RE: Generic-Resources-53: URIs for representations

in my experience words like these always get confusing.

Format usually indicates file format e.g. html vs pdf vs ps ---
I'm not comfortable in using format in this context.

Booth, David (HP Software - Boston) writes:
 > I suggest using the word "format" instead of "representation" in these
 > contexts.  
 > So, for example, instead of:
 > 
 > 	"On Linking Alternative Representations To Enable
 > 	Discovery And Publishing"
 > 
 > it would be:
 > 
 > 	"On Linking Alternative Formats To Enable
 > 	Discovery And Publishing"
 > 
 > David Booth, Ph.D.
 > HP Software
 > dbooth@hp.com
 > Phone: +1 617 629 8881
 >   
 > 
 > > -----Original Message-----
 > > From: www-tag-request@w3.org [mailto:www-tag-request@w3.org] 
 > > On Behalf Of Williams, Stuart (HP Labs, Bristol)
 > > Sent: Monday, October 02, 2006 10:32 AM
 > > To: raman@google.com
 > > Cc: www-tag@w3.org
 > > Subject: Generic-Resources-53: URIs for representations
 > > 
 > > 
 > > I happened on "On Linking Alternative Representations To Enable
 > > Discovery And Publishing" [1] in a way that casued be to read through
 > > the draft. I've got what I think is an editorial comment about
 > > consistency of use of the term "representation" with respect 
 > > to the way
 > > it is used in webarch.
 > > 
 > > I think that in creating webarch [2] we tried to maintain a 
 > > fairly clear
 > > distinction between resources and representations (modulo anything can
 > > be a resource!). In that world view, IIRC, it was "resources" rather
 > > than "representations" that have URIs. In particular, IIRC, we framed
 > > representations as an ephemeral things ('bits' on a wire) that are
 > > exchanged between web clients and origin servers.
 > > 
 > > At 2.1 this draft asks:
 > > 
 > > "Given resource http://example.com/ubiquity/resource with 
 > > corresponding
 > > representations for a desktop browser, a PDA and a cell-phone, should
 > > these different representations: 
 > > 
 > >  - Have distinct URIs?
 > >    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 > >  - Have a single URI that delivers the appropriate representation?
 > > 
 > >  - If publishing distinct URIs for the resource and its various
 > > representations,
 > >  
 > > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
 > >    how should the relationship between these URIs be expressed in a
 > > discoverable, 
 > >    machine-readable form? How should this relationship be reflected in
 > > the hyperlink 
 > >    structure of the Web?"
 > > 
 > > The language through the rest of the finding tends to speak 
 > > in terms of
 > > representations as things that can have URIs: eg.
 > > 
 > > 	2.1.1 Suggested Solution
 > > 	We suggest the following approach for this situation: 
 > > 
 > > 	1. Create representation-specific URIs for each available
 > > representation 
 > > 	   (representation_i), e.g.,
 > > http://example.com/ubiquity/resource/representation_i.
 > > 
 > > 	... 
 > > 
 > > 	4. ...using a redirect to the URI of a specific
 > > representation...
 > > 
 > > 	5. Use linking mechanisms provided by the representation being
 > > served 
 > > 	   to create links to the other available representations. ...
 > > 
 > > 	4 Conclusions
 > > 	Principal conclusions:
 > > 
 > > 	...Thus, each representation of interest should get it's own URI
 > > and 
 > > 	there should be one additional URI representing the generic
 > > resource.
 > > 
 > > 
 > > I'm not sure how I would suggest squaring this, other than to suggest
 > > that the alternate URI (ie. non-generic URI) are references 
 > > to alternate
 > > resources that serve up appropriate, specific, variant 
 > > representions of
 > > the corresponding generic resource.
 > > 
 > > Best regards
 > > 
 > > Stuart Williams
 > > --
 > > [1] 
 > > http://www.w3.org/2001/tag/doc/alternatives-discovery-20060915.html
 > > [2] http://www.w3.org/TR/webarch
 > > 
 > > 

-- 
Best Regards,
--raman

Title:  Research Scientist      
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Received on Monday, 2 October 2006 15:20:56 UTC