[urn] Re: GS1 URN: submission, version 6.0.0

[Chris Day <[e-mail]>]

Hi Dale -

Please find attached an updated revision with the concerns addressed.

Again, thank you for your diligence, it's really appreciated.



Chris Day
Technical Business Analyst
AI & Data Sustainability
GS1 Global Office
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Book time to meet with me



-----Original Message-----
From: Dale R. Worley <[e-mail]>
Sent: 11 June 2026 02:43
To: Chris Day <[e-mail]>; [e-mail]; Phil Archer <[e-mail]>; Mark Harrison <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: [urn] Re: GS1 URN: submission, version 6.0.0

Version 6.0.0 takes care of most of my concerns, and I am in favor of approving the registration.  However there are a couple of points that
remain:

The structure of the document might be improved.  Specifically, if section 2 is the namespace registration, it should work as a stand-alone document.  However, it isn't stand-alone in one respect:  the Syntax section gives only an informal grammar, referring to the ABNF in Appendix A.  ISTM that the registration should contain the proper grammar.

Now if the whole document was approved as an RFC, then the template Syntax section could just refer to "Appendix A of RFC xxxx".  But my expectation is that GS1 wants to get the registration approved faster than the RFC process.

One possible solution is to move the informal grammar from the section 2
(template) Syntax clause into section 1 (introduction), possibly just after the listing of the three categories of URNs.  Then move the grammar from Appendix A into the Syntax clause.  That makes the template stand-alone but still presents the reader with the informal grammar before the ABNF.

The second point is verifying that GS1 has, or definitely will, provide some sort of formal guidance/standard that explains how the URNs are to be attributed.  E.g., given "urn:gs1:gdd:bie:TradeItem.netContent", is there text that states what document/text/concept this URN names?  This is opposed to there being a standardized table named "TradeItem" with an entry named "netContent" but no explicit text stating what the table entries imply about GS1 URNs.

Now I expect that for the gdd:bie, gdd:bdt, gdd:cl, and std branches this will be done, people are unlikely to overlook that.  But I'm slightly concerned about the <ai> branch.  It appears that <ai> URNs are semantically collections of attribute names and values.  It wouldn't be entirely surprising if explicitly specifying that fact (and exactly how collections are to be interpreted based on their members) might be overlooked during standards development.

Dale

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