This idea of using a URL as a public identifier in authority work is a
very good one. In the Topic Map community the concept has long been
known as a "Published [or 'Public'] Subject Indicator"; PSI.
The idea is that if a URL-addressable information resource is about
('indicates') some subject (a person, for instance), then the URL of
that resource can be used as an identifier for the person. This is
simply another way of treating that URL. Of course the URL is an
identifier for an information resource, but when read in a particular
context (such as inside a <subjectIndicatorRef> in an XML Topic Map), it
can be interpreted instead as an identifier for the thing which the
resource is about (a person, for instance).
For those interested, an OASIS committee did some valuable work on PSIs
a few years ago:
http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=tm-pubsubj
In particular, they produced a short paper which introduces the concept,
and provides practical guidelines:
http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/download.php/1217/wd-pubsubj-introduction-01.htm
Con
On Mon, 2007-05-14 at 22:03 -0400, Ross Singer wrote:
> On 5/14/07, Jason Griffey <Jason-Griffey_at_utc.edu> wrote:
>
> > This is a really interesting idea...something like OpenID for authority information.
>
> Actually, it's more like RDF. A name is assigned a URI (that may or
> may not resolve as a URL) that no other name can occupy. OpenID
> assumes that somebody can log in and use that identity on the web
> (which is quite a different use case).
>
> If the URI is a URL, the authority record could be returned with a
> stylesheet that produces to a browser something like a Worldcat
> Identities page (http://orlabs.oclc.org/Identities/) or a marcxml
> authority file to a machine.
>
> Given how our data can be (and should be!) spread among various
> formats and services, RDF seems a very logical delivery mechanism for
> our metadata.
>
> -Ross.
Received on Mon May 14 2007 - 20:27:18 EDT