- From: Ray Denenberg, Library of Congress <rden@loc.gov>
- Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2008 17:30:54 -0400
- To: <www-tag@w3.org>
> it's not fine for any client to interpret the presence > of ark: to mean "this URI is an ARK" I think the ARK spec addresses this problem, at least theoretically (if not practically). Suppose the library of congress, who does not participate in ARK at present, has a URI of the form: http://www.loc.gov/ark:/12025/654xz321 where 12025/654xz321 is a document within our Architecture and Recursive Knowledge database. The problem is that some client will see that URI and assume that it will resolve to an instance of the resource identified by the ARK ark:/12025/654xz321 The answer to the problem (in theory) is that the client should first know whether www.loc.gov services ARKs. More generally, there is (should be) a "Name Mapping Authority" discovery mechanism. (e.g. if www.loc.gov services ARKs then it is referred to as an "Name Mapping Authority"). The ARK spec discusses this discovery mechanism (if only theoretically). Section 4, http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-kunze-ark-15. The second part of the problem, what if loc subsequently decides that it wants to join the ARK party, though it already has unrelated URIs like http://www.loc.gov/ark:/12025/654xz321 . That's an easy problem (as Eric Hetzer pointed out) it can use ark.loc.gov to service ARK requests, and as long as www.loc.gov isn't listed in the ARK name mapping authority database, there's no conflict. --Ray
Received on Friday, 25 July 2008 21:32:49 UTC