RFC: A "pts" URN Namespace

Request for Comments: xxxx                                  S. B. Palmer
Category: Informational                                        A. Swartz
                                                              August 2001


                        A "pts" URN Namespace

Status of this Memo

    This memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
    not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of this
    memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

    Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2001).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

    The need for URNs that identify arbitrary resources, are persistent
    and unique across time and network space, and yet remain easy to
    create has been evident for quite some time now. This is an attempt
    at a concrete registration for such a scheme.

1. Introduction

    This document proposes the "pts" namespace, which enables people
    that have acquired the right to create these URNs quickly and easily
    following certain conditions.

    The namespace specification is for a formal namespace.

2. Specification Template

       Namespace ID:

             "pts" requested







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RFC xxxx           A "pts" URN Namespace                     August 2001


    Registration Information:

       Registration version number: 1
       Registration date: 2001-08-02

    Declared registrant of the namespace:

       Name: Aaron Swartz
       Email address: <mailto:me@aaronsw.com>

    Declaration of syntactic structure:

       The syntactic definition of these URNs is:-

          urn         = "urn:" nid ":" authority ":" name

       Where:-

          nid         = "pts"
          authority   = domain "," date
          domain      = hostname                        ; [RFC 2396]
          date        = year "-" month
          year        = digitx0 *digit
          month       = digitx0 | "10" | "11" | "12"
          digit       = "0" | digitx0
          digitx0     = "1" | "2" | "3" | "4" | "5" | "6" | "7" |
                          "8" | "9"
          name        = *( char [ ":" ] )
          char        = 1*( unreserved | escaped )      ; [RFC 2396]

       Examples of syntactically valid URNs under this scheme include:-

          urn:pts:infomesh.net,2001-05:myterm
          urn:pts:example.org,2001-05:mything
          urn:pts:example.org,2001-05:my%20thing
          urn:pts:purl.org,1998-10:101010001010:86%25%80
          urn:pts:sub.mydomain.net,2001-05:myns-Myterm

       [N.B. all authority components are purely illustrative.]

    Relevant ancillary documentation:

       All URNs defined herein conform to [RFC 2141].

       The <hostname>, <unreserved> and <escaped> tokens are imported
       from [RFC 2396].

       [RFC 2396] <urn:ietf:rfc:2396>.

       [RFC 2141] Moats, R. "URN Syntax", RFC 2141, <urn:ietf:rfc:2141>,
                  May 1997.

       [RFC 2611] <urn:ietf:rfc:2611>.

       [RFC 2434] <urn:ietf:rfc:2434>.

    Identifier uniqueness considerations:

       The delegated authorities must ensure that conforming URNs
       following these rules are unique; assigned to at most one
       resource, and not reassigned under any circumstances.

    Identifier persistence considerations:

       URNs have the requirement that they be persistently bound to one
       resource.

    Process of identifier assignment:

       Assignment of URNs using this scheme is completely open,
       provided the following algorithm is adhered to.

       Assignment is based upon ownership of a domain name for a
       particular month.  Upon ownership of a certain approved domain
       name for a calendar month, the owner of the domain name acquires
       the right to create names under the corresponding authority part.

       For example, if Fred Bloggs owns the domain example.org for the
       entire month of May, in the year 2002, then he acquires the right
       to create names under the authority component (<authority>):-

          example.org,2002-05

       This is a non-transferable right. Persons or entities MUST NOT
       create URNs using authority components (<authority>) that they do
       not own based upon the rules above.

       Practically speaking, one will be using the date of the last
       month that one held the domain, and not the current month (which
       one is not guaranteed to hold, even if this is a likely
       eventuality).

    Process for identifier resolution:

       It is possible (but not required) that the identifiers may be
       resolved by converting the authority and name components
       into a request using the HTTP protocol. In such a method, all
       commas (,), hyphens (-), and colons (:) are replaced with slashes
       (/). The colon (:) separating the authority and the name is also
       replaced with a slash.

       For example:-

          urn:pts:example.org,2002-05:foo:bar

       would become:-

          http://example.org/2002/05/foo/bar

       Obviously such a mechanism of resolution would not be persistent.

    Rules for Lexical Equivalence:

       Two PTS URNs are equivalent if the strings are
       character-for-character equivalent.

    Conformance with URN Syntax:

       No special considerations. Processors of these URNs must follow
       the conventions in [RFC 2141], notably Section 5, "Lexical
       Equivalence in URNs".

    Validation mechanism:

       None specified.

    Scope:

       Global. These URNs may be referred to by anyone worldwide, for
       use in their own applications. We encourage the use of these
       URNs.

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Received on Thursday, 2 August 2001 23:05:02 UTC