Namespace Identifier: The Hook

• From: Jonathan Robie <Jonathan.Robie@SoftwareAG-USA.com>
• Date: Wed, 17 May 2000 07:35:00 -0500
• To: "Tim Berners-Lee" <timbl@softwareag.com>, "Paul Prescod" <paul@prescod.net>, <xml-uri@w3.org>
• Message-Id: <4.3.1.0.20000517072431.00afa5f0@127.0.0.1>

At 08:43 PM 5/16/00 -0400, Tim Berners-Lee wrote:

>But the crucial thing is to recognize that the namespace identifier 
>identifies
>the language of the message and so indirectly its meaning. The namespace
>identifier has to be the hook onto which I can hang semantic information.

I think we agree about this. (A cute illustration: When I lived in Berlin, 
there was a store with a sign that read, "Angel Shop Wedding" - without 
knowing that this sign was written in German, and that Wedding is one of 
the boroughs of Berlin it would be difficult to determine that it sold 
fishing supplies.)

To be a good hook for semantic information, do we need anything beyond 
universality, uniqueness, and persistence? The Straw Poll [1] seems to take 
these into account.

Jonathan

[1] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Member/w3c-xml-plenary/2000Apr/0222.html

Received on Wednesday, 17 May 2000 07:33:25 UTC