"Hash URIs" and content negotiation

Hi all,

One good practice for identifying non-document resources is to use  
"hash URIs" like http://example/john#me, and to serve a description  
at the URI obtained by taking the part before the hash, e.g. http:// 
example/john.

Now let's say I want to serve both RDF and HTML descriptions of John.  
That is, both formats should be available from http://example.org/ 
john, depending on the request's Accept: header. How to do this?

a) Just return the requested type of content right at http:// 
example.org/john

b) Redirect to two different URLs, depending on the requested type,  
e.g. http://example.org/john.html and http://example.org/john.rdf

I notice that the SWBP Vocabulary Recipes [1] suggest b). I have a  
hunch that a) is problematic because it's a bit ambiguous, http:// 
example.org/john#me could refer either to John, or to an anchor  
within an HTML page, if there's no 303 redirect in between. So, is  
only b) allowed, or is a) fine too?

Comments?

Cheers,
Richard

[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/swbp-vocab-pub/#recipe3

Received on Tuesday, 7 November 2006 15:40:02 UTC