[urn] PWID as citation (was: Suggested PWID URN for Persistent Web IDentifiers - version 3)

[[e-mail] (Dale R. Worley)]

Thinking again about PWIDs as citations ...

One feature of a citation is that it's not just an identifier for
retrieving a specific instance of a resource.  If that instance is
unavailable, information can be extracted from the citation that can be
used to retrieve other instances of the resource.  I.e., if the cited
instance is in Library A, information from the citation (author, title,
etc.) can be used to locate another instance in Library B.  The citation
is *transparent* as a source of information for *partial matching*
against the universe of information resources.

>From this point of view, retrieval URLs for web archives are *opaque*,
at least, unless one knows the specifics of how each archive constructs
its URLs.

But PWID URNs are *transparent*; the archived URL and timestamp can be
extracted from the URN algorithmicly.  And those can be used to search
other web archives for similar archived resources.  (Presumably, other
archives don't have archived resources with exactly the same
timestamps.)

Conversely, if the archives are amenable, we can have straightforward
resolution by having each archive register a URL prefix with IANA.  Like
the current DOI resolver, when a URN is prefixed with its archive's URL
prefix and then fetched, the referenced resource is returned.

And I think this combination of features is something new -- PWIDs could
be *algorithmicly resolvable* (using their specified archives), and yet
also be *citations* (transparently providing enough information that a
human can find similar resources in other archives).

Dale