FYI: Permanent Identifiers for the Web Project Launches

FYI for this list:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: *Manu Sporny* <msporny@digitalbazaar.com 
<mailto:msporny@digitalbazaar.com>>
Date: 8 May 2013 19:14
Subject: Permanent Identifiers for the Web Project Launches
To: Pemanent Identifier CG <public-perma-id@w3.org 
<mailto:public-perma-id@w3.org>>


Permanent Identifiers for the Web

    Web applications that deal with [1]data on the web often need to
    specify and use URLs that are very stable. They utilize services
    such as [2]purl.org <http://purl.org> to ensure that applications 
using their URLs
    will always be re-directed to a working website. These “permanent
    URL” redirection services operate kind of like a [3]switchboard,
    connecting requests for information with the true location of the
    information on the Web. These switchboards can be reconfigured to
    point to a new location if the old location stops working.

How Does it Work?

    If the concept sounds a bit vague, perhaps an example will help.
    A web author could use the following link
    (https://w3id.org/payswarm/v1) to refer to an important
    document. That link is hosted on a permanent identifier service.
    When a Web browser attempts to retrieve that link, it will be
    re-directed to the true location of the document on the Web.
    Currently, that location is
https://payswarm.com/contexts/payswarm-v1.jsonld. If the
    location of the payswarm-v1.jsonld document changes at any point
    in the future, the only thing that needs to be updated is the
    re-direction entry on w3id.org <http://w3id.org>. That is, all Web 
applications
    that use the https://w3id.org/payswarm/v1 URL will be
    transparently re-directed to the new location of the document and
    will continue to “Just Work™”.

w3id.org <http://w3id.org> Launches

    Permanent identifiers on the Web are an important thing to
    support, but until today there was no organization that would
    back a service for the Web to keep these sorts of permanent
    identifiers operating over the course of multiple decades. A
    number of us saw that this is a real problem and so we launched
    [7]w3id.org <http://w3id.org>, which is a permanent identifier 
service for the Web.
    The purpose of w3id.org <http://w3id.org> is to provide a secure, 
permanent [8]URL
    re-direction service for Web applications. This service will be
    run and operated by the [9]W3C Permanent Identifier Community
    Group.

    Specifically, the following organizations that have pledged
    responsibility to ensure the operation of this service for the
    decades to come: [10]Digital Bazaar, [11]3 Round Stones,
    [12]OpenLink Software, [13]Applied Testing and Technology, and
    [14]Openspring. Many more organizations will join in time.

    These organizations are responsible for all administrative tasks
    associated with operating the service. The social contract
    between these organizations gives each of them full access to all
    information required to maintain and operate the website. The
    agreement is setup such that a number of these companies could
    fail, lose interest, or become unavailable for long periods of
    time without negatively affecting the operation of the site.

Why not purl.org <http://purl.org>

    While many web authors and data publishers currently use
purl.org <http://purl.org>, there are a number of issues or concerns 
that we have
    about the website:
     1. The site was designed for the library community and was never
        intended to be used by the general Web.
     2. Requests for information or changes to the service frequently
        go unanswered.
     3. The site does not support HTTPS connections, which means it
        cannot be used to serve documents for security-sensitive
        industries such as medicine and finance. Requests to migrate
        the site to HTTPs have gone unanswered.
     4. There is no published backup or fail-over plan for the
        website.
     5. The site is run by a single organization, with a single
        part-time administrator, on a single machine. It suffers from
        multiple single points of failure.

w3id.org <http://w3id.org> Features

    The launch of the w3id.org <http://w3id.org> website mitigates all 
of the issues
    outlined above with purl.org <http://purl.org>:
     1. The site is specifically designed for web developers,
        authors, and data publishers on the general Web. It is not
        tailored for any specific community.
     2. Requests for information can be sent to a public mailing list
        that contains multiple administrators that are accountable
        for answering questions publicly. All administrators have
        been actively involved in world standards for many years and
        know how to run a service at this scale.
     3. The site supports HTTPS security, which means it can be used
        to securely serve data for industries such as medicine and
        finance.
     4. Multiple organizations, with multiple administrators per
        organization have full access to administer all aspects of
        the site and recover it from any potential failure. All
        important site data is [15]in version control and is mirrored
        across the world on a regular basis.
     5. The site is run by a consortium of organizations that have
        each pledged to maintain the site for as long as possible. If
        a member organization fails, a new one will be found to
        replace the failing organization while the rest of the
        members ensure the smooth operation of the site.

    All identifiers associated with the w3id.org <http://w3id.org> 
website are intended
    to be around for as long as the Web is around. This means
    decades, if not centuries. If the final destination for popular
    identifiers used by this service fail in such a way as to be a
    major inconvenience or danger to the Web, the community will
    mirror the information for the popular identifier and setup a
    working redirect to restore service to the rest of the Web.

Adding a Permanent Identifier

    Anyone with a github account and knowledge of simple Apache
    redirect rules can add a permanent identifier to w3id.org 
<http://w3id.org> by
    performing the following steps:
     1. [16]Fork w3id.org <http://w3id.org> on Github.
     2. [17]Add a new redirect entry and commit your changes.
     3. [18]Submit a pull request for your changes.

    If you wish to engage the community in discussion about this
    service for your Web application, please send an e-mail to the
    [19]public-perma-id@w3.org <mailto:public-perma-id@w3.org> mailing 
list. If you are interested in
    helping to maintain this service for the Web, please join the
    [20]W3C Permanent Identifier Community Group.
  ____________________________________________________________

    Note: The letters ‘w3′ in the w3id.org <http://w3id.org> domain name 
stand for
    “World Wide Web”. Other than hosting the software for the
    Permanent Identifier Community Group, the “World Wide Web
    Consortium” (W3C) is not involved in the support or management of
w3id.org <http://w3id.org> in any way.

References

    1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linked_data
    2. http://purl.org/
    3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_switchboard
    4. https://w3id.org/payswarm/v1
    5. https://payswarm.com/contexts/payswarm-v1.jsonld
    6. https://w3id.org/payswarm/v1
    7. https://w3id.org/
    8. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/URL
    9. http://www.w3.org/community/perma-id/
   10. http://digitalbazaar.com/
   11. http://3roundstones.com/
   12. http://www.openlinksw.com/
   13. http://www.aptest.com/
   14. http://openspring.net/
   15. https://github.com/perma-id/w3id.org/
   16. https://github.com/perma-id/w3id.org/fork
   17. https://github.com/perma-id/w3id.org/blob/master/security/.htaccess
   18. https://help.github.com/articles/using-pull-requests
   19. http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-perma-id/
   20. http://www.w3.org/community/perma-id/

-- manu

--
Manu Sporny (skype: msporny, twitter: manusporny, G+: +Manu Sporny)
Founder/CEO - Digital Bazaar, Inc.
blog: Meritora - Web payments commercial launch
http://blog.meritora.com/launch/




-- 

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Kingsley Idehen 
Founder & CEO
OpenLink Software
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