[topicmapmail] Document Object Identifiers/CrossRef

[W. Eliot Kimber]

I'm wondering if anyone else is aware of the Document Object Identifier
mechanism (www.doi.org) or the companion CrossRef service. I ran across
this in doing some research for a new customer that does scientific
journal publishing. It has been driven by the scientific and journal
publishing industry (for example, IEEE is a founding member).

The DOI mechanism is essentially SGML public identifiers implemented as
a persistent, Web-accessible resolution service. It's not literally SGML
public identifiers, but it does everything public IDs were intended to
do.

The DOI mechanism is a standard (haven't figured out under exactly what
authority, but I think ANSI or NIST), coupled with a number of
registration authorities.

The CrossRef service is an implementation of the DOI mechanism that
enables lookup and resolution of DOIs to URLs or other specific
identifiers. Owners of individual DOIs are responsible for maintaining
the mapping from DOIs to resources within the CrossRef service. The
CrossRef service is a for-cost service but is largely funded by its
members.

That fact that this system works could have some interesting
implications for topic map deployment and implementation.

I'm surprised that I'd never heard of it before because it appears to be
doing (or at least intends to be doing) what I've been talking about for
years.

Cheers,

E.
-- 
W. Eliot Kimber, eliot@isogen.com
Consultant, ISOGEN International

1016 La Posada Dr., Suite 240
Austin, TX  78752 Phone: 512.656.4139