RE: What if an URI also is a URL

Renato,

>Because URI is generic you can have whatever you want, it just have to
be accessible using standard 
>protocols.

Sure - but you say

>in Tim's case his representation accessible through the web is his
homepage, and he is defined in his FOAF 
>file

I am trying to tease out the distinction between a URI that points to a
resource that "represents" me and a URI that serves as an identifier
("name") for me.

So a URL, for me, is a URI that, in addition to identifying a resource,
provides means of obtaining a representation of the resource by
describing how to access it (as in the case of an HTML document accessed
via the HTTP protocol): i.e. a URL is a locator as implied by the
acronym.

URIs in general, though, are *identifiers* as implied by the acronym.
They are a "compact string of characters for identifying an abstract or
physical resource." They may or may not specify a means of "accessing"
the thing they name. One might expect a URI for person to *not* use the
http scheme which seems to me to imply that a person can be "accessed"
via http, whereas it is of course only a web page about that person
which can be so accessed. 

Also I would suggest that TBL is "defined" in his FOAF file in only a
very weak sense(!)

Making crystal clear these distinctions for the easily confused (e.g. me
;-) is why Dan Brickley's idea of a FAQ on this topic is a good idea
IMHO. 

As someone said (I think it was Dan), we should probably close this
thread and move onto "more fruitful discussions"

John.


-----Original Message-----
From: www-rdf-interest-request@w3.org
[mailto:www-rdf-interest-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Renato Golin
Sent: 06 June 2007 16:22
To: www-rdf-interest@w3.org
Subject: Re: What if an URI also is a URL


john.nj.davies@bt.com wrote:
>> Mine is http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i
> 
> Agreed - but something that has puzzled me - shouldn't the URI scheme 
> be something other than 'http' (on the assumption that you are not an 
> html resource!)?
> 
> urn? Something else?

If you have a way of accessing the urn:// protocol over the media you're
working on, why not?

It happens that, in Tim's case his representation accessible through the
web is his homepage, and he is defined in his FOAF file. If we manage to
put RDF in our biometrical passports and access it through the internet
in a standard protocol he could have something like:

foaf://passports.gov.us/people/his-passport-id

Because URI is generic you can have whatever you want, it just have to
be accessible using standard protocols.

cheers,
--renato

--
Reclaim your digital rights, eliminate DRM, learn more at
http://www.defectivebydesign.org/what_is_drm

Received on Thursday, 7 June 2007 08:37:11 UTC