What do URIs mean? was: Re: [httpRange-14] What do HTTP URIs Identify?

Tim Berners-Lee wrote:
> >
>
> No one is (I think, on this list) suggesting that all statements on the
> semantic web
> will be consistent.  Indeed, the semantic web is designed on the
> assumption
> that there will be lots of contradictory statements out there.

I am in complete agreement.
>
> However, on the web one *does* have a way to own and be the
> authority on an identifier,  and there is no right of a third party to
> argue that
> it means something else.
>

Perhaps you might more precisely define what is meant by "it means
something" other than what the authority intends.

A URI identifies a (single) resource, and representations of the resource
are determined only by the owning authority. No question.

 However, anyone can say anything about the URI/resource, and in one sense
_if_ the full meaning of a resource is related to the graph which might
contain all sorts of, perhaps conflicting, statements about the resource, we
need a mechanism to determine what the resource actually means. Depending on
the semantics we apply i.e. how we define "meaning" of a resource, third
parties might indeed argue over which sets of assertions are "true". I don't
think all these issues have been worked out in complete detail, perhaps we
can acknowledge that.

Jonathan