- From: Roy T. Fielding <fielding@apache.org>
- Date: Mon, 29 Sep 2003 15:59:17 -0700
- To: "Ian B. Jacobs" <ij@w3.org>
- Cc: www-tag@w3.org
> See abstract proposed in 26 Sep draft. Argh, sorry I didn't see the difference before the meeting. The text that was added to the abstract is over-constraining. What I had was: The World Wide Web is a networked information space consisting of resources that are interconnected via hypertext links and descriptive metadata. and that became The World Wide Web is an information space. This space consists of information objects collectively called "resources." Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) are used to identify these resources; URIs have global scope within this space. The information space is a network of Web resources that are interconnected via URIs and descriptive metadata. which changes the meaning substantially. The space consists of more than just resources, and defining resources as information objects is simply not appropriate. URIs do not always have global scope in the sense that you describe here, since URIs do not point to objects but rather to resources. Finally, both descriptive metadata and links use URIs to do their interconnecting. Likewise, the additions of These systems include the "traditional" hyperlink Web (where users interact with resources via links) as well as emerging Semantic Web and Web Services technologies. and They do so via representations of resource state, which are constructed from data formats such as HTML, and descriptive metadata. again violate the split between information space and information retrieval. There are a lot more than just three information systems, for example. Likewise, please ignore all comments to the effect that "hyperlink" is somehow better than "hypertext link", and there is no need to define it here. People who read this document are expected to be familiar with the basic concepts of the Web, and the details can be addressed in a glossary. Please revert these changes -- they undo what I was trying to accomplish by separating the web of resources from the web of information retrieval actions. Here is what I would write, taking into account the editorial changes suggested: The World Wide Web is a networked information space consisting of resources that are interconnected via hypertext links and descriptive metadata. This information space is the basis of, and is shared by, a number of information systems. Within each of these systems, agents (e.g., browsers, servers, spiders, and proxies) provide, retrieve, create, analyze, and reason about resources. Web architecture encompasses both protocols that define the information space, by way of identification and representation, and protocols that define the interaction of agents within an information system making use of the space. Web architecture is influenced by social requirements and software engineering principles, leading to design choices that constrain the behavior of systems using the Web in order to achieve desired properties: to be an efficient, scalable, shared information space that can continue to grow indefinitely across languages, cultures, and information media. This document explores the three dimensions of Web architecture: identification, interaction, and representation. and that would address Dan's comment about length as well. ....Roy
Received on Monday, 29 September 2003 18:59:34 UTC