Re: Globalizing URIs

> To the extent that the WWW is an organic entity, death is a part of life. 
> 
> Phew, I've been wanting to say that since I read "URN's considered 
> harmful".  

I like that statement too :)

> All this said, there *is* a role for universal names, and that is for 
> common objects: IETF documents, government documents, Aesop fables, VRML 
> teapots, etc.  Let's focus on that, rather than having a goal of "keeping 
> links from breaking".

Yes, this is a good statement.  I'd say there are two goals:

a) allow people to make persistent references to documents when this
   is appropriate

b) for documents that aren't expected to be persistent, don't convey
   a false impression that they are.

That is, a user ought to be able to know whether a link is likely to
break before he puts it in his hotlist.

Keith

Received on Wednesday, 16 August 1995 10:17:58 UTC