draft-zigmond-media-url-00.txt

[Larry Masinter <[e-mail]>]

a) The "//" is not some magic indicator saying 'this is top
   level'. Usually it is used to signify Internet FQDNs.
   Its use in 'tv://nbc' is inappropriate.

b) Your channel identification scheme is not global. How are
   television channels identified outside of the US?

c) Your channel identification scheme is not 'uniform', in that
   if I point to 'tv://12' and you point to 'tv://12', we are likely
   to get different resources.

While this can happen with 'file:///' resources where the host name is
elided, such URLs are not intended for global distribution. I think if
you want to refer to television channels (or radio stations, for that
matter) you should have a short unambiguous way of identifying _which_
station, independent of the resolution mechanism needed to attach to
that station.

Your phone and fax URLs has problem (a) -- the "//" is not needed --
and also problem (b) -- there is no need to elide the country code.
You might want to refer to the 'tpc.int' experimental documents, the
nascent VPIM specification (Voice Profile for Internet Mail) and the
newly forming IETF FAX working group (http://www.imc.org/ietf-fax),
who may be interested in a fax URL scheme.

Regards,

Larry Masinter
http://www.parc.xerox.com/masinter