- From: Jan Algermissen <algermissen@acm.org>
- Date: Tue, 04 Feb 2003 13:18:18 +0100
- To: Paul Prescod <paul@prescod.net>
- CC: Sandro Hawke <sandro@w3.org>, www-tag@w3.org
Paul Prescod wrote: > > Sandro Hawke wrote: > > > There's an alternative view, however. Maybe http: URIs are already > > rather precise. Each one identifies exactly one web location [1]. > > They can't be used directly to identify the Sun, etc, only indirectly > > via their content (or using fragment IDs, in one version); that > > indirect location works just fine for RDF and the semantic web, I agree, that is the whole idea behind the distinction between using a URI as an identifier for a web resource (web page, web service etc.) and using it as an *indicator* for an abstract concept. > > It won't work. You can't know whether "http://www.prescod.net" refers to > "Paul's homepage", "The Prescod Family Homepage", "Paul's business", "A > set of links endorsed by Paul" etc. unless I tell you. There is nothing > in either the URI string nor the document to umabiguously say what that > page is about. Absolutely right. I don't understand though, why the authority is supposed to define what the URI denotes? I think that the URI allways identifies the web resource (which I think is an abstraction of the web page or service) and that any further meaning of the URI depends entirely on the context in which the URI is used. Thus, the destinction between "URI identifies a web resource" and "URI indicates an abstract concept" depends absolutely on the semantics of the link (the addressing context). > I can only give it clear, semantic-web processable > meaning with RDF. But then again, it depends on the context in which the URI is used in that RDF document and it is still possible, even within the same RDF document to say that a URI is a web page and an abstract concept. So you can still end up with "http://www.w3.org/index.html is not a web page". Jan -- Jan Algermissen http://www.topicmapping.com Consultant & Programmer http://www.gooseworks.org
Received on Tuesday, 4 February 2003 07:17:02 UTC