Um. I haven't read the proposal yet, but from the summary, it seems to
presuppose the existence of any number of existing naming authorities, such
as LC control numbers and Dewey classes.. I suppose you could postulate an
info-identifier of type OID and thus neatly import that whole address
space. However, I'm not sure what it gains us here.. I thought we liked
HTTP-like URIs because they provide their own authority mechanism (the
domain name system), and they're easy for anyone to create without
requiring a dedicated, central authority.

It seems natural that we would want to allow the use of info: identifiers
whenever they make sense... but I don't get the 'rather than'. Maybe you
could elaborate.

--Sebastian

At 15:14 30-09-2003 -0400, Ray Denenberg, Library of Congress wrote:
>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
> >
> >
> >

--
Sebastian Hammer, Index Data <http://www.indexdata.dk/>
Ph: +45 3341 0100, Fax: +45 3341 0101