Re: [semanticweb] Purl.org offline?

I believe that the model we should look to is the linux distribution system.
There are a number of mirrors each of which are coequal. On can explicitly
choose which site to use or have on randomly assigned. In a federation of
PURLs one site turned casino would be quickly removed from the list. I think
this is quite feasible to accomplish for PURL servers, have discussed this
with the developers, and hope to see a prototype some time in the near
future.
-Alan

On Wed, Oct 15, 2008 at 9:12 AM, Reto Bachmann-Gmür <
reto.bachmann@trialox.org> wrote:

>
> carmen r said the following on 2008-10-14 15:28:
> > On Tue Oct 14, 2008 at 12:39:54AM +0100, Giovanni Tummarello wrote:
> >
> >> Hi Martin, all, yes,  it is a service that was planned,
> >>
> >> unfortunately the cache system we have is based on HBase, which is
> >> still in a very early stage and badly crashed on us recently. We're in
> >> the process of updating, restoring it etc.
> >> It will take some time but it is coming, will announce it when ready.
> >> (probably together with a simple library for transparent fallover)
> >>
> >> So a semantic web client could simply do an HTTP on the URL and if
> >> fails switch back to Sindice or whoever else wants to do that.
> >>
> >> I agree this service is badly needed. I dont think Semantic Web can be
> >> that interesting if a client doesnt mash or chains together several
> >> resources automatically, with the consequent dramatic chances of
> >> failure, thus the need for one or more backup servers.. (which however
> >>
> >
> > i think its fundamental enough a need to warrant architectural
> consideration
> >
> > i mean on the level of HTTP.
> >
> > not saying HTTP should go away. probably some bblfish way of doing it
> without inventing a new protocol (heck, Bittorrent still uses HTTP for
> parts)
> >
> >
> If purl comes back up we are lucky, but maybe we could learn something
> anyway.
>
> Having names for fundamental terms based on the DNS system is a
> weakness. What will we do if purl.org gets taken over by a casino site?
> Will we argue that the terms keep their meaning even if the casino site
> says something else? In my scifi post[1] I've scheduled this topic for
> 2015. Using hash-uri or other non-http uris have advantage of stability,
> but it's harder to look up the meaning, could we combine the approaches?
> should we have protocol independents terms with evolving meaning as in
> natural languages?
>
> > we need alternatives to the Google "we are your backup server" system
> >
> indeed.
>
> reto
>
> 1. http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/semantic-web/2008Jan/0118.html
>
>
>