I would like us to consider that SRW identifiers (schemas and indexes) use
'info' rather than 'http'. Before I pursue this further (because there are
some syntax and administrative questions) does anyone object to this
approach?

--Ray


----- Original Message -----
From: "herbert van de sompel" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, September 29, 2003 11:53 AM
Subject: 'info' URI scheme


> Apologies for cross-posting
>
> Announcing a new Internet-Draft for an Informational RFC, to allow
commonly used
> identifiers to be part of the Web:
>
>   The "info" URI Scheme for Information Assets with Identifiers in Public
> Namespaces
>
>       Herbert Van de Sompel - Los Alamos National Laboratory
>       Tony Hammond - Elsevier
>       Eamonn Neylon - Manifest Solutions
>       Stuart L. Weibel - OCLC Online Computer Library Center
>
> The draft is available at:
>
>   http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-vandesompel-info-uri-00.txt
>
> a. Purpose of the "info" URI scheme:
>
> There exist many information assets with identifiers in public namespaces
that
> are not referenceable by URI schemes. Examples of such namespaces include
Dewey
> Decimal Classifications [1], Library of Congress Control Numbers (LCCN)
[2],
> NASA Astrophysics Data System Bibcodes [3], and Open Archives Initiative
(OAI)
> identifiers [4], among others.  The "info" URI scheme will facilitate the
> referencing of information assets that have identifiers in such public
> namespaces by means of URIs. The "info" scheme is based on a Registry that
> invites the registration of public namespaces used for the identification
of
> information assets, by the parties that maintain the namespaces.
>
> For example, assuming that the namespace of Dewey Decimal Classifications
(ddc:)
> and the namespace of Library of Congress Control Numbers (lccn:) would be
> registered by their respective authorities, then:
>
> * the Dewey Decimal Classification 22/eng//004.678 (for the term
"Internet")
> could be expressed as the "info" URI <info:ddc/22/eng//004.678>
>
> * the Library of Congress Control Number 2002022641 could be expressed as
the
> "info" URI <info:lccn/2002022641>
>
> b. Background of this effort
>
> The effort to create the "info" URI scheme emerged from the NISO process
to
> standardize the OpenURL Framework for context-sensitive services [5],
which
> requires the ability to describe resources by means of globally
recognizable
> identifiers.  The Draft Standard for Trial Use released for Public Comment
> introduced a "proprietary" naming architecture which allowed information
assets
> to be referenced by means of widely used non-URI identifiers (e.g. PubMed
> identifiers, Digital Object Identifiers, Astrophysics Datasystem Bibcodes,
and
> others) which would be registered under the OpenURL Framework.
>
> Public feedback led to the decision to fundamentally revise the naming
> architecture, and to base all resource identification requirements within
the
> OpenURL Framework on URIs alone.  Because it was deemed unreaslistic to
expect
> that all namespaces required in the OpenURL Framework would be registered
within
> the URI allocation by the respective namespace authorities, the "info" URI
> effort was launched.  This work is being conducted under the auspices of
NISO,
> and with active involvement and consultation from the IETF and the W3C.
It is
> hoped that the lightweight, and community-based, registration mechanism
that
> will underlie the "info" URI scheme will rapidly lead to the availability
of
> "info" URIs to identify a wide variety of information assets.  More
detailed
> information of the effort is available at [6].
>
> c. References
>
> [1] "Dewey Decimal Classification". Retrieved September 20,  2003 from
> <http://www.oclc.org/dewey/>.
>
> [2] "Library of Congress Control Number". Retrieved August 1, 2003 from
> <http://lcweb.loc.gov/marc/lccn_structure.html>.
>
> [3] "NASA Astrophysics Data System Bibliographic Code". Retrieved August
1, 2003
> from <http://adsdoc.harvard.edu/abs_doc/help_pages/data.html>
>
> [4] Lagoze, C., H. Van de Sompel, M. Nelson and S. Warner. "Specification
and
> XML Schema for the OAI Identifier Format", June 2002. Retrieved September
4,
> 2003 from
<http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/guidelines-oai-identifier.htm>.
>
> [5] Draft Standard for Trial Use ANSI/NISO Z39.88, "The OpenURL Framework
for
> Context-Sensitive Services".  Retrieved September 20, 2003 from
> <http://library.caltech.edu/openurl/Public_Comments.htm>
>
>
[6]<http://library.caltech.edu/openurl/PubComDocs/Announce/20030626-Announce
-Naming2.htm>
>
> --
> Herbert Van de Sompel
> digital library research & prototyping
> Los Alamos National Laboratory - Research Library
> + 1 (505) 667 1267 / http://lib-www.lanl.gov/~herbertv/
>
> "your argument is absolutely logical.  but people will be confused"
> anonymous participant in OpenURL Standardization Committee
>
>
>