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Re: URIs harmful

• To: joshuaa@m... (Joshua Allen)
• Subject: Re: URIs harmful
• From: John Cowan <jcowan@r...>
• Date: Thu, 25 Jul 2002 16:29:53 -0400 (EDT)
• Cc: bill.dehora@p..., tbray@t... (Tim Bray), xml-dev@l...
• In-reply-to: <4F4182C71C1FDD4BA0937A7EB7B8B4C105DCDBF6@r...> from "Joshua Allen" at Jul 25, 2002 01:19:02 PM

Joshua Allen scripsit:

> Not really.  The HTTP-accessible *representations* that people might
> want, could include representations of:
> 
> * a view through a webcam belonging to a gyros vendor on the beach
> * a map of the beach, highlighting particular facilities
> * opinions and reviews about the beach
> * recent news about the beach
> * weather reports from the beach
> 
> None of those ARE the beach, they are simply things ABOUT the beach.
> They all deserve to have their own identity.

This is where Topic Maps, IMHO, get it right.  A topic map requires that
whenever you point to a resource, you specify whether you are pointing to
the *resource itself* (thus "http://www.w3.org", considered as a reference
to a resource, means "the home page of the W3C"), or you are using the
resource to designate something else by convention, a so-called "subject
indicating reference" (thus "http://www.w3.org", considered as a subject
indicator, might mean "the W3C").

One has to be careful about subject indicators:  a URI such as
http://www.hamlet.org/hamlet_acts.html is (considered as a resource
reference) simply the table of contents for a specific Internet
edition of _Hamlet_.  But as a subject indicator, it might mean
this edition of _Hamlet_, or the play _Hamlet_, or the character Hamlet.
If people don't agree on the meaning of subject indicators, bad things.
Hence the desire to publish (and therefore standardize) them.

-- 
Knowledge studies others / Wisdom is self-known;      John Cowan
Muscle masters brothers / Self-mastery is bone;       jcowan@r...
Content need never borrow / Ambition wanders blind;   www.ccil.org/~cowan
Vitality cleaves to the marrow / Leaving death behind.    --Tao 33 (Bynner)

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