the HCLS and URI schemes

Alan,

The HCLS should outline existing mechanisms by which one can uniquely
identify a resource, independent of its resolution. Bioinformatics has
been forever plagued by innumerate resource identifiers, for which,
finally, semantic web technologies (XML/RDF/OWL) provide the semantics
to support data integration, in the presence of unique identifiers and,
optionally, schemas/ontologies. A clear description of this problem and
the requirements for its solutions would be useful outcomes of HCLS
activity.

While there are arguments FOR and AGAINST a great number of URI schemes,
there is ABSOLUTELY no requirement for a particular resolution protocol
to be recommended by HCLS. Indeed, by advocating a certain technology,
HCLS "recommendations" will surely alienate a large number of people
that it aims to represent, and ultimately its report will fall by the
wayside. Ignore these discussions at your peril. The fact that the HCLS
community uses HTTP URIs or LSID URNs or INFO URIs, etc, illustrates the
breadth of community requirements. An analysis into these motivations
and summarizing existing mechanisms would surely be a useful
contribution for current and future adopters. 

Cheers,

-=Michel=-

Received on Monday, 6 August 2007 16:48:26 UTC