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info URI
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By kcoyle, Section Standards
Posted on Mon Dec 22nd, 2003 at 01:55:55 PM EST
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There have been recent announcements about the development of a URI scheme called "info". This would allow the creation of URIs for some much-needed identifier schemes like LCCN, DOI, PubMed Identifier, etc. There is now a prototype of the info URI Registry and an FAQ that explains many of the details.
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The info URI scheme has been submitted as an Internet Draft but it isn't by any means a sure thing that it will be accepted by the IETF. (The draft is: draft-vandesompel-info-uri-01.) There are apparently some tensions in the URN/URI area that have made it hard for new schemes to be added. This was originally proposed as a URN (as I understand the story), but there were objections that could not be overcome, so the proposal is for a URI. That is not without its own problems, i.e. the info URI is not dereferenceable, but there may not have been a real choice.
Why is the info URI important? It is potentially a bridge between the networked world and the legacy world of paper documents. It will allow you to reference a resource that may not be online, as long as it has an identifier in a registered identifier scheme, and to reference resources that reside in any number of proprietary or public databases. Every project today in the library/information space runs into the problem of namespaces; now there may be one we can call our own. |
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