Re: Meta Tag - proposal (suggestions ???)

On Thu, 16 Nov 1995, Jon Wallis wrote:
> How about somewhere becoming a "copyright library" for the Web?  Web authors
> would be required to supply their URL to this site, which would then
> classify and catalogue the page (for fee).
> <take tongue out of cheek>

Actually what I think we will see are publishers which offer "permanent" 
archives for documents, which serve two purposes:

1) A long-lived URL for future reference, no matter what happens to the 
admistrative and/or logistical infrastructure surrounding the original 
author/publisher.

2) A legal asset which is validated by its datestamp and submitter 
(either through a public key or some out-of-band verification) and thus 
stands as proof of existance for copyright and contractual reasons.

"Permanent" as in, its archive is protected by a trust fund of some sort 
or a government-backed insurance policy, sort of like the FDIC insurance 
for banks.  In other words, this database will survive, much like how 
graveyards survive even in urban areas because a sufficiently large trust 
fund was able to provide rent and sustenance through interest earned.

There are other non-html issues surrounding this like public key crypto, 
URN's, URC's, etc, so I don't expect too much conversation about this on 
this list... 

Joe english writes:
> Here's a thought: how about using the Usenet newsgroup hierarchy as a
> classification scheme?  I.e., "if this Web page were a Usenet article, 
> in which newsgroup(s) would it belong?" 

Are you crazy?  Usenet as a model hierarchical classification scheme?  
bwahaha.  Ack - sorry.  I think a lot more success would had using simple 
keywords.  To accomplish what you want, though, it would seem like a 
variant of the <LINK> tag, which is designed for use as a "this document 
is related to this other document"-ish expression.  Not a direct link, 
but something user-agents could use in interesting ways....

	Brian


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Received on Friday, 17 November 1995 07:23:21 UTC