Re: "information resource"

On Wed, 2004-09-01 at 12:17, Tim Berners-Lee wrote:
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> On Sep 1, 2004, at 7:42, <Patrick.Stickler@nokia.com> wrote:
> 
> >
> >
> > Regarding the August 16 version of "Architecture of the World Wide Web"
> >
> > http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/WD-webarch-20040816/#dereference-uri
> >
> > In section 3.1 it states:
> >
> > "The term Information Resource refers to resources that convey 
> > information.
> >  Any resource that has a representation is an information resource."
> >
> > While I understand the desire to introduce a term which enables people
> > to speak directly about resources which are web-accessible, it seems to
> > me that this particular term will provide more confusion than utility.
> >
> > Since *any* resource *can* (potentially) have a representation, the
> > membership of the class of "information resources" is a reflection of
> > the management, over time, of those resources, not any intrinsic
> > characteristic of the resources themselves.
> 
> Actually, the document uses the term "representation" only for the 
> relationship between an information resource and its Representation.
> 
> If there is a dog, a picture of the dog, and a representation (bits and 
> metadata) of the picture, then the document would say that the dog is 
> the subject of the picture, that the picture has a representation in 
> the (bits + metadata).
> 
> The document makes the distinction between a dog and the picture 

Does it? Which words in the document make that distinction?

Though I tend to agree with you, TimBL, I don't think the
document currently distinguishes between Patrick's view and
yours.
http://www.w3.org/TR/webarch/#information-resource
http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/WD-webarch-20040816/#information-resource

> because it needs to (especially later on for semantic web things) even 
> though the HTTP spec doesn't really need to.
> 
> So, in the terms of the document, only information resources have 
> representations.
> There was a lot of confusion, expressed in last call comments, before 
> this distinction was introduced.  An information resource is something 
> like a picture, text message, or poem, which conveys information.
> 
> Tim BL

-- 
Dan Connolly, W3C http://www.w3.org/People/Connolly/

Received on Wednesday, 1 September 2004 17:28:06 UTC