Re: Definition of the Public Web

On 6/27/13 12:22 PM, Appelquist Daniel (UK) wrote:
> Might it be useful for this group to attempt to define what is meant by the term "public Web?" It's a term I think gets thrown around a lot but it seems to not have a formal definition. And if this group is going to try to focus its attention on the public Web then maybe we would benefit from having a shared definition of this term?
>
> Would someone like to take a crack at a straw man?
>
> Dan
>
>
Dan,

Let me try.

The term "Web" really means web-like or webby. Thus, when you have 
documents comprised of hypermedia based structured content, where 
de-referencable (or resolvable) URIs are integral components of the 
structure, the end product is web-like (or webby) document content. This 
is basically what you get with an HTML document.

Nothing about being web-like implies being public or private, that's 
determined by the resolvable URIs which ultimately depend on underlying 
network infrastructure (ip addresses or dns abstraction).

Coincidentally, I was playing around with the original World Wide Web 
proposal illustration which lead to a tweak where I replace the literal 
names with HTTP URIs [1]. Net effect, you you can basically bring the 
original proposal to life in a manner that actually showcases what 
web-like or webby actually means.

Links:

1. http://bit.ly/10Y9FL1 -- original World Wide Web proposal enhanced 
with HTTP URIs as mechanism for giving names to relations (links) and 
entities that are members of said relations

2. http://bit.ly/1aIiD0L -- folder / directory listing of all the 
resources I used (including the OmniGraffle source file).

-- 

Regards,

Kingsley Idehen	
Founder & CEO
OpenLink Software
Company Web: http://www.openlinksw.com
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