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Re: [urn] [apps-discuss] URNs are not URIs (another look at RFC 3986)

Larry Masinter <masinter@adobe.com> Mon, 21 April 2014 15:35 UTC

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From: Larry Masinter <masinter@adobe.com>
To: "\"Martin J. Dürst\"" <duerst@it.aoyama.ac.jp>, Mark Baker <distobj@acm.org>, Barry Leiba <barryleiba@computer.org>
Thread-Topic: [apps-discuss] [urn] URNs are not URIs (another look at RFC 3986)
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Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2014 15:35:34 +0000
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Cc: "urn@ietf.org" <urn@ietf.org>, General discussion of application-layer protocols <apps-discuss@ietf.org>
Subject: Re: [urn] [apps-discuss] URNs are not URIs (another look at RFC 3986)
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There's a problem with using 'locator' and 'name' as categories for strings -- strings are strings. Whether a string is a 'locator'  or 'name' depends on how it's used.  

That the same string can be used as a locator and a name is an important pun:  XML namespace names use IRIs as names, so that it's primary use is as a name, but it can also be used as a locator to find more information about the thing named. More generally, the "semantic web" uses URLs to name things, http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-rdf-concepts-20040210/#section-URI-Vocabulary -- easy allocation, and allows one to locate information about the thing named.

URLs can be persistent ('data:', and http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-masinter-dated-uri )
and URNs can be as temporary as the URN namespace authority  urn:authority:authority-name-for-thing.

Do not confuse a location optimization used in locating (cache, proxy, web archive)  with the actual meaning. The actual meaning depends on how you would resolve disputes over meaning. 

Larry
--
http://larry.masinter.net

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