RFC2396bis wording, opinions?

My goal is to get RFC2396bis to the state where we can publish
it without having to solve the difficult problems of
"what is a resource" and "how do URIs work in the semantic
web to 'denote' as well as 'identify'".

So far,

* Tim Bray says he finds the existing text 'tolerable'
  (wouldn't want to change it) but finds my proposed
  revision 'much more user-friendly and unsuprising'.

* Al Gilman says (of the revision) 'this is good',
  although he raises a question about "each URI scheme
  defines", as to whether it sets up a (inappropriate?)
  requirement. (I thought I'd wait until it was clear we
  were starting with my revision before answering that).

So, is there anyone who wants to keep on flogging away
at the OLD text rather than NEW below?

Larry
--
http://larry.masinter.net


===================================

OLD
    Resource
       Anything that has been named or described can be a resource.      ^
       Familiar examples include an electronic document, an image, a
       service (e.g., "today's weather report for Los Angeles"), and a
       collection of other resources. A resource is not necessarily
       accessible via the Internet; e.g., human beings, corporations, and
       bound books in a library can also be resources. Likewise, abstract
       concepts can be resources, such as the operators and operands of a
       mathematical equation, the types of a relationship (e.g., "parent"
       or "employee"), or numeric values (e.g., zero, one, and infinity).
       These things are called resources because they each can be
       considered a source of supply or support, or an available means,
       for some system, where such systems may be as diverse as the World
       Wide Web, a filesystem, an ontological graph, a theorem prover, or
       some other form of system for the direct or indirect observation
       and/or manipulation of resources. Note that "supply" is not
       necessary for a thing to be considered a resource: the ability to
       simply refer to that thing is often sufficient to support the
       operation of a given system.

NEW
   Resource
       This document doesn't limit the scope of what might be a
       'resource'; rather, the term 'resource' is used for whatever it
       is that a Uniform Resource Identifier identifies; each URI scheme
       defines the range of things that are identified by
       URIs using that scheme. Commonly, URIs are used to identify
       Internet accessible objects or services; for example, an electronic
       document, an image, a service (e.g., "today's weather report for
       Los Angeles"), a collection of other resources. However,
       a resource need not be accessible via the Internet; URIs might
       be used to identify human beings, corporations, bound books in a
       library, and even abstract concepts.

Received on Friday, 28 May 2004 04:33:59 UTC