Re: [webfinger] Registration of a URN for WebFinger Properties

[Kingsley Idehen <[e-mail]>]

On 10/11/13 1:07 PM, Paul E. Jones wrote:
>
> FOAF does not define a set of URI.  Rather, it's XML-based markup.  
> WebFinger uses URIs as identifiers.  I don't really care where those 
> identifiers are defined, but at present there is no standard property 
> identifer in URI form that means "name".

FOAF [1] isn't XML-based markup. It is an RDF model oriented vocabulary 
that's accessible in a variety of formats. Basically, FOAF provides 
modelling for entities and entity relationships in domains such as 
social networks.

URIs are Names.

An HTTP URI can also be used to Name (or Denote) anything, and that 
includes Relations.

An HTTP URL is a type of HTTP URI that Names (or Denotes) a Web Document.

A WebID is a type of HTTP URI that Names (or Denotes) an entity of type 
Agent (Person, Organization, Software, Machine etc..) .

Webfinger enables the use of acct: scheme URIs to Name (or Denote) 
entities of type Person (and possibly other Agent types).

Name->Address Indirection:

When I look-up an HTTP URL that denotes a Document or WebID that denotes 
an Agent my request resolves to data that describes the URI's referent.

The Webfinger protocol enables me  look-up an acct: scheme URI such that 
it resolves to data that describes the URI's referent.

Data Formats:

When I look-up an HTTP URL I more than likely get an HTML representation 
of data.
When I look-up a WebID I will get RDF model based Linked Data in formats 
such as Turtle, JSON-LD, RDFa, RDF/XML etc..
When I lookup an acct: scheme URI (via Webfinger protocol) I will get 
EAV model structured data in JRD or XRD format.

Ultimately, I think its time we all coalesce around the same thing 
(webby structured data), since the host OS (World Wide Web) already has 
all the thorny issues addressed in its core architecture :-)


Links:

1. http://xmlns.com/foaf/spec/
2. http://bit.ly/10Y9FL1 -- HTTP URIs as Names for anything has been 
part of the Web's architecture since inception .

-- 

Regards,

Kingsley Idehen	
Founder & CEO
OpenLink Software
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