Re: Registration of acct: as a URI scheme has been requested

On 25 June 2012 14:53, Harry Halpin <hhalpin@ibiblio.org> wrote:

> On Mon, Jun 25, 2012 at 2:40 PM, Melvin Carvalho <melvincarvalho@gmail.com
> > wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> On 25 June 2012 14:28, Harry Halpin <hhalpin@ibiblio.org> wrote:
>>
>>> On Fri, Jun 22, 2012 at 10:35 PM, Kingsley Idehen <
>>> kidehen@openlinksw.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 6/22/12 1:02 PM, Harry Halpin wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> It seems like it would be better to use just mailto: (i.e., the
>>>>> original WebFinger design was around *email addresses*, not accounts per
>>>>> se) or a http: URI rather than mint a whole new scheme.
>>>>>
>>>> Here's why mailto: won't work. Most user agents will invoke an email
>>>> client app. Remember, this is about using the URI as a name rather than
>>>> data locator or access mechanism. That's the reason my acct: is required.
>>>> Basically, follow-your-nose linked data traversal (with alternative URI
>>>> resolvers hooked in via host-metadata pattern usage) without unintended
>>>> consequences i.e., de-reference the next chunk of data etc...
>>>
>>>
>>> Just to be clear, WebFinger is optimizing around Linked Data
>>> "follow-your-nose" pattern? Somehow I find this unlikely at this stage in
>>> the game, but you never know.
>>>
>>
>>> I thought it was just using the email address to track down a domain to
>>> some info about capabilities supported by the domain, and thus was never
>>> actually dereferencing the email address in a web-browser.
>>>
>>
>> The ideas and authors have changed slightly in 3 years since its original
>> form.  WebFinger started by addressing a gap that additional information
>> about an email address was not easily obtainable.  More recently it has
>> become a general discovery app.
>>
>> It uses a combination of "follow your nose" and the "well known" pattern.
>>
>> It's possible to use webfinger with any URI, e.g. mailto: http: etc. but
>> the new scheme acct: is recommended.  acct: at this point (and probably
>> going forward) will be playing catchup to those that use HTTP (eg
>> facebook).  And there will be those caught in the world where they now will
>> have two identifiers both acct: and http: to represent the subject of an
>> email address.  But Web Arch handles this already with owl : sameAs.
>>
>>
>>>
> Again, what behavior is acct: supposed to invoke on the client-side? For
> general purpose discovery, again, please stick to HTTP and well-known. From
> De Jong's earlier posts, it seems the sole reason for the existence of this
> URI scheme is to avoid a "host@domain BNF OR URI" and just have "a URI"
> without a prescribed transformation into the a HTTP URI.
>
> In general, it sounds like folks on this mailing list, consisting mostly
> of Linked Data aficionados,  are mushing up a simple (albeit likely
> wrong-headed solution) for specifying "account@domain") URI scheme with
> general ideas of follow-your-nose in HTTP with a browser. Go figure.
>
> The meta-point is that unless a *new behavior* is specified, there should
> not be a new URI scheme. That is why URNs are a failure, as is replicating
> URN-like URI schemes for domain-specific purposes. There seems to be no
> prescribed behavior with the accnt other than its usage as a parameter on
> the server side to discover capabilities, which are then returned as JSON
> (SWD) or XRD (Webfinger).
>

One slight correction to the aboe: SWD used mailto: as the parameter,
rather than acct:, and sent back json.  acct: (not accnt) is specific to
webfinger.


>
> Again,  the idea that someone will somehow cut and paste an "accnt:" URI
> into their browser is unlikely, just as unlikely as someone entering an
> account of "account@domain" into a user-facing interface will somehow
> want to follow-their-nose on that particular string, regardless of whether
> it is a mailto or the more mysterious accnt URI scheme. This argument is
> just flawed. Server side components will simply resolve accnt into a http
> URI for discovery purposes, or have to invent a whole new protocol. In
> which case, good luck!
>
>
>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>>
>>>> Regards,
>>>>
>>>> Kingsley Idehen
>>>> Founder & CEO
>>>> OpenLink Software
>>>> Company Web: http://www.openlinksw.com
>>>> Personal Weblog: http://www.openlinksw.com/**blog/~kidehen<http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/%7Ekidehen>
>>>> Twitter/Identi.ca handle: @kidehen
>>>> Google+ Profile: https://plus.google.com/**112399767740508618350/about<https://plus.google.com/112399767740508618350/about>
>>>> LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/**kidehen<http://www.linkedin.com/in/kidehen>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>