Poll/vote proposal: YahooGroups / RSS 1.0 namespace PURL -> w3.org

RSS 1.0 WG,

The Yahoogroups web service, to which the PURL for the RSS 1.0 namespace
URI, http://purl.org/rss/1.0/ currently redirects, now requires cookies.
This makes it tricky for the XHTML/RDDL/RDFSchema document at that URI to
be dereferenced by automated tools.

I copy below a quick sanity-check exchange w/ Rael. I have mirrored our
namespace document at w3.org so that it is accessible without cookies. I
propose that we reconfigure the PURL server to point to this URI instead
of to yahoogroups, at least for the main RSS 1.0 URI. I'll propose a poll
to that effect once we've had time to discuss any possible complications
or alternatives. If the poll is positive, we can take it to a WG vote.

http://www.w3.org/2002/01/rss/rss1_namespace

I'll keep this sync'd with any changes to the master copy which currently
resides on www.yahoogroups.com. I'm happy to host such RSS-related docs at
W3C (loosly under the RDF Interest Group banner, ie. this isn't about
going standards-track at W3C). However at W3C we don't yet have the kind
of easy file-sharing tools offered by Yahoo, and I'm wary of creating a
bottleneck for the kind of collaboration we've achieved through the use
of Yahoo's (advertisement-strewn) Web services. We do however take URI
longevity pretty seriously, so I'm happy to offer the WG
http://www.w3.org/2002/01/rss/rss1_namespace as a URI that
http://purl.org/rss/1.0/ might redirect to, or that tool developers might
make use of.

We could probably copy a bunch of the other docs from the WG filespace on
yahoogroups to W3C (eg. the modules), and it may be that the workings of
the PURL server might require this for PURLs that begin with the same URI;
I'd need to check.  Perhaps someone more familiar with the PURL service
could comment? (EricM?)

So I propose a poll (and then vote), with draft text as follows:

(hmm, I've not done one of these before. sorry if this sounds po-faced!)

[[
The RSS 1.0 WG accepts the offer to host some or all of the RSS 1.0 PURL
redirections on the W3C's Web site. This constitutes an informal collaboration
between the RSS 1.0 WG and the W3C RDF / Semantic Web Interest Group; the
continued management of the RSS 1.0 specification and associated
extensions remains with the RSS 1.0 Working Group. The motivation for this
collaboration is to offer cookie and advert-free access to key RSS 1.0
documents for the Web community and their automated tools and services.
The WG also notes that the proposed PURL change is not final, and that
the RSS 1.0 PURLs can be redirected elsewhere in the future.

Proposed redirection changes:

PURL: 		http://purl.org/rss/1.0/
Current: 	http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rss-dev/files/namespace.html
Proposed:	http://www.w3.org/2002/01/rss/rss1_namespace

Other PURL redirections: to be discussed/proposed?? (in this poll/vote??
or subsequently?? I suggest "at the discretion of the WG chair", ie. leave
this decision to the chair rather than vote on each/every doc URI).

]]
(end of draft poll/vote text)

I'm hoping this should be reasonably uncontroversial, and that we can get
our PURL working again asap. If I've misjudged and this looks like a
clumsy yet sinister W3C takover attempt, or if others rush forward
offering to host the doc(s), maybe it'll take longer.

Comments to the list please; I'll see what folks think and refine and
initiate a poll over the next few days. I'll ping the RDF Interest Group
list too once RSS-DEV has had a digest the proposal.

cheers,

Dan




-- 
mailto:danbri@w3.org
http://www.w3.org/People/DanBri/


(copied below w/ permission, msg w/ Rael from this morning)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 09 Jan 2002 10:44:03 -0800
From: Rael Dornfest <rael@oreilly.com>
To: Dan Brickley <danbri@w3.org>
Subject: Re: YahooGroups / rss namespace PURL

Go ahead and propose a poll and I'll support it with pleasure.

Rael

On 1/9/02 6:58 AM, "Dan Brickley" <danbri@w3.org> sayeth:

>
> Rael,
>
> YahooGroups seems to be going downhill; more adverts everywhere etc.
>
> This is a pain for the archives, but I guess livable with. But there's a
> problem with the PURL for our namespace. The content isn't dereferencable
> without cookies switched on, it seems. This makes it hard for automated
> tools to load up our schema declarations. Libby ran into this problem
> recently.
>
> For example...
>
> [pldab@snowball pldab]$ wget http://purl.org/rss/1.0/
> --14:41:46--  http://purl.org:80/rss/1.0/
>          => `index.html'
> Connecting to purl.org:80... connected!
> HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 302 Moved Temporarily
> Location: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rss-dev/files/namespace.html
> [following]
> --14:41:52--
> http://groups.yahoo.com:80/group/rss-dev/files/namespace.html
>          => `namespace.html'
> Connecting to groups.yahoo.com:80... connected!
> HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 302
> Location: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rss-dev/files/namespace.html
> [following]
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rss-dev/files/namespace.html: Redirection to
> itself.
>
> Trying same in Lynx gets me:
>
> [[
>
>    Your browser is not accepting our cookies. To view this page,
>    please set your browser preferences to accept cookies (code 0).
>
> ]]
>
>
> How would you feel about having the RSS 1.0 namespace PURL redirect (at
> least as an interim measure) to W3C's site?
>
> I've taken the liberty of mirroring the RSS 1.0 namespace "front page" on
> w3.org, so there is at least a cookie-free URL for the XHTML/RDF/RDDL
> document.
>
> http://www.w3.org/2002/01/rss/rss1_namespace
>
> Not really sure what's best to do. Propose the PURL-switch to RSS-DEV as a
> vote?
>
> What do you reckon?
>
> Dan
>


Rael

Rael Dornfest
Researcher
O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.
Weblog: http://www.oreillynet.com/~rael/

The O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference
May 13-16, 2002 - Santa Clara, CA.
http://conferences.oreillynet.com/etcon2002/

Received on Wednesday, 9 January 2002 16:18:56 UTC