RE: [httpRange-14] What is an Information Resource?

> From: Ian Davis
>
> Booth, David (HP Software - Boston) wrote:
> > Could it return a 200 OK response?   If not, it is not an
> > "information resource".
> >
> > Definitions based on notions of "essence" and "information
> > content" cause more confusion than clarity.
>
> Well it _could_, but I might configure my server to make any resource
> return 200. . . .

No, you cannot.  You can configure your server to return 200 OK for any http *URI* that you own, but not from any *resource*.  Only awww:InformationResources can have awww:Representations (i.e., can return 200 OK), and a dog is not an awww:InformationResource, so it cannot return a awww:Representation.

Thus, even if you *intended* to mint a URI http://ian.example/dog to denote a dog, but your server is configured to return a 200 OK response when that URI is dereferenced, then by the httpRange-14 decision
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-tag/2005Jun/0039.html
the URI denotes an awww:InformationResource, regardless of your intent.  So if the 200 OK response includes RDF that asserts that http://ian.example/dog denotes a dog, then you have made contradictory statements: one via your server configuration, the other via your RDF.

BTW, I'm using "awww:Representation" and "awww:InformationResource" to be clear that I'm referring to the Web Architecture notions of "representation" and "information resource" -- not the generic English language notions.



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 Friday, 1 February 2008 14:41:58 UTC