RE: URI equivalence, URI's for "standard" identifiers

Eric Hellman asks:

> Is there any consensus in the RDF community about what URI's to use 
> for standard identifiers such as ISBN, ISSN, UPC codes, or for things 
> like Stock tickers, cusips, patent numbers? It's not like it would 
> take much effort.
> 
[Ron Daniel]  The biggest problem is that such identifiers
are the intellectual property of particular standardization
and maintenance bodies. They would probably be somewhat
miffed if we start having our way with their property.

There is an RFC that hypothesizes URN namespaces like
urn:isbn and urn:issn. But those will not be standardized
without the permission of the relevant organizations.


> It seems to me that 
> everyone should at least agree how to say that two URI's refer to the 
> same thing.
> 
> 
[Ron Daniel]  Yes, such a thing should be developed. However,
I am not aware of any active W3C working group that could take
this up.

One thing to keep in mind is that there are degrees of equivalence.

Regards,
Ron Daniel Jr.
DATAFUSION, Inc.
139 Townsend Street, Suite 100
San Francisco, CA  94107
415.836.7813 fax 415.222.0150 
rdaniel@datafusion.net

Received on Thursday, 20 January 2000 10:49:47 UTC