URI declarations [Was RE: Scalability of URI Access to Resources]

Hi Pat,

> From: Pat Hayes [mailto:phayes@ihmc.us] 
> Subject: RE: ISSUE-58: Scalability of URI Access to Resources
> >  [ . . . ]
> >I think it is reasonable to assume that a URI consumer will 
> >inevitably want to find out what resource that URI is intended to 
> >denote, i.e., to obtain its URI declaration[1].
> 
> Well, no, it's not reasonable to assume this, since there is 
> absolutely no reason to suppose that such a 'declaration' will exist. 
> They don't exist in the currently accepted SWeb design anywhere, and 
> no specification or standard yet written, or even contemplated, comes 
> near to specifying such a thing.

If it's expressed in RDF, a URI declaration is essentially a named
graph, so in that sense it is not an entirely new concept.  I think the
concept of a URI declaration existed implicitly, but people were having
trouble getting ahold of it, because we didn't previously have a clear
term for it.  

> 
> >  The URI declaration *is* the
> >authoritative information about what resource the URI denotes.
> 
> It might be if there were any, but one of the reasons that there 
> aren't any is that this idea of there being a single authoritative 
> information source is itself rather at odds with the SWeb design.

I'm not sure quite what you mean by "SWeb design", but the idea of a
single authority for associating a URI with a resource is *central* to
Web Architecture.  The definition of URI ownership[4] says:
[[
URI ownership is a relation between a URI and a social entity, such as a
person, organization, or specification. URI ownership gives the relevant
social entity certain rights, including:

   1. to pass on ownership of some or all owned URIs to another
owner-delegation; and
   2. to associate a resource with an owned URI-URI allocation.
]]
A URI declaration is ts all about #2.

I would be very interested in any other comments you have about the
document I previously announced on URI declarations[1].  I've updated
the document somewhat since I initially announced it, but I'm sure it
could still benefit a lot from your careful reading and thought.

> [ . . . ]
> >
> >References
> >1. URI declarations: http://dbooth.org/2007/uri-decl/
> >2. Follow-your-nose: http://esw.w3.org/topic/FollowYourNose
> >3. Racine: http://esw.w3.org/topic/HTML/Glossary
4. URI ownership: http://www.w3.org/TR/webarch/#def-uri-ownership

Thanks

David Booth, Ph.D.
HP Software
+1 617 629 8881 office  |  dbooth@hp.com
http://www.hp.com/go/software

Opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not represent
the official views of HP unless explicitly stated otherwise.

Received on Tuesday, 28 August 2007 04:37:14 UTC