RE: ungetable http URIs

Mark wrote:
> In the Artstor dataset at least we are also currently using URLs for a
> number of things:
> 
> 1. vocabularies
> 2. controlled terms
> 3. metadata instances
>
I would suggest putting something appropriate at the URLs for each of these:

1/ The vocabulary
2/ A defintion of the controlled term (it's a web resource so the return
from GET is a representation of that resource - could be RDF - just
rdfs:label would help).

    <> rdf:label "Portrait" .

(<> is a "this" resource reference in N3)


3/ (Not quite sure what exactly you mean by "metadata instance" but ...) 
   like 2/ a GET returns a representation.  If there is a
document/representation 

Not all things are on the web in the right way - concepts that are in the
physical world being the main example.  People are not on the web but one
(or more) URIs for them is useful in being able to talk about them.  So for
people, an URN/UUID works.

In FOAF, they avoid allocating URIs for people but this does lead to
problems identifiying people - they stress mailbox ids as idnetifying
properties bu tthat isn't perfect.  Instead, having a person offer a URI for
themselves in tehir FOAF file seems to aid the process.  Other people can
link by this "name", or soemthing if they want to.

This all gets in httpRange-14 and there is no resolution to that.  For
SIMILE, I suggest trying the idea that we use URLs where possible, put
something useful there, and see what happens as systems scale.

	Andy

-------- Original Message --------
> From: Butler, Mark <mailto:Mark_Butler@hplb.hpl.hp.com>
> Date: 19 November 2003 12:38
> 
> Hi Andy, David
> 
> > I hope that we do plane to place information at the URLs so there is
> > something GETtable, especially if the URI is a namespace in which case
> > placing the vocabulary at that place would be good.
> > 
> > One of the reasons I have been advocating placing our
> > namespaces in our web
> > palce is so we can place useful information at these points (the other
> > reason is that we should presume on other people's web space).
> 
> In the Artstor dataset at least we are also currently using URLs for a
> number of things:
> 
> 1. vocabularies
> 2. controlled terms
> 3. metadata instances
> 
> I think its helpful to distinguish between each of these?
> 
> So with 1 we should definitely be using URLs as Andy notes above BUT at
> the 
> moment we haven't put anything at that namespace. I should be able to
> fix 
> that fairly easily.
> 
> For 2 and 3 it is less clear, and I am open for guidance from the team
> here? 
> 
> Currently I think we have a number of viewpoints?
> 
> David:
> 
> > If we don't ever plan for the URIs to be http-GETtable,
> > there's no reason for us to use http URIs: we could do
> > urn://www.mit.edu/simile....  This would avoid browsers
> > getting confused.  Alternatively (and this is the approach
> > I'd like to  see) it would be nice if we had a web server that
> > returned some useful RDF when we tried to resolve such URIs---just in
> > case the requestor was able to cope with that (as haystack can)
> 
> I think Stefano argued even more strongly for the second approach:
> 
> > there is a general tendency in the XML world to stay away from URIs
> > that are no "potentially dereferencable". I made the mistake of
> > creating my URI scheme in the past and, as TBL  suggested, URN are
> > poor substitutes for dereferencable URI because any lookup and
> > discovery mechanism would be a poor mimic of HTTP anyway.
> > Keep in mind that the difference between
> >  urn:isbn:0465026567
> >  http://www.iso.org/ISBN/0465026567
> > even if treated as URI, is that the second *could* be used as a URL to
> > lookup and discovery information on that particular resource, while
> > the first does *NOT* include a methodology to do the above and it's
> > left as application dependent.
> 
> how do we reach consensus?
> 
> thanks
> 
> Dr Mark H. Butler
> Research Scientist                HP Labs Bristol
> mark-h_butler@hp.com
> Internet: http://www-uk.hpl.hp.com/people/marbut/

Received on Wednesday, 19 November 2003 10:13:36 UTC