Re: URI: Name or Network Location?

On Jan 22, 2004, at 17:38, ext Hammond, Tony (ELSLON) wrote:

>> It seems to me
>> that the most obvious way of addressing this is to use a URI to denote
>> the thing (i.e. a name) and a seperate way of talking about the
>> numerous ways of locating information about it.
>
> Hence INFO, see <http://info-uri.info/> ...


There is no need to introduce yet another URI scheme just to handle
(more) persistent naming and redirection.

http: based PURLs work just fine. As I've pointed out before, you
can accomplish all that you aim to accomplish with the info: URI
scheme by simply using http: URIs grounded in your top level
domain, delegating control of subtrees of that namespace to the
various managing entities per each subscheme (the same is true
of urn: URIs). Then each http: URI can be associated with an
alias to which it redirects, as well as allow for access to
metadata descriptions via solutions such as URIQA[1]. E.g.
rather than

    info:lccn/n78890351

you'd have

    http://info-uri.info/lccn/n78890351

thus providing just as robust and long lived an identifier (since
one would think that if info-uri.info dissappeared, so too would
all integrity for any info: URI) yet still allow existing web
protocols such as HTTP to be employed to provide access to
descriptions and representations; either directly or via
redirections of various sorts.

Even if some particular info subscheme had no intention of
providing any representations or descriptions *now*, if ever
the decision were changed, it would be possible with *no*
impact to any usage of those URIs as names.

I am personally saddened to see the info: URI scheme emerge
rather than a similar solution based on http: URIs, dispite
my appreciation that the definition of standardized URIs
for so many important vocabularies has been sorely needed
for far too long.

Patrick


[1] http://sw.nokia.com/uriqa/URIQA.html


>
> Tony
>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: www-rdf-interest-request@w3.org
>> [mailto:www-rdf-interest-request@w3.org]On Behalf Of Phil Dawes
>> Sent: 22 January 2004 15:23
>> To: Patrick Stickler
>> Cc: ext Sandro Hawke; www-rdf-interest@w3.org; Thomas B. Passin; ext
>> Jeremy Carroll
>> Subject: Re: URI: Name or Network Location?
>>
>>
>>
>> Hi Patrick,
>>
>> Patrick Stickler writes:
>>>
>>> Per your view, most URIs do not denote web pages, images,
>>> video streams, services, etc. but all denote "locations" and
>>> if we ever want to describe all those web-accessible resources,
>>> we need an entirely different set of URIs for them if we wish
>>> to talk about them.
>>>
>>
>> But surely the only reason this argument has weight is because there
>> is usually only 1 way of retrieving that web resource* - i.e. HTTP.
>> Thus it becomes an attractive choice for naming it.
>>
>> If the web hadn't turned out the way it has, and there were lots of
>> protocols vying on equal footing for supremacy, then the 'it's a name'
>> argument wouldn't seem so obvious. We would, as you say, probably have
>> a way of talking about the web resource itself, and a seperate way of
>> talking about the numerous ways of locating it.
>>
>> The problem now is that we are attempting to use HTTP URIs to describe
>> abstract concepts and physical objects, and so the 'it's a name'
>> argument for HTTP URIs is suddenly non-obvious again. It seems to me
>> that the most obvious way of addressing this is to use a URI to denote
>> the thing (i.e. a name) and a seperate way of talking about the
>> numerous ways of locating information about it.
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Phil
>>
>> * or the representation of that resource
>>
>
>

--

Patrick Stickler
Nokia, Finland
patrick.stickler@nokia.com

Received on Friday, 23 January 2004 02:37:38 UTC