Re: identifier to use

Hilmar Lapp wrote:
> Yeah, because they are URLs. But don't almost all of the databases you 
> have listed there use identifiers (accession numbers, etc) for 
> identifying their objects?

I wish :-)

Some databases are just a bunch of static web pages, and many like to use 
something nice like gene names as identifiers. Also, for quiet a few 
databases that do have proper identifiers, we do not even know them, 
because for various practical reasons all we can do is reference them using 
our own identifiers (which can then be used to retrieve the appropriate 
entries on their web site).


> Obviously, each one has their own (and 
> volatile) way of translating their identifiers into a URL. That's (part 
> of) the problem. So, yeah, they share a common thing, namely having a 
> website and serving their holdings through HTTP, but they're not using 
> URLs to identify their digital objects, are they?

Identify in what context? In the context of the Web, I'd say yes.

Received on Thursday, 23 August 2007 17:11:55 UTC