X.500 Standard

[RenaissanceMan]

Hello fellow Networking people, I am currently taking a network administration class for an AS degree and one of the assignements is to do a 3 to 5 page research paper on the X.500 standard. I have done some minimal research using "google" and other methods but there just isn't much information out there.
Is there perhaps anyone here that could give me a brief overview of what it is, what it does, how it currently fits into the scheme of things. etc... or perhaps point me in the direction I need to be looking?
As always, thank you for you valued time and suggestions.
:)

[Midknyte]

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/X/X_500.html

An ISO and ITU standard that defines how global directories should be structured. X.500 directories are hierarchical with different levels for each category of information, such as country, state, and city. X.500 supports X.400 systems.

[RenaissanceMan]

Thank you for your reply, seems like X.500 is or what Microsoft's Active Directory has become. would this be a fairly accurate assesment?

[Midknyte]

Both are hierarchical and use LDAP. I think they are just similar.