYSDAT2 SYSCLAS
SYSREV SYSOD SYSOU SYSSD
SYSST SYSSU SYSEEND SYSEENU
SYSCHND SYSCHNU SUBJECT TEMP
TEMP001 TEMP002 TEMP003 CLASS
POSTAL REJECT REPLYTO REPLYCC
REPLYTH REF KEYWORD CODEWRD
PROMPT RETCODE SYSNUM SYSEVAL
SYSFOLD SYSF1 SYSF2 SYSLINE
SYSLEN SYSHTXT SYSCASE SYS WHO
SYSALI RESET SYSSTRG SYSPARS
TO CC THRU FROM
CORD BCC AS AT
PRIV LEVEL RETAIN PRTY
RECEIPT READ CALL SYSFILE
CAMREAD TYPE MTYPE STACK
AUDIT SEDIT COPY QUIT
CONTROL COMMENT ALIAS
IF ELSE ENDIF
DO DOEXIT DONEXT ENDDO
CASENTR CASE CASELSE ENDCASE
TEXT ENDTEXT PROC ENDPROC
INPUT INSERT EXIT QUIT
Central Intelligence Agency
Office of Data Processing
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
02/23/83
AIM-35
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
The AIM Mail System at the CIA
:typical Mode!
&if &syscmd eq FILE or &syscmd eq SAVE
&subject='Note Model:'
&exit
&endif
&type
&call aSclass
&&class = &syscles,&syshtxt(&class)
&type
&call b$adrs to text nomulti prompt error verify default
&type
&call aSsubjct
&&subject = &syshtxt(&subject)
&&tempsub... '&&subject?
&&if &&syscmd eq DISPLAY
&&type Alksysndat from: &&sysname subject: &&tempsub
&&endif
&stack userl
&if &sysnum(Ikclass) gt 0
.nf
.he "&class"
.fe "&class"
&endlf
DATE: &sysdate
NOTE TO: &to
SUBJECT: &subject
.nf
&mtype " 'Enter Text, or?'
&input
&mtype ? "DOCUMENT ACCEPTED. PLEASE WAIT ..."
Central intelligence Agency
Office of Data Processing
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
02/23/83
AIM-36
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
The AIM Mail System at the CIA
System Directory
Userid
Name
Telephone number
System
Privileges
Central Intelligence Agency
_ Office of Data Processing
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
02/23/83
A114-37
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
The AIM Mail System at the CIA
System Control Commands
USER
INFO
DIRECTORY
SHUTDOWN
display current and maximum number of users
display system performance statistics
update system directory
terminate the system
Central Intelligence Agency
Office of Data Processing
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
02/23/83
AIM-38
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
The AIM Mail System at the CIA
Performance
Bottlenecks
- paging
-I/o
- processor
VMCF not a culprit
Users
- as many as 30 concurrently
- about 300 unique users daily
- over 1,000 in directory
Central Intelligence Agency
Office of Data Processing
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
02/23/83
A114-39
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
The AIM Mail System at the CIA
Performance Statistics
AIMSYS INFO Command*
CNTRL101 HAS BEEN UP FOR 0 DAYS, 13 HOURS, 57 MINUTES, 7 SECONDS
--> 4% ACTIVE 11% VMCF WAIT 63% I/O WAIT
--> 1020 OPENS, 630 (62%) DEFERRED
--> 82571 READS, 63127 (76%) FROM DISK 8055 WRITES, 7334 (91%) TO DISK
--> 20% STORAGE UTILIZATION 10 MAX USERS
--> 66982 LOCKS REQUESTED, 253 (0%) WAITED
(*) figures were collected on the day of the blizzard
Central Intelligence Agency
Of fice of Data Processing
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
02/23/83
A11.4-40
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
The AIM Mail System at the CIA
User Acceptance
Used by management
User documentation
User training
User demands
New services
Improved performance
Central Intelligence Agency
Office of Data Processing
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
02/23/33
AIM-41
???
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
The AIM Mail System at the CIA
Development Effort
Scope of effort
- concept in 1978
- development begun in 1979 as a back-burner project
- full-scale development in 1980
- restricted version available for testing in 1981
- production in 1982
Software
- 680 modules, 88K lines of code in user virtual
- 185 modules, 43K lines of code in central virtual
Central Intelligence Agency 02/23/83
Office of Data Processing AIM-42
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
The AIM Mail System at the CIA
Dependencies
Control Program
- three local diagnoses (optional)
Conversational Monitor System
- block I/O
- enhanced abend recovery (optional)
Waterloo Script
Local editor
Central Intelligence Agency
Office of Data Processing
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
02/23/83
AIM-43
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
The AIM Mail System at the CIA
Electronic Mail vs. Word Processing
Many users find command-based, interactive systems unfriendly
and frightening
Our customers are willing to put a computer terminal or a word
processor on each desk, but not both
Connectivity and secure sharing of data is a problem with most
word processing systems
Central Intelligence Agency
Office of Data Processing
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
02/23/83
AIM-44
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
The AIM Mail System at the CIA
Host-based Word Processor
Exploits the intelligence in our standard terminal to provide
integrated word processing functions to the timesharing
system user
An application program that runs under CMS
Provides a "what you see is what you get editor"
Uses Waterloo Script in a transparent manner to format text
Will be integrated with AIM soon
Looks, feels and tastes like a "typical" word processor
Central Intelligence Agency
Office of Data Processing
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
02/23/83
AIM-45
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
The AIM Mail System at the CIA
Other Advanced Applications
Ti-end is toward complex applications that manage the
screen while interfacing to back-end database systems
Front-end (user virtual) portions of AIM must co-exist
in same virtual machine with applications code
Special monitor to allow limited multitasking
PL/I interface'
Central Intelligence Agency
Office of Data Processing
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
02/23/83
AIM-46
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
The AIM Mail System at the CIA
Future
Import / Export
Multiple central database virtuals
Multiple VM systems
Spelling checkers
Calendars, schedules, reminders
Event support, timers
Archiving
Central Intelligence Agency
Office of Data Processing
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/06/07: CIA-RDP85-00142R000300200009-0
02/23/83
ARA-47